Mission/ Core purpose of the Job

The Specialist: Network Operations will form a part of a highly skilled group of commercial, technical experts who are responsible for wholesaling and leveraging MTN’s global fixed connectivity infrastructure, within the MTN Group and developing the external business for 3rd party carrier providers. MTN GlobalConnect and its team aims to better commercialise MTN Group’s fixed line infrastructure, thereby gaining increased revenue in global markets.

The Specialist: Network Operations will assist with the planning, organizing, coordinating, and executing all functions relating to the fibre infrastructure operations in all regions nationally. He/she will cater to internal customers (MTN Group OpCo’s) and external customers (3rd parties, e.g., global carriers, ISPs, MNOs, and digital players) when it comes to the fulfilment of orders and operations.

The role will develop and define initiatives to assist in strategic positioning of the connectivity services to maximise revenues from MTN Group’s fixed network capacity and connectivity, as well as other assets (e.g., satellite). The Specialist: Network Operations will assist in supporting the technology teams to drive the rollout of the network, fulfilment of services, monitoring of services and restoration of services as well as provide periodic reporting on all operations to the GlobalConnect team.

Key Performance Areas: Core, essential responsibilities / outputs of the position (KPA’s)

The Specialist: Network Operations will be accountable to achieve the following objectives:

• Assist the operations team to manage and execute all day-to-day operations.
• Coordinate approved contractors to accomplish assigned work relating to the fibre rollout, plan and schedule work required based on the fibre design-build architecture.
• Work hand-in-hand with MTN GlobalConnect teams to manage suppliers’ expectations on the fulfilment of orders and ensure all invoicing for fibre infrastructure operational activities is submitted, approved, and tracked.
• Ensure all fibre rollout and construction delivery deadlines are met and within the allocated budget.
• Ensure all fibre infrastructure deployments are compliant with the regulatory and legal.
• Establish clear channels of communication with all internal and external stakeholders to ensure that workflows are clear and function at the required levels to achieve high levels of efficiency and effectiveness and avoid operational delays.
• Communicate verbally and in writing any issues that may arise from time to time, impacting the service fulfilment of service orders.
• Maintain policy and procedure documents for all fibre infrastructure operations and periodically review all policy and procedure documents relating to fibre infrastructure operations to identify potential problems and prevent bottlenecks.
• Schedule and coordinate bi-annual infrastructure site visits to check on the state of all infrastructure to identify potential problems and communicate findings with the other relevant departments to address the potential problem areas.
• Coordinate fibre maintenance and fibre construction schedule with both GlobalConnect staff and approved contractors.
• Ensure the fulfilment of all service orders from the sales team and ensure that all service orders are duly recorded and tracked with the activation date communicated to the sales and finance team to facilitate billing.
• Ensure full customer satisfaction is achieved over the delivery process with both internal and external customers through on-time implementation and delivery of services.
• Maintain an updated list of clients, suppliers and contractors and other key stakeholders whose contribution support the operations of the technology team.
• Maintain an accurate count and track all fibre operation activities using organization systems and spreadsheets and provide weekly consolidated reports.
• Manage and monitor performance of the fibre infrastructure and provide weekly consolidated reports and foster cross-functional collaboration between multiple MTN GlobalConnect business units to deliver accurate reports.
• Optimise the performance of the fibre network through the development and application of capacity management and route development.
• Manage the integrity of the network data and configuration, develop and operate systems to monitor and optimise network performance
  Performs all other duties as assigned.

Role Deliverables

• Ensure the effective delivery of all network operations.
• Ensure the fulfilment of orders and manage the customers’ expectations by working closely with internal and external stakeholders.
• Take ownership and management of all network assets.
• Provide 24-hour operation and maintenance of all network functions.
• Assist to drive revenues and achieve growth targets in the wholesale unit by effectively managing the network performance and assisting on the fulfilment of orders

Role Dependencies

• Support MTN GlobalConnect to achieve wholesale strategy
• Provide inputs for technology strategy and business performance reports
• Global Companies and Strategic partnerships

Job Requirements (Education, Experience and Competencies)

Education:

• Minimum 4 Year Academic Degree in in Computer Science, Engineering, or a related field
• English

Experience:

• 5+ years’ Professional/Technical experience in wholesale/infrastructure/B2B Telecommunications sector/ industry with good knowledge in Planning & Designing of FTTX Networks
• Proven track record in leading and delivering successful network rollout projects
• Experience in MapInfo/Spatial net/GIS Tools/AutoCAD will be useful

Competencies:

• Understanding of the fixed connectivity infrastructure wholesale landscape with a focus on emerging markets
• Understanding of solution profitability and reporting in the fixed connectivity assets space
• Excellent professional expertise and market knowledge, including good understanding of the competitive environment
• Strong public relations and interpersonal skills to be able to function across multiple business lines in a multicultural environment
• Good understanding of internal processes to manage fulfilment of orders effectively
• Multi-tasking capability to manage and monitor projects in line with efficient fulfilment and delivery of orders
• Strong networking skills to build MTN GlobalConnect professional relationships
• Effective oral and written communication skills
• Strong analytical, organisational, and planning skills to execute commercial reports and inputs form MTN GlobalConnect budgeting
• Relationship based-sales skills and strong customer focused approach
• Effective oral and written communications and public relations as well as excellent negotiation skills to be able to function across multiple business lines in a multicultural environment
• Strong computer literacy
• Project Management
• Backbone transmission roll-out
• Service Orchestration
• Cabling & leased line management
• Network operations management
• Service monitoring
• Financial and Analytical skills
• Negotiation Skills
• Teamwork
• Leadership