Principal Specialist: Lead Digital Architect at Vodafone Global Enterprise

Role Purpose/Business Unit:

• The role of Lead Digital Architect is to drive the end-to-end design and evolution of modern, scalable, and secure digital platforms across the enterprise. This role will play a pivotal role in shaping and executing the strategic technology direction of Vodacom.
• This role involves collaborating with various stakeholders to design and implement innovative and effective enterprise-level solutions that align with business objectives. 
• The ideal candidate should have a deep understanding of architectural principles, emerging technologies, and a proven track record of successfully leading complex IT initiatives.

Your responsibilities will include:

Technical Architecture Leadership

• Define and own the target digital architecture across channels (web, mobile, API, integration layers, cloud).
• Translate business strategies into architecture blueprints, roadmaps, and patterns.
• Lead architecture governance, ensuring alignment to enterprise principles and technology standards.
• Provide architectural oversight across solution domains, including cloud-native platforms, microservices, APIs, and event-driven systems. 
• Provide technical leadership and guidance to cross-functional teams, ensuring adherence to architectural best practices and standards.
• Mentor and coach junior architects and technical staff to enhance their architectural skills and capabilities.

Enterprise Architecture Strategy:  

• Develop and communicate a comprehensive digital architecture strategy that aligns with the Vodacom’s strategy and purpose.
• Collaborate with leadership to define and prioritize technology initiatives that support business growth and innovation.

Solution Design and Architecture:

• Design and document end-to-end enterprise architecture solutions that encompass systems, applications, data, and infrastructure elements.
• Evaluate and recommend technologies, frameworks, and methodologies to optimize IT systems and processes.

Risk Management:

• Identify potential technical risks and develop mitigation strategies to ensure the security, scalability, and reliability of enterprise solutions.
• Review and assess the impact of proposed changes to the architecture, making informed decisions that balance innovation and stability.

Collaboration and Communication:

• Collaborate with business stakeholders, project managers, scrum masters and development teams to gather requirements and translate them into architectural designs.
• Clearly communicate architectural concepts and decisions to both technical and non-technical audiences.

Vendor Management:

• Evaluate third-party solutions and vendors, ensuring they align with the overall architecture strategy and meet the company's technical requirements.

Technology Trends:

• Stay abreast of industry trends, emerging technologies, and best practices, and recommend how they can be leveraged to improve the enterprise architecture.

Governance and Compliance:

• Enforce architectural governance, ensuring that projects and solutions adhere to established architectural principles and standards.
• Ensure compliance with relevant industry regulations and standards.

The ideal candidate for this role will have:

• Bachelor's, Honours or Master's degree in Computer Science, Information Technology, or related field.
• Proven experience (typically 8+ years) in enterprise architecture, solution design, and IT leadership roles.
• Relevant certifications (e.g., TOGAF, AWS/Azure/GCP certifications) are a plus.

Core competencies, knowledge and experience:

• Cloud Architecture: Deep expertise in AWS, Azure, or GCP 
• Microservices & APIs: Strong understanding of microservices patterns, REST, GraphQL, and API management platforms (e.g., Apigee, Kong).
• DevOps & Automation: Proficient with CI/CD pipelines, containers (Docker, Kubernetes), observability, and GitOps workflows.
• Security: Familiar with application security, identity management (OAuth2, SSO, OpenID), and secure-by-design principles.
• Data & Integration: Understanding of modern data platforms (e.g., event streaming with Kafka, data lakes), ETL patterns, and real-time analytics.
• Strong expertise in architecture frameworks (TOGAF, Zachman, etc.) and methodologies.
• Experience with a variety of technologies, such as databases, networking, security, and integration.
• Excellent analytical and problem-solving skills with the ability to address complex technical challenges.
• Exceptional communication and interpersonal skills, capable of collaborating effectively with diverse teams.
• Experience with a variety of technologies, such as databases, networking, security, and integration.
• Knowledge of emerging technologies/ industry trends along with the ability to leverage them in application development and support initiatives
• Capable of articulating the business value of IT investments/projects and collaborating with partners and cross-functional groups during implementation
• Adeptness to engage as a consultative face of IT to the Business and enable technology to address business challenges and improve operational efficiency
• Skill to integrate new technologies with existing business initiatives and understanding the business processes and customer needs
• Good understanding of governance framework (roles and responsibilities, escalation and communication process, handoffs and control points)
• Ability to make recommendations as they pertain to improvements in support/development initiatives and facilitate implementation with partners, IT and cross-functional groups within the Business
• Capacity to manage conflict with partners and cross-functional groups within the Business and IT
• Ability to work with multi-national teams, understand and respect cultural diversity and develop messages that help achieve objectives with diverse audiences

We make an impact by offering:

• Enticing incentive programs and competitive benefit packages
• Retirement funds, risk benefits, and medical aid benefits
• Cell phone and data benefits, advantages fibre connection discounts, and exclusive staff discounts offered in collaboration with partner companies