Senior Manager - Product Owner.Group Strategy and Transformation

MTN is undergoing a significant transformation to become a platform-led, data-powered, and AI-native enterprise. This journey is driven by the increasing demand for intelligent data products that are scalable, market-responsive, and rooted in strong data governance. DataCo, as the Group’s strategic data enablement unit, is tasked with delivering products and platforms that unlock value from telco, geospatial, and behavioural datasets, both for internal operations and external clients.

Global Influences:

The global economy is undergoing rapid digital transformation, with AI and machine learning emerging as core differentiators for competitive advantage. Enterprises are embedding predictive intelligence into their operations, products, and customer experiences to enhance efficiency, agility, and revenue growth. Meanwhile, cloud-native analytics platforms, federated learning, and MLOps frameworks are standardising how AI is scaled across complex, multi-market organisations.
Heightened focus on data ethics, fairness, and regulatory compliance is also shaping the design of AI systems. As governments tighten rules around data privacy, bias mitigation, and model explainability, organisations must ensure that AI is not only effective but also responsible and trustworthy.

Industry Drivers:
In the telecommunications sector, predictive analytics has become central to driving value from large-scale, real-time data generated by mobile networks, customer usage, and behavioral patterns. Use cases such as churn prediction, next-best-offer recommendations, network anomaly detection, and location-based targeting are no longer aspirational , they are expected. As telcos evolve into techcos and platform businesses, the ability to productise and monetise AI capabilities across industries such as FMCG, Retail, finance, and public services becomes a critical growth lever.
Additionally, as data monetisation becomes mainstream, clients are not just asking for raw data but for intelligent insights, predictive signals, and decision-ready outputs  all of which require robust data science capacity.

Organisational Mandate: 
MTN DataCo is positioned at the forefront of MTN Group’s transformation into a data-powered, AI-native enterprise. The organisation is building a multi-OpCo data ecosystem capable of scaling advanced analytics across internal functions (e.g., marketing, sales, finance, networks) and external markets. This includes delivering reusable AI models, creating monetisable analytics solutions, and integrating intelligence into products and consulting services.
Within this context, the Product Owner/Manager plays a critical role in translating MTN’s DDO strategy into high-impact data intelligence solutions. These products must serve diverse users, from OpCo teams to multinational clients, while aligning with MTN’s consulting services and monetisation roadmaps. As the product lead, the incumbent must navigate a federated technology landscape, orchestrate agile delivery, and ensure that MTN’s data products are competitive, compliant, and commercially viable.
Organization Values: At MTN we believe that understanding our people’s needs and aspirations is key to creating experiences that delight you at work, every day. We are committed to fostering an environment where every member of our Y’ello Family is heard, understood, and empowered to live an inspired life. Our values keep us grounded and moving in the right direction. Most importantly, they keep us honest. It is not something we claim to be. It is in our DNA.
As an organisation, we consider it our mission to create an exciting and rewarding place to work, where our people can be themselves, thrive in positivity and ignite their full potential. A workplace that boosts creativity and innovation, improves productivity, and ultimately drives meaningful results. A workplace that is built on relationships and achieving a purpose that is bigger than us. This is what we want you to experience with us!
Our commitments go beyond an organisational promise. It is in our leadership and managerial ethos to meaningfully partner with our employees, customers, and stakeholders with a vision to realise our shared goals. 
 

Product Vision and Roadmap

•     Define and maintain the product vision and strategic roadmap aligned to DDO and DataCo priorities.
•     Prioritise features and backlogs in collaboration with business and technical leads.
• Stakeholder Engagement
•     Translate market and client feedback into actionable product requirements.
•     Engage with OpCos, partners, and internal business units to align product delivery with commercial needs.
• Agile Delivery Leadership
•     Lead product squads using agile practices to ensure timely, high-quality output.
•     Drive continuous iteration and validation through MVPs, user feedback, and PoV engagements.

Product Governance and Compliance

•     Ensure products are developed in accordance with Group security, privacy, and governance standards.
•     Support documentation of product lifecycle, risk assessments, and data access models.

Commercial Enablement and Market Activation

•     Define product value propositions and contribute to pricing and packaging strategy.
•     Support go-to-market activities, including enablement of sales and consulting teams.

Performance Monitoring and Optimisation
•    Define and monitor product success metrics including adoption, revenue impact, and usage.
•    Identify areas for improvement and drive iterative refinements.
 

Education:
•    4  year degree in Computer Science, Business, Product Management, or related field (Master’s preferred).
Experience:
•    Minimum 5 – 8  years in product management or product ownership roles.
•    Demonstrated success in leading data or analytics product development.
•    Experience in agile delivery environments and stakeholder management across business and technical domains.

• Competencies:
•     Product Strategy: Develops and communicates a compelling vision with measurable business outcomes.
•     Agile Execution: Delivers efficiently in iterative environments with agile and scrum methodologies.
•     Technical Acumen: Understands data platforms, APIs, ML/AI concepts, and integration patterns.
•     Stakeholder Influence: Builds alignment and trust across commercial, technical, and legal teams.
•     Compliance Mindset: Applies knowledge of privacy, ethics, and governance in product design.
• Key Deliverables:
•     Internal:
• o    Roadmaps, backlogs, and prioritised feature documentation.
• o    Product success metrics dashboards and adoption reports.
• o    Playbooks, sprint retrospectives, and compliance assessments.

•    External:
o    Solution briefs and enablement content for go-to-market teams.
o    Client-specific roadmaps and value narratives for PoVs.
o    Product documentation packs for consulting and delivery use.