Head of Transmission at Airtel Africa

Airtel Nigeria (Airtel Networks Limited) is a leading telecommunications services provider in Nigeria headquartered in Lagos, the commercial nerve-centre of Nigeria. The telco ranks amongst the top four mobile service providers in terms of subscribers with a customer base of more than 39.8 million. The company’s product offerings include 2G, 3G and 4G wireless services, mobile commerce and enterprise services.

We are recruiting to fill the position below:

Job Title: Head of Transmission

Location: Lagos, Nigeria

Job Purpose

Responsible for driving a transport convergence network both the core and access layer of the network to prepare the network for the IP evolution with major consideration to cost and backhauling efficiency.

Responsibilities
Drive strategy formulation and provide strategic leadership and direction:

Responsible for owning and developing the transmission design across Nigeria
Drive cost effective strategy for radio access network through collocation, efficient tower sizing, and RAN optimization
Responsible for the formulation of an efficient nation-wide Interconnection strategy
Drive the effective technology evolution of the transport from TDM to an all IP based transport.

Ensure effective transmission management and maintenance of the physical in-country network for the Opco:

Responsible for VSAT, Microwave (Short and Long haul) Fiber network, IP transport network, International transmission capacity and network synchronization
Responsible for network modernization planning at the core and radio access network

Governance and Performance Monitoring of Country Operations:

Direct, monitor and review functional operations across the region
Closely collaborate with CTO – Nigeria for leveraging on common synergies with Airtel India, Airtel South Asia and for ensuring high Network transmission standards across these regions

Key Partner and Stakeholder Management:

Manage the key vendors (Huawei, Alcatel and NSN) in the network planning to ensure their designs and network implementation to meet the relevant international standard

Ensure optimal spend vis-à-vis budget and monitor performance against plan:

Provide the required leadership skill to drive the optimal and efficient use of resources within the technical team.
Prepare the budget requirement for the network-roll out and the network OPEX requirement for leased lines, international capacity, frequency and collocation cost.
Responsible for identifying resource skill gap within the team and initiate the required intervention.
Define specific and measurable network KPIs in line with the company’s strategic goal and initiate mechanism to monitor performance and measurement.

Creation of highly effective Team:

To ensure the functions objectives are delivered through a highly motivated and engaged team. Giving regular feedback and reviews to each team member as this plays a critical role in ensuring employees are engaged and deliver results, leading to lower attrition of people hence protecting talent.
Develop a bench strength of future leaders through coaching, mentoring and guidance

Skills & Qualifications

Bachelor’s of Science in Electronic, Telecommunications or Electrical Engineering
10-15 years relevant experience in Transmission either in a Group environment or a large operator (1500+ network antennas)
Relevant experience in Transmission
Analytical, statistical and Presentation skills
Ability to innovate and deliver value to business at multiple levels will play an important role
Ability to manage an outsourcing partner to deliver business solution
Ability to motivate and lead
Integrity
Building and nurturing partnerships
Delighting the customer
Facilitating change and innovation