Senior AI & Data Strategy Expert (m/f/d) for Vantage Towers

Vodafone; Porto; On-site; EUR 50,000 - 70,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Meal Allowance

Pension Plan

Full Health Insurance

Life Insurance

Extra vacation days

Job summary

Vodafone is seeking a Senior AI & Data Strategy Expert to join Vantage Towers in Porto, Portugal. This full-time role focuses on designing scalable data architectures and enabling AI/ML solutions to transform telecommunications infrastructure. The ideal candidate has over 5 years of experience in data architecture and engineering with a solid understanding of cloud environments, preferably GCP. The position offers an attractive salary package, meal allowance, pension plan, and full health insurance for employees and their families.

Qualifications

• 5+ years of experience in data architecture, data engineering, or related roles.
• 2+ years in cloud environments (ideally GCP).
• Hands-on expertise in cloud data platforms and modern ETL/ELT design.

Responsibilities

• Design scalable, secure, future-proof data architectures.
• Build and optimize data pipelines and data models.
• Enable selected AI/ML use cases by defining data access patterns.

Skills

Data architecture

Data engineering

AI/ML workloads

Python

SQL

Education

University degree in IT, computer science, engineering, or business with IT focus

Tools

GCP

Power BI

Job description

Senior AI & Data Strategy Expert (m/f/d) for Vantage Towers

Aggregate function: Technology

Business Area: Vantage Towers Technology

Posting Country: Portugal

Full Time / Part Time: Full Time

Contract Type: Permanent

At Vodafone, we’re working hard to build a better future. A more connected, inclusive and sustainable world. As a dynamic global community, it's our human spirit, together with technology, that empowers us to achieve this.

We challenge and innovate in order to connect people, businesses, and communities across the world. Delighting our customers and earning their loyalty drive us, and we experiment, learn fast and get it done, together.

With us, you can be truly be yourself and belong, share inspiration, embrace new opportunities, thrive, and make a real difference.

The opportunity

At Vantage Towers, we’re on a mission to power Europe’s sustainable digital transformation. As a leading tower company, we’re ushering in an era of technology-driven advances to help connect people, businesses, and internet-enabled devices like never before. We combine the scale, stability and quality of our tower network with the agility, optimism and energy of a start-up.

As a young TowerCo, we have already achieved strong results with a continued focus on accelerating growth and a special emphasis put on sustainability.

As part of our team, you’ll work in a dynamic and multicultural environment that embraces open communication, collaboration and teamwork.

If you’re ready to take responsibility and shape the future of telco infrastructure with us, then let’s level up in your career and reach the top – together.

Your contribution

• Design scalable, secure, future-proof data architectures that form the backbone of our VT Data Lake and analytics landscape
• Define end-to-end solution designs for data ingestion, transformation, storage, and consumption across platforms (incl. GCP)
• Build and optimize data pipelines and data models (ETL/ELT, orchestration, storage design) to support analytics and reporting at scale
• Enable selected AI/ML use cases by defining governed data access patterns and curated datasets that provide trusted context
• Develop self-service BI and reporting that translates complex datasets into actionable insights (e.g., Power BI)
• Lead technical design reviews, assess architectural trade-offs, and ensure solutions follow best-practice patterns
• Guide and challenge external vendors to deliver high-quality, maintainable, compliant data and analytics solutions
• Establish data governance principles, standards, and documentation to ensure architectural consistency and data quality
• Explore and pilot emerging technologies relevant to modern data architecture (including agentic AI enablement where useful)

What makes you stand out

• Strong architectural mindset with the ability to structure complex data landscapes into coherent, modular, and scalable solutions
• Deep understanding of data modeling, data integration patterns, and cloud-native architecture principles
• AI-ready data architecture: build governed models, pipelines and standards so analytics and AI/GenAI can consume trusted data at scale
• Agentic enablement + translation: design-controlled access patterns (A2A/MCP concepts) and turn AI/GenAI requirements into actionable architecture decisions (performance, cost, governance)
• Ability to simplify complex technical designs for non-technical stakeholders and influence decision-making
• Confident, structured, and solution-oriented working style with high standards for quality and maintainability
• Experience operating in distributed, multinational environments with diverse technical stakeholders
• Hands‑on expertise in cloud data platforms, modern ETL/ELT design, and data-driven product development
• Strong ability to balance conceptual architecture thinking with pragmatic, delivery‑focused execution

You must have

• University degree in IT, computer science, engineering, business with IT focus, or equivalent experience
• 5+ years of experience in data architecture, data engineering, or related roles, incl. 2+ years in cloud environments (ideally GCP)
• Strong knowledge of data architecture principles (data modeling, integration patterns, pipeline orchestration, storage design)
• AI enablement (platform-side): hands‑on exposure to supporting AI/ML workloads on the data platform (e.g., integrating data/pipelines for Vertex AI / BigQuery ML‑style use cases, and setting up the data access + monitoring needed for reliable production use)
• Interoperability experience: enabling cross‑platform access to governed data via standard interfaces/protocols (e.g., MCP / A2A concepts)
• Proficient programming skills (Python or Java) and advanced SQL
• Practical experience with BI/reporting platforms, preferably Power BI
• Proven experience working across distributed and multinational teams

What we offer

• diverse, multicultural setup based on our values – Accountability, Respect, Teamwork, and Trust – and the unique opportunity to shape the organisation
• attractive salary package
• Meal Allowance: Delivered on Pluxee card - €10.20/day
• Pension Plan
• Full Health Insurance: For employees and co‑payment for family members
• Life Insurance
• 7 extra vacation days: 4 flexible, plus 3 fixed — 1 on Carnival, 1 on Christmas, and half a day on Easter and New Year's.
• Parking Slot

  Interested? Send us yourCV with your desired salary. Depending on the role, we generally invite you to two rounds of interviews before you receive your offer.

#LI-Hybrid

Vodafone is committed to attracting, developing and retaining the very best people by offering a motivating and inclusive workplace in which talent is truly recognised and rewarded. We are committed to promoting Inclusion for All with the belief that diversity plays an important role in the success of our business. We actively encourage everyone to consider becoming a part of our journey.