Manager - Digital Platform Engineering.Connectivity

The Digital Platform Engineering Manager leads the design, development and delivery of secure, reliable digital solutions and automation engineering for MTN Eswatini. The role manages frontend, backend and full-stack engineering capabilities, together with security and infrastructure resources, to deliver customer-facing and enterprise platforms, APIs, integrations and automated solutions.

The incumbent owns engineering delivery planning, quality, automation and operational readiness, and manages the delivery partner that augments IST resource capacity. Working with business stakeholders, architects and IST teams, the Manager aligns internal and partner resources to approved priorities, leads iterative Agile delivery from backlog refinement through release and feedback, governs automation from requirements through deployment and support, strengthens in-house capability and ensures accountable end-to-end delivery.

Key Tasks:

• Lead the iterative design, development, testing and delivery of digital products, applications, APIs and integrations, enabling frequent review of working solutions against business needs.
• Work with product owners and business stakeholders to refine approved requirements into a prioritised delivery backlog, clear acceptance criteria, estimates and manageable increments aligned to available capacity.
• Direct frontend, backend and full-stack development across approved technologies and architecture standards.
• Coordinate security and infrastructure resources to embed secure design, deployment readiness and platform resilience.
• Oversee integration with CRM, billing, charging, Mobile Money and other relevant enterprise and telecom systems.
• Work with business and IST stakeholders to identify, assess and prioritise workflow and system-integration automation opportunities, defining expected benefits, controls and support requirements in line with approved architecture.
• Manage the design, development, testing and support of approved automation solutions, including workflow orchestration and reusable integrations, with appropriate security, exception handling, monitoring and documentation.
• Manage the development and ongoing support of RESTful APIs, microservices and middleware integrations, ensuring delivery quality and adherence to approved architecture standards.
• Manage the IST delivery partner: scope assignments, onboard resources and align capacity to the prioritised backlog, approved demand and budgets.
• Review partner deliverables, utilisation, iteration commitments, risks and quality; address impediments, escalate gaps and ensure corrective action.
• Establish engineering standards, code review, automated test coverage, CI/CD pipeline controls, agreed definitions of done and technical documentation for digital and automation solutions.
• Oversee automation of build, testing, deployment and operational monitoring processes, ensuring changes are controlled, observable and maintainable to improve delivery efficiency, consistency and platform reliability.
• Coordinate incremental releases, acceptance against agreed criteria, production handover, incident remediation and continuous improvement with operations teams.
• Oversee Agile delivery using appropriate Scrum or Kanban practices, including planning, daily coordination, backlog refinement, reviews and retrospectives; track progress, dependencies, defects and platform health and use feedback to improve delivery.
• Ensure architecture, security, privacy, governance and audit requirements are met and knowledge is transferred to IST.
• Oversee application health monitoring and direct proactive improvements to platform performance and reliability.
• Ensure software development activities meet audit, governance and compliance requirements.

Innovation

• Champion secure engineering, DevSecOps and automated quality practices that support frequent, reliable delivery of working solutions.
• Promote reusable APIs, shared services and consistent integration patterns.
• Champion reusable, secure automation that reduces manual effort and improves delivery, integration and operations, with benefits reviewed against approved priorities.
• Prioritize modernization of legacy digital applications and integrations.
• Improve digital customer journeys through evidence-led solution design, stakeholder reviews and iterative feedback.
• Advance resilient cloud and platform engineering where approved.
• Evaluate emerging technologies against business value, risk and architecture standards.

• Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Software Engineering, Information Technology or a related field.
• Relevant certifications in engineering leadership, cloud, security, DevOps, automation engineering or project delivery are advantageous.
• Minimum 3 years' experience in software development and systems integration.
• Experience leading software engineering or digital platform delivery teams; management experience is required.
• Experience delivering enterprise applications, APIs and integrated digital solutions.
• Experience in telecommunications, Fintech, financial services or comparable enterprise environments.
• Experience managing external delivery partners, resource augmentation and supplier deliverables.
• Demonstrable experience leading cross-functional software delivery using Agile methods, including Scrum or Kanban, backlog refinement, iterative planning, reviews, retrospectives and stakeholder feedback; experience with production support, secure development and oversight of workflow or integration automation, testing, controls and operational handover.