Executive Head:Ventures Operations at Vodafone Global Enterprise

Role Purpose/Business Unit:

• The Ventures and Business Partnership team is driving the pivot of Vodacom Business into Intelligent Business, with a vision of delivering end-to-end digital transformation solutions to its customers and steadily reducing the % of revenue from connectivity.
• It is building an ecosystem to deliver this around its in-house capabilities beyond connectivity (IoT, Cloud, Hosting & Security) adding its Ventures’ capabilities (IoT, Managed Services, Payment’s security, Health, Agri and Edutech platforms) and Partners, who are Big Tech to start-ups. 

Activities include:

• understanding the enterprise and digital technology and services landscape to identify potential partners or acquisition targets: early-stage companies to Big Tech
• Managing the ventures portfolio to increase value of the businesses standalone and to Vodacom Business as it seeks to add more capabilities to its portfolio 
• forming and/or investing in strategic investments that result in significant revenue and operating income growth for Vodacom Business.

Role purpose:

• The EHOD Ventures Operations and Strategy will develop and drive Overall VSA Ventures Portfolio strategy and ensure alignment, Drive financial performance of Ventures portfolio.  
• Lead the identification, entrepreneurial incubation and commercialising of new sources of growth for Vodacom while building leading edge competencies i.r.o emerging Technologies.
• This role will encompass understanding Vodacom South Africa overall strategy and identifying opportunities and understanding how a partnership/acquisition could add significant value to Vodacom, assessing market opportunities, cultivating and/or investing in strategic partnerships, and possible acquisitions of start-up or established companies.  
• In addition, it will drive synergies across all subsidiaries to ensure efficient operations including control and governance framework implementation and monitoring

Your responsibilities will include:

• Vodacom Ventures Strategy Formulation and Execution:
• Formulate, own and drive the ventures portfolio strategy in Vodacom Business  to ensure alignment with shareholder expectations
• Review and influence Vodacom Ventures (Subsidiaries) strategies to ensure alignment with Vodacom strategic Objectives
• Monitor Ventures strategy execution and provide guidance and support 
• Participate in the process surrounding potential investment acquisitions from identification, evaluation, to due diligence application ito legal, tax and finance
• structures concluding in the development and negotiation of formal agreements in conjunction with M&A
• Ventures Portfolio Performance management and Monitoring
• Provide business insights to Subsidiaries to ensure awareness and focus towards Vodacom Business performance and delivery
• Stewardship of Company equity in all subsidiaries including identifying opportunities to increase value, assisting on strategic initiatives in subsidiaries eg Funding, forming new companies, etc
• Monitor and drive performance in line with Vodacom Business Revenue and efficiency targets
• Prepare annual/quarterly subsidiary reviews and forecasts and ensure alignment to Vodacom Business Performance objectives.
• Cultivate and maintain positive, strategic long-term relationships with subsidiaries management teams to achieve mutual benefit
• Liaise with VB Partnerships to leverage beneficial partnerships for subsidiaries. 

Ventures Governance and Control: 

• Ensure implementation of Vodacom / Best Practice governance and compliance frameworks within subsidiaries to mitigate risks
• Co-ordinate governance and Compliance activities/ engagement between Vodacom and Subsidiaries 
• Support Ventures Board activities 

Stakeholder & Relationship Management: 

• Develop and implement a refined engagement and collaboration framework to enable seamless interlock between Vodacom and the subsidiaries
• Establish and maintain strong relationships with key personnel within subsidiaries. 
• Establish executive-level relationships with key subsidiaries and ventures stakeholders to advance shared strategic goals.
• Build trust-based engagement models across internal and external stakeholders.
• Act as the executive sponsor in critical partnerships, ensuring escalations are resolved swiftly.

The ideal candidate for this role will have:

• Postgraduate level qualification 
• Minimum 8 – 10 years relevant experience – essential
• 5+ years’ experience in related consulting, entrepreneurial and/or business incubation an advantage
• A minimum of 5 years proven experience in Senior Management – essential.  
• Working experience in the telecoms/ICT (advantageous)

Core competencies, knowledge and experience:

• Understanding enterprise technology and services landscape, today and looking forward
• Understanding the SA telecommunication and ICT industries and working knowledge of the communication industry, systems, and networks, as well as, current and emerging technologies and standards.
• Interpersonal skills, adaptability and agility to work across all levels of an organisation 
• Business planning, inclusive of financial and operational model preparation
• Organizing and leading effective cross-departmental and cross-functional teams.
• Experience creating new routes to market through channel partners, joint-ventures, new startups
• Excited about emerging technologies and passionate about the Next Big Thing
• Previous involvement with Startup(s) and Corporate Ventures is valued
• M&A experience advantageous Experience defining New Business Models
• Adaptable across large global companies and startups
• Delivery focussed with an aptitude to be operationally involved

Closing date for Applications: 21 October 2025.