Senior Manager - Product Owner.DataCo

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. MTN-i, as MTN Group’s A.I.-driven data & intelligence commercialization business, is tasked with accelerating value delivery from our owned and partner intelligence assets

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-i is at the forefront of MTN Group’s transformation into a commercial value delivery engine that is data-powered and AI-native. The team is building a multi-OpCo data product ecosystem capable of scaling advanced analytics solutions across markets via high-value use cases.
Within this context, the Product Owner plays a critical role in translating MTN-i’s vision into high-impact intelligence solutions while navigating a federated technology landscape, orchestrating hyper-agile delivery, and ensuring that MTN-i’s data products are competitive, compliant, and commercially viable. The Senior Product Owner will be responsible for the end-to-end creation, delivery and lifecycle management of MTN-i's data, AI and technology-enabled product portfolio.
This is a high-impact product leadership role for an exceptional product thinker who can move seamlessly between customer problems, commercial opportunities, data, technology, AI, product architecture and execution.
The successful candidate will take products from 0→1 and 1→n: identifying customer needs and unmet market opportunities, validating product-market fit, translating opportunities into compelling product propositions, defining technical requirements and architectures, leading cross-functional delivery, launching products into market, and continuously optimising them based on customer, commercial and operational performance.
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.
Our values dubbed, LIVE Y’ello, are the cornerstone of our culture.

Lead with Care
Can-do with Integrity
Collaborate with Agility
Serve with Respect
Act with Inclusion

Education:

• 4 year degree in Computer Science, Business, Product Management, or related field (Master’s preferred).
Experience:
• 5 – 8 years of relevant experience in product management, technology, data, digital platforms, consulting, fintech, telecommunications, AdTech or related environments.
• Proven track record of taking complex products from concept/vision through customer validation, development, launch and scale.
• Demonstrated 0→1 product development experience.
• Experience leading multidisciplinary technology and business teams without relying solely on formal reporting lines.
• Strong technical understanding of modern data and technology architectures.
• Significant experience in one or more of: advertising/audience monetisation, geospatial/location intelligence, credit scoring, risk/fraud, AI/machine learning, or API/platform businesses.
• Demonstrated commercial understanding of how technology products create and capture value.
• Strong experience with Agile product development and modern product operating models.
• Demonstrated ability to work with senior executives, customers and technical specialists.
• Strong understanding of data privacy, security, governance and regulatory requirements.
• Advanced analytical and problem-solving capability.
• Strong AI literacy and demonstrated ability to assess AI technologies and their business applicability.

Competencies:

• Product thinking: ability to identify the right problem before building the solution
• Technical depth: able to challenge engineers and architects credibly
• Commercial thinking: understands how a product becomes revenue and margin
• Analytical problem solving: ability to break ambiguous problems into structured, testable hypotheses
• Leadership: mobilise people across organisational boundaries
• AI fluency: distinguish genuine AI opportunity from hype

Personal Attributes

• Exceptional intellectual curiosity
• Highly structured thinker
• Entrepreneurial and commercially minded
• Comfortable with ambiguity
• Bias toward action and experimentation
• Customer obsessed
• High ownership and accountability
• Strong executive presence
• Excellent written and verbal communication
• Able to simplify highly complex concepts
• Comfortable challenging conventional thinking
• High standards for quality and execution
• Low ego; highly collaborative
• Builder rather than administrator