THE ROLE PURPOSE
The Operations & Maintenance Team Lead is accountable for the stability, availability and security of the core platform and all it's integrations. This role combines strategic leadership with hands-on technical expertise, owning the OPEX budget, driving the 1-5-10 operational mandate and building a Center of Excellence that standardizes operational practices across the region.
Working closely with delivery teams, vendors and integration partners, the Senior Manager ensures operational readiness for all production deployments, leads transformation from reactive to automated code-driven operations and balances change velocity with platform stability in a high-demand environment. The key driver for this role is to achieve world-class operational excellence through strategic direction-setting, building organizational capability and maintaining ultimate accountability for service delivery across technical operations staff managing multiple systems in the domain and across the region.
the KEY responsibilities
Strategic Operations & Reliability Excellence
High-Velocity Incident Management (The 1-5-10 Mandate)
Establish strategic vision and framework for achieving "1-5-10" operational mandate across all DFS Technical Operations teams as a core KPI with implementation targets by Q4 2026
Define success metrics, monitoring frameworks and reporting mechanisms; ensure managers execute comprehensive strategies for rapid detection (1 minute), investigation (5 minutes) and remediation (10 minutes)
Provide hands-on technical leadership during critical incidents with significant business impact or complexity requiring senior-level coordination
SRE & Automation Transformation
Drive strategic transformation from reactive, manual operations to proactive, automated, code-driven practices across the core platform and integrations
Champion investment in self-healing infrastructure and intelligent automation; set technical direction for automation priorities balancing quick wins with long-term goals
Allocate OPEX budget strategically; personally assess and approve high-impact automation solutions before production deployment
Platform Stability & Availability Leadership
Own ultimate accountability for world-class availability, performance and security of the core platform and integrations across a regional footprint
Balance change velocity with operational stability; establish platform-wide observability standards and step into critical technical decisions during major incidents
SERVICE MANAGEMENT & GOVERNANCE
Service Lifecycle Strategy & Oversight
Define strategic approach to Service Management across Incident, Problem, Change and technical debt elimination; establish platform-wide SLA/OLA frameworks
Review major incident trends driving strategic interventions; set standard for blameless post-mortem culture and approve changes to service management processes
Operational & Production Deployment Readiness
Own strategic framework for operational readiness; establish and evolve operational acceptance criteria, certification standards and production/go-live processes
Provide final approval for high-risk deployments; enforce pre-production validation standards and drive accountability with delivery teams for operability
Change Advisory & Enterprise Risk Management
Provide senior advisory input and final approval for all changes; assess enterprise-level change risk particularly for cross-platform impacts
Coordinate change planning with peer Senior Managers (Configurations, Delivery) to prevent conflicts; set change policies and approve change windows
Review and approve root cause analysis for failed changes and major change-related incidents
Stakeholder Engagement
Conduct regular briefings on platform health, risk landscape and operational performance; consolidate technical feedback highlighting risks, opportunities and strategic recommendations
Represent Technical Operations in executive forums; manage stakeholder expectations during major incidents; build relationships with business unit heads
Technical Asset & Lifecycle Management
Establish enterprise-wide standards for asset inventory, lifecycle management and technical currency; oversee strategic planning for platform refreshes and upgrades
Ensure 100% adherence to regional financial regulations, data residency laws and security standards; own compliance strategy and audit relationships
Define BC/DR strategic approach aligned with Group policies; oversee BC/DR testing programs and approve frameworks, RTOs and RPOs for critical services
Vendor & Integration Partner Leadership
Own strategic vendor relationships for the DFS space; conduct vendor service reviews addressing performance issues and driving value optimization
Lead strategic discussions on vendor dependency reduction and build-vs-buy decisions; approve contracts, renewals and commercial terms
Define strategic approach to integration partner management; review partner performance trends and support resolution of high-impact partner issues
Financial Management & Cost Optimization
Develop, manage and optimize complete OPEX budget for Technical Operations; lead annual budget planning and track monthly performance with variance explanations
Identify strategic cost optimization opportunities through operational efficiency, automation and vendor rationalization; conduct value-for-money assessments
Challenge operational cost structures driving OPEX reduction while maintaining service quality; provide regular financial reporting to executive leadership
Center of Excellence & Standardization
Build and lead Technical Operations CoE as a key strategic pillar and KPI; drive standardization of operational procedures, tooling, monitoring frameworks and runbooks across subsidiaries
Create micro-level service management capabilities aligning with Group IT service management; measure and report on CoE maturity progress
Ensure operational consistency as the domain platforms & systems roll out to new subsidiaries; establish operational readiness frameworks for new launches; facilitate knowledge sharing across geographies
Cross-Functional Leadership & Collaboration
Maintain tight collaboration with DFS Configurations and Delivery leadership ensuring seamless build-to-run handoffs; coordinate deployment planning and risk assessment
Jointly assess operational readiness providing unified recommendations; engage business stakeholders on service disruptions and maintenance windows
Define organizational structure, roles and operating model for Technical Operations; establish RACI matrices and accountability frameworks
People Leadership & Organizational Development
Lead and mentor two direct report Managers (Core Platform and Integrations); set clear expectations, KPIs and strategic objectives; conduct performance reviews and succession planning
Set cultural tone establishing norms around collaboration, accountability, operational excellence and continuous learning aligned with Group culture
Drive talent strategy including attraction, retention, development; establish career pathways; ensure strategic priorities cascade throughout all levels
Continuous Improvement & Innovation
Drive continuous improvement mindset; champion innovation initiatives improving operational efficiency and reducing toil
Identify and sponsor proof-of-concept projects for emerging technologies; allocate budget balancing current operations with future capability development.
Qualifications
EXPERIENCE REQUIREMENTS
Technical Operations Leadership: Minimum 8-10 years of progressive experience in technical operations, production support or site reliability engineering with at least 3-5 years in leadership roles managing teams in mission-critical 24/7 environments.
Financial Services/Mobile Money Platform Operations: Minimum 5-7 years operating financial services platforms, core banking systems, payment processing or mobile money platforms with proven track record maintaining high availability and managing operations in regulated environments with compliance requirements.
Multi-Country Operations Management: Demonstrated experience managing technical operations across multiple locations, countries or business units, navigating diverse regulatory or operational requirements and supporting expansion initiatives or multi-site coordination (experience can include project-based multi-country exposure).
Change Leadership: Proven track record leading operational improvements such as automation initiatives, process standardization, SRE practices adoption or service management framework implementation while maintaining service delivery and managing stakeholder expectations.
Vendor & Partner Ecosystem Management: Strong experience managing relationships with application vendors, integration partners or third-party service providers, including vendor performance management, multi-party incident coordination, escalation management and driving service improvements across external dependencies.
Cross-Functional Leadership: Demonstrated ability collaborating with peer leaders across delivery, infrastructure, security and business units, influencing outcomes through relationship management, coordinating cross-functional initiatives and establishing working agreements with teams outside direct control.
Budget & Cost Management: Experience managing operational budgets, contributing to budget planning processes, tracking expenditures, identifying cost optimization opportunities and participating in vendor negotiations or commercial discussions.
Incident & Crisis Management at Scale: Extensive hands-on experience leading major incident response for business-critical systems, coordinating response across multiple teams and vendors, managing stakeholder communication during critical outages and implementing systematic improvements from post-incident reviews.
ACADEMIC QUALIFICATIONS
University degree in Information Technology, Electrical Engineering, or a related field.
Relevant professional certifications such as ITIL Foundation or higher, AWS/Azure/GCP certifications or equivalent demonstrating operational and technical expertise