M-Pesa Africa: Technology Portfolio & Partner Governance at Vodafone Global Enterprise

Role Purpose:

• The Technology Portfolio & Partner Governance Specialist will play a pivotal role in aligning technology investments, vendor relationships, and portfolio performance with M-Pesa Group’s strategic objectives.
• This role brings together financial governance, vendor stewardship, and cross-domain collaboration to ensure that every shilling spent on technology delivers measurable value, resilience, and innovation across markets.
• The ideal candidate combines commercial acumen with governance discipline , someone who can speak both the language of finance and the logic of technology.

Your responsibilities will include:

Portfolio Governance & Financial Management

• Lead the governance of M-Pesa’s multi-market technology portfolio including budgeting, forecasting, and cost optimisation.
• Develop and maintain a transparent view of OPEX and CAPEX utilisation, ensuring spending aligns with business value and technology strategy.
• Implement portfolio dashboards for visibility across demand, spend, risk, and performance metrics.
• Partner with Finance to ensure accurate financial planning, accruals, and reporting cycles.

Vendor & Partner Governance

• Manage and govern strategic vendor and partner ecosystems,OEMs, cloud providers, managed services, and software partners.
• Lead quarterly business reviews (QBRs) and governance councils to monitor SLAs, performance, and commercial health.
• Ensure contract renewals, extensions, and renegotiations follow value-driven principles and risk mitigation controls.
• Champion partnership maturity models to strengthen trust and collaboration between M-Pesa and its strategic suppliers.

Demand Management & Investment Alignment

• Coordinate technology demand intake across business units, ensuring prioritisation aligns with strategy and budget.
• Evaluate new investment proposals, assess feasibility, ROI, and dependency across projects and partners.
• Provide governance oversight for technology transformation programs to ensure benefits realisation and cross-domain alignment.

Compliance, Risk & Policy Governance

• Ensure adherence to procurement, finance, and compliance frameworks (COBIT, ITIL, ISO 27001).
• Identify and mitigate financial and operational risks arising from vendor dependencies or governance gaps.
• Work closely with the Cyber Security and Legal teams to ensure data protection, contract security, and policy compliance.

Strategic Partner Collaboration

• Foster collaboration with strategic technology and business partners to drive innovation and co-creation.
• Support partnerships with fintechs, hyperscalers, and regional tech alliances to enhance M-Pesa’s ecosystem capabilities.
• Facilitate joint technology roadmaps to ensure long-term alignment and shared success metrics.

Reporting & Continuous Improvement

• Develop executive-level dashboards and governance reports highlighting cost efficiency, partner performance, and portfolio health.
• Continuously review governance frameworks and propose improvements for efficiency and transparency.
• Lead cross-market workshops to promote best practices in technology portfolio and partner governance.

Stakeholder Engagement

• Collaborate closely with Finance, Procurement, Cyber Security, and Platform Engineering teams.
• Liaise with Market CIOs and Program Managers to ensure local initiatives align with Group governance standards.
• Build trusted relationships with key vendors, OEMs, and technology service providers to foster shared accountability.

The ideal candidate for this role will have:

• Bachelor’s Degree in Business Administration, Finance, Information Systems, or related field.
• 5+ years’ experience in technology portfolio management, vendor governance, or commercial operations, preferably in financial services or telecoms.
• Proven experience managing large multi-vendor ecosystems and technology transformation portfolios.
• Deep understanding of OPEX/CAPEX management, contract governance, and vendor performance frameworks.
• Strong commercial acumen and negotiation skills.
• Familiarity with ITIL, COBIT, ISO 27001, and financial governance standards.

Core Competencies,knowledge and experience:

• Strategic & Financial Acumen: Ability to connect business strategy with financial and vendor decisions that drive measurable outcomes.
• Cross-Domain Collaboration: Skilled at bridging business, finance, and technology teams to achieve aligned objectives.
• Governance Expertise: Deep understanding of IT and financial governance frameworks, risk management, and compliance.
• Stakeholder Leadership: Influential communicator with a partnership mindset, capable of navigating complex ecosystems.
• Continuous Improvement Mindset: Always seeking smarter, simpler, and more transparent ways to govern technology investments.

Closing date for Applications: 03 December 2025.