Manager - IP MPLS Operations and Optimization.Technology

We at MTN Cameroon are a purpose and value-led organization.

At MTN Cameroon we believe that understanding our people’s needs and aspirations is key to creating experiences that delight you at work, every day. We are committed to fostering an environment where every member of our Y’ello Family is heard, understood, and empowered to live an inspired life. Our values keep us grounded and moving in the right direction. Most importantly, they keep us honest. It is not something we claim to be. It is in our DNA.

As an organisation, we consider it our mission to create an exciting and rewarding place to work, where our people can be themselves, thrive in positivity and ignite their full potential. A workplace that boosts creativity and innovation, improves productivity, and ultimately drives meaningful results. A workplace that is built on relationships and achieving a purpose that is bigger than us. This is what we want you to experience with us!

Our commitments go beyond an organisational promise. It is in our leadership and managerial ethos to meaningfully partner with our employees, customers, and stakeholders with a vision to realise our shared goals. 

Our values dubbed, LIVE Y’ello, are the cornerstone of our culture.

Lead with Care

Can-do with Integrity

Collaborate with Agility

Serve with Respect

Act with Inclusion

Strategic Leadership & Governance

Strategy Development and Implementation

• Assist in the creation of sub-divisional strategy in line with overarching divisional goals

• Ensure effective implementation of sub-divisional strategy by means of providing direction, structure, business plans and support

Staff Leadership and Management

• Source, induct, and manage talent in accordance with legislative guidelines

• Ensure open communication channels with staff and implement change management interventions where necessary

• Provide definition of roles, responsibilities, individual goals, and performance objectives for the team

• Set KPIs and provide regular performance feedback through a well-defined and implemented performance review program

• Develop and implement a training plan to build and develop skills within the team

• Actively participate in leadership team 

• Support team capability development through the creation of opportunities for realizing full potential

• Promote a ‘MTN centric’ and ‘partnership approach’ to develop strong relationships with other working groups and ensure adherence to Group governance

• Work in a team and drive own and cross functional team working across various divisions

• Accountable for meeting and prioritising project team targets / deadlines

• Lead cross functional and own team meetings and contribute on specialist / technical areas when required

• Review performance metric dashboards prepared on various performance metrics

Governance 

Operational, Tactical and Strategic Meetings

• Provide input on all projects initiated

• Provide input in strategic meetings when required

• Provide input into the preparation of proposal on change initiatives, policies, and procedures

Escalations

• Manage and resolve escalations that have impact on critical path of service delivery

• Escalate issues that will result in significant time, scope, employee/customer or cost impact if not resolved

• Manage and provide solutions to issues that require formal resolution

Function Tactical

• Provide input into establishing objectives, targets, and budgets for the function as applicable

• Identify and document key risks, issues and dependencies and set mitigation actions

• Prepare documentation required for sign-off / making decisions regarding tactical changes

Opco Tactical

• Keep abreast of global and local best practice and make recommendations on leveraging opportunities to the Segment Senior Manager

• Provide input into the review of all projects initiated

Performance

• Review performance against agreed KPIs and their compliance to SLAs and reverse SLAs

• Review and monitor plan for continuous improvement

• Ensure execution in alignment with divisional strategy

• Continuous performance monitoring and adjust strategy and actions to deliver targets

Reporting

• Report on a periodic basis relating to progress made within the function and in accordance with the measurement metrics set by the organization

• Report on an ad hoc basis on specific projects, as required

Budgets

• Manage sub-divisional budgets in line with business objectives

• Manage project or initiative budgets in line with business objectives

Compliance

1. All employees are the first line of compliance defense and are expected to act as Compliance Champions in their respective roles.
2. Employees must comply fully with all applicable legislation, regulations, policies, standards, and procedures in the execution of their day‑to‑day responsibilities.
3. Any act of negligence or non‑compliance by an employee will be addressed in accordance with the MTN Cameroon Disciplinary Policy.
4. Employees are required to attend scheduled compliance training, proactively report, and escalate any compliance concerns, issues, or failures.
5. With the support of the Compliance Champions and the Risk & Compliance (R&C) team, employees are expected to review and update compliance obligations, compliance risks, and control testing activities within their respective units.

Operational Delivery 

Strategic planning

• Manage and oversee the planning, designing and implementation of the following IP Network elements in MTN Ghana with an end-to-end perspective (MPLS and Metro Networks, Internet POP, Packet RAN(3G/EDGE/2G), MDNS and Hosted Services, Enterprise LAN / WAN / Wi-Fi, MPBN) 

• Technology planning aligned with business needs and Technology evolutions. 

• Accurate Design as per technology roadmap leading to convergence and simplicity. 

• Manage the issuance of Work order (WO) and reconciliation of implementation of WO. Create accurate WO for mundane IP service creations and connectivity requirements. 

• Maintain WO database. 

• Follow up and check on actual WO vs. Implemented and document any deviation. 

• Ensuring alignment with Key stakeholder, TX department - Interface with Transmission Specialists and Topology for planning of optic (DWDM) backbone connectivity, capacity planning and allocation for efficient transport of all internal and external customer data traffic. 

• Manage and oversee IP Network Management (LAN) used for any network monitoring or other systems such as Provision, metro Ethernet etc. Design and implement new LAN. 

• Maintain and update design as per changes 

• Responsible for Design and maintaining of up-to-date HLD and LLD of all IP Network segments. Design and maintain HLD and LLD for different IP networks of MTN Ghana such as PRAN, MPBN, MPLS, Access network, Internet Pop, Enterprise LAN/WAN etc. 

• Ensuring availability of network convergence hierarchy, topology, architecture and redundancy plans. Produce network convergence hierarchy, topology, architecture and infrastructure redundancy plan for VPN service integration, regional Service provider edge aggregation and IP Core Transport via the multi-service backbone. 

• Manage financial budget planning and expenditure control. 

• Place Purchase orders as per business plan 

• Vendor negotiation and management in the case of Vendor driven implementation. 

• IP Network project implementation as per project management principles including service migrations in the following areas (MPLS and Metro Networks, Internet POP, Packet RAN(3G/EDGE/2G), MDNS and Hosted Services, Enterprise LAN / WAN / Wi-Fi, MPBN) 

• Adherence to project management principles 

• Traffic migration planning and co-ordination 

IT Security Responsibilities: 

• Comply with all Information Security Policies and related documents 

• Report security weakness/incidents to either the respective head of department or the Enterprise Information Security Manager 

• End Users must not exploit known security weaknesses. 

• Participate in all forms of Information Security Awareness 

• Promotion of Continual improvement of Information Security 

• Monitor compliance to the information security management system requirements by the Teams 

• Communicate the importance of effective information security management to your teams 

• Direct and support your team/s to contribute to the effectiveness of the information security management system 

Operational Excellence

• Develop and implement efficient processes for managing Core and IP network operations.

• See to the implementation of decarbonization and expense efficiency initiatives in the region.

• Identify opportunities for automation and optimization to enhance service delivery.

• Support technical teams to resolve complex issues promptly.

• Contribute actively with inputs during contracts renewal or issuance.

• Drive continuous improvement in service delivery processes.

Relationship management

• Build and maintain strong relationships with technical stakeholders 

• Capture business needs and expectations and follow up resolution

• Act as a L2 point of escalation for critical issues and work towards swift resolutions

Education:

• Bachelor's degree in Telecommunications, Network Engineering, or Computer Science (or equivalent experience). 

•  Relevant Professional certification a must

• A Postgraduate Degree is a plus 

Experience:

• 5+ years of experience in IP/MPLS network engineering, preferably in a telecom or ISP environment. 

• Expert-level knowledge of routing protocols (OSPF, BGP, IS-IS) and MPLS-based solutions. 

• Hands-on experience with network hardware (Cisco, Juniper, Huawei) and software-defined networking (SDN). 

• Experience in a managed services environment and project management 

Functional Knowledge: 

• Mobile communications systems (GSM, CDMA, GMPCS, UMTS, etc.)

• Transmission systems, Satellite communications systems

• Project management / Managing the managed services

• IT Service Management

• Fundamentals of AI and ML

• Project Management / Vendor Management / Managing the MS

• Industry certifications such as CCNP, JNCIP, or equivalent (preferred but not mandatory).

• In depth Knowledge of IP and data Networking In depth Knowledge of Firewalls, Load Balancers and Intrusions detection systems

• Vendor Management and Vendor selection strategy. Knowledge of Tender process.

• Hands-on experience of business planning processes and business strategies. Budget tracking and control.

• In depth Knowledge of IP and data Networking

• In depth Knowledge of Firewalls and Intrusion detection systems

• In depth Knowledge in L2, L3 and WAN Protocols like Frame Relay, PPP, HLDC, ATM etc…

• In depth Knowledge of Redundancy protocols HSRP, VRRP and GLBP

• In depth Knowledge of Multicast protocols IGMP, PIM-DM, PIM-SM, PIM-SDM, MSDP, CGMP, IGMP Snooping, RGMP.

• In depth Knowledge of SP technologies MPLS, MPLS VPN, VRF, VRF-Lite, MPLS-TE, CSC, L2 VPNs,

• In depth Knowledge of switching technologies.

• Adequate Knowledge in Network management tools.

Skills

• Manage self and team performance, conflict Management, Takes and manages accountability

• Energy & Drive – Innovative, takes initiatives, result oriented and develops self consistently

• Interpersonal skills – Leadership, Customer centricity, collaborative and coaches, develops direct reports, Problem solving, vendor & stakeholder management

• Personal skills - Trustworthy, integrity and ethical in dealings, analytical mind, Oral & Written presentation

• Operating skills – Ability to focus on priorities and plans, manage and monitors work efficiently, work and remain calm under pressure, multi-tasking

• Organizational Positioning skills – Good written and verbal communication, Presentation skills & technical reporting, commitment to the organization

• Global thinker, Analytical thinking and Problem solving abilities.

Behavioural Qualities

• MTN Live Y’ello Values: Lead with care, Collaborate with Agility, Serve with respect, Can Do with Integrity, Act with Inclusion

• Inspirational leader and change agent

• Collaborative and inclusive mindset

• Results-oriented with integrity and accountability

• Adaptable and innovative in dynamic environments

• Dynamic & Confident

• Motivate and patient

• Proven moral integrity

• Unify people/Build a team

• Plan & Monitor work