Executive Head of Department – Finance Business Partners (Technology & Support Functions) (Internal/External) at Safaricom Telecommunication Ethiopia

Safaricom Telecommunication Ethiopia

Position: Executive Head of Department – Finance Business Partners (Technology & Support Functions) (Internal/External)

Job Time: Full-Time

Job Type: Permanent

Place of Work: Addis Ababa, Ababa Abeba - Ethiopia

Posted date: 8 months ago

Deadline: Submition date is over

Reports to:

Chief Finance Officer

Direct reports:

Senior Manager - Finance Business Partner

Senior Manager - Decision Support & Partnering

Role purpose:

• To be the trusted advisor to the Chief Finance Officer to help them make the best possible commercial and operational decisions that ensure that Safaricom Ethiopia continues to grow and strengthen our customer centricity as well as operational intensity on the use of Finance resources.
• To drive capex and NOPEX decision-making shift towards a more efficient network build and operations from a cost/capital perspective in a low ARPU market.
• To avail key financial management information to senior management and other stakeholders on a periodic basis within the timelines provided. This will be swift, analytical and insightful financial support and information for all internal business decisions by partnering with the different divisions in a proactive manner to drive faster turnaround capital investments and enhanced benchmarking for key business activities & processes that drive OpEx.
• Lead the Technology & Support Functions Finance Business Partner team across the organization. Champion their development in line with the world-class finance benchmarks on skills and proficiency.

Key accountabilities and decision ownership:

• Preparation and review of forecasts, budgets, LRP and Business Plans, and provide timely insights on the capex, opex and network opex lines to Senior Management and the Financial Planning and Analysis team.
• Partner with the Chief Technology Officer to drive the delivery of the most cost/capital efficient network build in Ethiopia by leveraging own vast experience and challenging assumptions and strategic thinking by the technology team.
• Ensure the annual budgets and quarterly forecast information adhere to IFRS and comply with Group accounting policies, especially with regards to IFRS 16 on leases and depreciation.
• Ensure that capex spend is in line with approved Budgets and that funding aspects of capex are in line with approvals including on any parental company guarantees relating to capex.
• Partner with the Chief Human Resources Officer to deliver optimal employee costs for the organization that takes into account the realities of the organization's evolution.
• Act as the single point of information and contact on all technology, and support functions and finance-related matters for the Business Units.
• Ensure ROI for all asset categories is properly defined and enhanced to drive returns for capital investments.
• Prepare and review financial models as required, and carry out any financial due diligence required
• Lead the organization in the drive for efficiency, sustainable and optimal cost control measures
• Identify areas for digitization, simplification and automation for process improvement and using robotic process technology to eliminate repetitive tasks.
• Establish and roll out a mix of an agile and project methodology with stakeholders across the business to ensure any input required from the department is thorough and timely and built into the project deliverables
• Define clear and optimal Finance business partner structure across technology and support functions taking note of spans, layers and future business evolution.
• Manage the performance management, objective setting & PDR Review Processes
• Ensure relevant staff reskilling and upskilling are undertaken to develop credible succession planning within the department.
• Align and advocate to the team, division and all staff the Spirit of Safaricom behaviors.

Core competencies, knowledge and experience:

Business Competencies:

Working with Others

• Consciously takes steps to make the most of every conversation/interaction
• Identifies people’s needs, interests and motives to be able to influence the decisions they make
• Communicates simply to excite and engage people
• Pro-actively adapts own style and approach to build rapport and work with others more effectively
• Builds and maintains strong relationships and networks

Operational Excellence

• Targets effort and resources on high-value, high-impact activity
• Focuses on achieving maximum performance and driving continuous improvement
• Thinks about processes and problems cross-functionally and end-to-end
• Uses knowledge of products, technology, processes, systems and policies to solve problems

 Creativity and Innovation

• Find creative ways to exploit opportunities and solve problems
• Takes risks and pushes what is possible
• Experiments with unorthodox approaches

Business Know-how

• Uses data and research to make decisions that are competitively and financially robust
• Balances current and future needs
• Thinks and acts like an owner of the business
• Acts in line with legal, regulatory, professional and ethical standards

Working with Change

• Responds flexibly to changing situations
• Manages the business and people aspects of change to drive performance

Agile, Project and Programme Management

• Defines scope and deliverables in terms of time, cost, quality and business benefit
• Schedules activity and identifies resource needs, dependencies and synergies
• Evaluate progress, mitigate risks and address issues

Functional Competencies:

Planning and Control

• Analyses performance trends to determine the health of the business
• Steers business performance by using strategy and external data to help set goals
• Translates strategies into actionable plans that add value via process and operational improvements
• Maintains controls within Financial Systems through setup control and master data management

Accounting

• Prepares, analyses and summarises financial data to support business operations and deliver statutory information
• Ensures the integrity of processes and systems to record and authorize transactions in compliance with Safaricom accounting policies and regulation

Reporting

• Delivers timely and accurate reports to satisfy statutory and business requirements
• Identifies key performance and variances, and provides recommendations

Treasury

• Develops and advises on funding strategies for the business

Must have technical/professional qualifications:

• Relevant Degree in Accounting, Economics, Finance
• At least 10 years' experience with, and deep knowledge of technology underpinning the telecoms sector.
• 15 years of broad, progressive experience in all facets of Finance i.e. Management Accounting, Forecasting and Planning, Financial Accounting, and Finance Operations.