Principal Engineer Strategy and Architecture – Core Network at Safaricom Kenya

DESCRIPTION

Reporting to the Senior Manager – Technology Strategy and Architecture, the position holder will  strategize cross-functionally with multiple industry stakeholders to identify technology solutions, identify technological and business gaps, partnering with internal organizations and the external partner community to build cutting edge products.

He/ She will provide technical leadership in the journey towards Telco over cloud, driving architecture and tools that will be used in building the NFV cloud, and evolving it to take advantage of capabilities emerging from industry roadmaps. He/ She will carefully track industry trends to develop new Core Network products that represent a technical and/or commercial advantage.

Responsibilities

• Defining vision and Core Network strategy to meet business needs.
• Developing architectural framework required to deliver Core Network strategy at the lowest cost
• Manage interfaces with other Core Network domains in NPD, CSO, TES, Vodafone Technology network (VTN) and Vodacom Group to ensure aligned approach towards strategy and architecture development, working as one team to deliver benefit for our customers.
• Working with procurement and Core Network domains to ensure we leverage supplier competition to drive innovation, manage costs and provide best customer experience.
• Manage the transition and delivery of architectural elements of architectural elements of project based on project requirements
• Develop and communicate governance framework for Core Network
• Develop and continuously review Core Network policies
• Ensure compliance with statutory regulations in Core Network

QUALIFICATIONS

• Bachelor’s Degree in Engineering (Electrical or Computer), Computer science or equivalent from a recognized University.
• Previous experience (5+ years) as Core network engineer Planning and/ Support- CS and PS Network
• Good understanding of Mobile Technology 2G/3G/4G/5G
• Deep understanding of the Core Network evolution – IMS/VoLTE, EPC (MME, SGSN, SGW, PGW, GGSN, CG, TGW, ePDG).
• Good understanding of telecommunication protocols/standards (SS7, SIP, MAP, CAP, AAA, Diameter etc)
• Good understanding of cloud computing concepts
• Proven record of Network Architecture development
• Ability to drive infrastructure hardware/software proof of concepts trials within Core Network in the labs and ultimately leading to field trial evaluations prior to rapid commercial deployment.
• Ability to collaborate with different individuals across the organization and within other geographies, and to accomplish all necessary tasks.
• Ability to understand high level architecture for system dependencies and translate these into technical requirements, roadmaps.
• Ability to drive the definition of technical documentation such as requirements documents, test plans, white papers, etc.
•  Strong organizational skills
• Ability to effectively manage multiple priorities in a fast-paced environment and consistently meets deadlines
• Strong negotiation and influencing skills at multiple organizational levels

• Strong knowledge of continuous integration and delivery systems (CI/CD) such as Jenkins/gitlabci/drone/CycleCI
• Experience with at least one test automation tool such as Selenium, Appium, Robot Framework, Pytest, TestNG
• Experience in containerization & container orchestration technologies technologies
• Performance testing using JMETER/HP LoadRunner/locust.io is a huge plus
• ISTQB Certification is a plus