Executive Head: VSA Big Data, AI & IA

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• The Executive Head VSA Big Data, AI & IA:
  Lead Data Scientist is the principal technical authority for data science and AI within Vodacom South Africa. The role steers the design, build and scaled deployment of high-impact AI services across the VSA business, aligned to Vodacom’s three strategic AI impact pillars of Customer Experience (CX), Monetization and Productivity, and to our ambition of becoming an AI-native organisation by 2030.
• Operating solely within the Vodacom South Africa Big Data team, the incumbent acts as the lead technical expert and hands‑on architect: identifying opportunities to make a commercial difference, leading the development of machine learning and AI initiatives end-to‑end, and mentoring a high‑performing team of data scientists and AI engineers. The ideal candidate is deeply versed in Customer Value Management (CVM) principles, real‑time recommender systems, Generative and Agentic AI, and modern MLOps / LLMOps practice.
• Success in this role requires the ability to build trusted relationships with business stakeholders, translate complex datasets into strategic insight, and deliver business value in close partnership with technology, commercial and analytics teams across VSA.

Your responsibilities will include:

• Principal technical expert: act as the lead data scientist for Vodacom South Africa, identifying opportunities to make a commercial difference and leading the development of machine learning and AI initiatives to meet business requirements.
• AI vision and roadmap: set the technical vision, roadmap and delivery priorities for centrally built AI services across the VSA business, aligned to the Group AI strategy, the Vodafone Group GenAI framework and the Tech enablement strategy for AI.
• Insight translation: translate complex datasets into strategic insights, communicating simply to non-technical audiences and visualising results to create understanding and solution buy-in.
• Innovation agenda: identify new analytics and AI trends, evaluating and integrating emerging technologies, including agentic AI, multimodal models and real‑time decisioning, to maintain Vodacom’s competitive advantage.
• Thought leadership: serve as a recognised expert in the community, mentoring and advising colleagues on statistical techniques, algorithms, data and responsible AI practice.

• Reusable AI services: architect and deliver scalable, reusable AI services across CX, Monetization and Productivity that can be rapidly adopted and adapted across VSA business domains, reducing time‑to‑value and maximising impact.
• Real‑world ML products: develop machine learning and recommender products that solve real business problems, taking account of user needs, the technology landscape and operational constraints.
• Governance and lifecycle: establish and maintain a unified AI services repository with robust governance, operational frameworks and lifecycle management to ensure compliance, consistency and efficiency.
• Efficiency at scale: drive tangible efficiency gains through scaled deployment of classical ML, GenAI and agentic AI solutions, in line with Vodacom’s Technology framework.
• Domain coverage: champion AI best practice across key VSA domains including CVM, Customer Experience, Network, Channels, Enterprise and Supply Chain, ensuring alignment with strategic AI business cases.

• Commercial targets: work closely with the VSA CVM and commercial teams to deliver against revenue, retention and cost‑efficiency targets through data science and AI.
• Delivery cadence: drive delivery through the quarterly PI (Programme Increment) planning cycle, prioritising value‑producing projects across the VSA portfolio.
• Data asset prioritisation: support the prioritisation of internal and external data assets and work with technology partners to set key requirements for data sourcing.
• KPIs and measurement: define and track KPIs for AI output such as adoption rates,…