M-Pesa Africa: Principal Specialist Asset Management & CMDB at Vodafone Global Enterprise

Role Purpose

• The Principal Specialist – CMDB & Asset Management will lead the strategic design, implementation, and governance of a centralized Configuration Management Database (CMDB) and Asset Management framework across the MPESA Group. 
• This role spans multiple African markets, a central South African data centre (the Hub), and AWS environments. The incumbent will provide thought leadership, ensure lifecycle tracking of all Configuration Items (CIs), and enable integration of discovery tools across markets into a unified ITSM platform.

Your responsibilities will include:

• CMDB Strategy & Design: Define and implement a unified CMDB strategy for MPESA Group, ensuring scalability, interoperability, and consistency across multiple markets and platforms.
• Asset Lifecycle Management: Establish and enforce Asset Management principles covering the complete CI lifecycle — from planning and procurement to deployment, operations, and retirement. This should include End-of-Life and End-of-Support stages.
• Discovery & Integration: Design and deploy Discovery components across all markets and the central Hub, ensuring seamless integration into the group-wide CMDB.
  Platform Implementation: Lead the selection, design, and implementation of the enterprise ITSM platform (ServiceNow or BMC Helix), ensuring alignment with CMDB and Asset Management objectives.
• Security & Compliance Integration: Enable automated certificate management, vulnerability tracking, and obsolescence reporting through CMDB integrations.
  Advanced Capabilities: Drive future enhancements, including Service Mapping, Impact Analysis, and automated Change Management workflows.
• Governance & Framework Alignment: Ensure all processes comply with ITIL v4 and ISO frameworks while supporting organisational governance initiatives such as Shadow IT control and Data Governance.
• Connectivity & Integration Architecture: Define and manage connectivity requirements between markets, the Hub, and MPA AWS environments to ensure secure and reliable component integration.
• Cyber Security Coordination: Prepare, submit, and manage requests through the Cyber Security SPDA process for new patterns within the Hub, adhering to Vodacom South Africa Cyber Security ingress/egress controls.
• Audit Readiness: Support and streamline Asset Management audits by building a platform that simplifies reporting, ensures traceability, and minimises audit findings.

Stakeholder Engagement

• Collaborate with Platform Engineering, Cyber Security, Supply Chain Management (SCM) and Operations teams to align CMDB and Asset Management with infrastructure and security strategies.
• Collaborate with Configuration Managers in each market (where applicable) to either integrate their existing CMDBs into the MPESA CMDB (underpinning the chosen ITSM Toolset), or replace their individual CMDBs with the one central MPESA CMDB
• Engage with country-level IT teams to ensure local discovery and asset tracking align with group-wide standards.
• Engage with the Platform Engineering team to ensure local discovery and asset tracking align with group-wide standards.
• Liaise with ITSM platform vendors and implementation partners to ensure successful deployment and integration.

Compliance & Regulatory Alignment

• Ensure that MPA CMDB and Asset Management comply to the following ISO Standards: ISO/IEC 19770-1 , ISO/IEC 20000-1,ISO 55000 Series,ISO/IEC 27001 (Annex A.8)
• Lead internal audits and readiness assessments for regulatory compliance.
• Collaborate with legal, audit, and compliance teams to interpret and implement regulatory requirements on both Hardware and Software

Team Enablement and Coaching

• Mentor and guide regional asset managers, configuration managers and CMDB administrators.
• Develop training materials and workshops to build CMDB and Asset Management maturity across the group.
• Promote a culture of data accuracy, ownership, and proactive lifecycle management.

Operational Excellence

• Ensure high data quality and integrity in the CMDB through automated discovery, reconciliation, and governance.
• Establish KPIs and dashboards for CMDB health, asset lifecycle tracking, and compliance reporting.
• Continuously improve CMDB processes to support business agility, risk reduction, and operational resilience.

The ideal candidate for this role will have:

• Bachelor’s Degree in Computer Science, Information Systems, or related field.
• ITIL v4 Certification (mandatory).
• Strong understanding of ITIL and COBIT frameworks.
• Minimum 10 years’ experience in IT Asset Management, CMDB design and implementation, and Discovery tool implementation.
• Proven experience with ServiceNow or BMC Helix platforms.
• Experience in multi-country environments, including on-premise and cloud (AWS) infrastructure.
• Excellent communication, leadership, and stakeholder management skills.
• Good understanding of connectivity between various African markets and South Africa using both IPSec and MPLS VPN’s, with experience in defining and submitting Flow Request Forms for connectivity across various firewalls that might be in play for a specific connection to be established.

Core Competencies,knowledge and experience:

• Strategic & Executive Influence: Demonstrated ability to translate complex infrastructure insights into strategic business outcomes, influencing decisions at senior and executive levels.
• Deep Technical Expertise: Proven proficiency in ITSM frameworks, CMDB architecture, Asset Discovery, Obsolescence Management, and Shadow IT governance.
• Stakeholder Engagement: Exceptional communication skills with the ability to collaborate effectively across business, operations, and technology teams.
• Leadership & Change Management: Strong capability to lead cross-functional initiatives, drive standardisation, and embed transformation in multi-market, complex environments.

Closing date for Applications: 03 December 2025.