Principal Specialist Power at Vodafone Global Enterprise

What you’ll do

Role purpose: 

• Accountable for establishing and governing power compliance across the MAST power portfolio, ensuring all installations, upgrades, maintenance activities, and vendor-delivered works meet statutory requirements, internal engineering standards, customer obligations, and industry best practice.
• Provides principal-level technical leadership across AC/DC telecom power (grid, generator, rectifier, battery, solar, grounding, protection, and monitoring) and leads compliance interpretation, technical governance, and audit readiness in a multi-tenant TowerCo environment.

Who you are

Key accountabilities and decision ownership:

Compliance framework & standards (owns):

• Define, maintain, and continuously improve the power compliance framework, standards, procedures, and governance requirements for the telecom power portfolio (AC/DC, including grid, generator, rectifier, battery, solar, grounding, protection, monitoring).
• Set minimum compliance requirements and acceptance criteria for new builds, upgrades, life-cycle replacements, maintenance interventions, battery projects, generator integrations, solar deployments, tenant expansions, and site modernisation.
• Interpret statutory and engineering requirements (e.g., SANS/IEC) and translate them into practical checklists, inspection criteria, commissioning/acceptance requirements, and field work instructions.
• Drive standardisation of compliant power solutions to reduce technical variation, improve quality, and enhance operational supportability.

Audit, inspection & assurance (governs):

• Plan and govern compliance audits, technical inspections, and assurance activities across operational and project sites, including methodologies, evidence requirements, scorecards, and close-out expectations.
• Review workmanship quality, documentation packs, test records, as-built status, statutory records, and compliance evidence to confirm readiness for handover or ongoing operation.
• Own tracking and closure of non-conformances/defects within agreed timelines; analyse repeat findings and drive systemic corrective actions.

Design, engineering & technical deviation control (approves/recommends):

• Review and govern power designs, scopes of work, and technical submissions from a compliance, safety, and risk perspective; approve compliance requirements prior to implementation where delegated.
• Provide specialist guidance on compliant application of AC/DC architectures (load, resilience targets, protection, cable sizing, breaker coordination, battery autonomy/recharge, growth, shared infrastructure, monitoring/control logic).
• Provide specialist judgement on deviations, non-standard applications, and incident/root-cause investigations; escalate high-risk statutory exposures and recommend remediation priorities.

Core competencies, knowledge and experience:

• Telecom / TowerCo / critical infrastructure experience with strong understanding of multi-tenant operating environments and vendor-delivered work.
• Deep practical AC/DC telecom power expertise (rectifiers, batteries, generators, distribution, grounding/earthing, protection systems, monitoring, and hybrid/renewable solutions).
• Proven governance capability: technical audits, inspections, acceptance/handovers, quality assurance, remediation tracking, and contractor performance management.
• Working knowledge of applicable standards and statutory requirements for electrical installations in telecom environments (including SANS 10142-1 and relevant IEC / EU standards).

Must have technical / professional qualifications: 

• Bachelor’s Degree, BTech, in Electrical Engineering or a related technical field.
• Professional registration with a recognised engineering body will be advantageous
• 8+ years’ experience in a senior specialist, governance, quality assurance, or compliance-focused role.