AI & Analytics Lead

SAB; Sandton; On-site; ZAR 900,000 - 1,300,000; Full time

Job summary

AB InBev Group in South Africa seeks an experienced analytics and AI capability lead to partner with business leaders and SMEs, translating challenges into measurable outcomes. You will coordinate input from data engineers, AI teams and product managers to deliver practical, scalable data products and decision-support tools.

You will shape early-stage analysis, dashboards and prompts while ensuring governance, speed, and adoption.

Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in Business Science, Economics, Statistics, Data Analytics, Information Systems, Engineering, Computer Science, Behavioural Science, Visual Communication or a related field.
• 5+ years in analytics, insights, business analysis, strategy, process improvement, digital transformation or related roles.
• Demonstrated experience translating business problems into analytical approaches, solution requirements or decision-support tools.
• Experience working directly with business stakeholders and cross-functional delivery teams.
• Experience managing multiple priorities, ambiguous requests and tight turnaround work.
• Strong evidence of structured problem-solving, stakeholder communication and practical implementation.

Responsibilities

• Partner with business leaders and SMEs to understand challenges and translate requests into clear problem statements and success criteria.
• Lead the jetski as the day-to-day problem lead, coordinating input from SMEs, data engineering, AI/automation teams and product management.
• Develop or support early-stage analysis, prototypes, dashboards, prompts, workflows and decision-support tools.
• Act as the bridge between business users, technical teams and product leadership, communicating complex concepts clearly and practically.
• Define outcomes, indicators and benefit logic for assigned initiatives and track realized value.

Skills

Problem Solving

Prioritisation

Curiosity

Agility

Excellence

Resilience

Boldness

Collaboration

Develop

Education

Bachelor's degree in Business Science / related field

Job description

Dreaming big is in our DNA. It's who we are as a company. It's our culture. It's our heritage. And more than ever, it's our future. A future where we're always looking forward. Always serving up new ways to meet life's moments. A future where we keep dreaming bigger. We look for people with passion, talent, and curiosity, and provide them with the teammates, resources and opportunities to unleash their full potential. The power we create together – when we combine your strengths with ours – is unstoppable. Are you ready to join a team that dreams as big as you do?

Key Roles and Responsibilities:

• Problem Framing and Opportunity Discovery Partner with business leaders and SMEs to understand business challenges, operational pain points and decision-making needs. Facilitate structured discovery sessions to translate broad or ambiguous requests into clear problem statements, hypotheses and success criteria. Identify where AI, analytics, automation, process redesign or data products can create measurable value. Assess opportunities using business impact, urgency, complexity, feasibility, data readiness and adoption potential. Develop concise opportunity briefs, value cases and delivery recommendations for product leadership review.
• Jetski Leadership and Delivery Coordination Lead the assigned jetski as the day-to-day problem lead, ensuring business context is understood and delivery remains focused on outcomes. Coordinate input from business SMEs, data engineering, AI / automation engineering, architecture support and product management. Maintain clarity on scope, milestones, dependencies, assumptions, decisions, risks and issues. Translate business needs into requirements, user stories, process maps, acceptance criteria and test scenarios. Support rapid delivery cycles from discovery through proof of concept, pilot, deployment, adoption and handover.
• Analytics, AI and Automation Solution Shaping Develop or support early-stage analysis, prototypes, dashboards, prompt flows, workflow concepts and decision-support tools. Work with technical team members to shape practical solution options that balance value, speed, simplicity, governance and scalability. Validate outputs with SMEs and users to ensure analytical logic, business rules and recommendations are fit for purpose. Contribute to the design of AI and automation solutions by documenting use cases, user journeys, prompts, controls, exception logic, reporting needs and adoption requirements. Ensure that solutions are understandable, usable and embedded into business routines rather than remaining as isolated technical deliverables.
• Stakeholder Engagement, Adoption and Change Act as the bridge between business users, technical specialists and product leadership. Communicate complex analytical or technical concepts in clear, practical business language. Prepare stakeholder updates, storytelling packs, training material, user guides and adoption support where required. Drive user testing, feedback loops, adoption tracking, and continuous improvement after deployment. Build trust with business teams by demonstrating pace, pragmatism, business empathy, and delivery discipline.
• Value Realisation and Continuous Improvement Define the expected business outcome, leading indicators, adoption indicators and benefit logic for each assigned initiative. Track realised or evidenced value in partnership with business owners and product leadership. Complete post-implementation reviews to capture lessons learned, scale opportunities and reusable assets. Identify opportunities to replicate successful solutions across markets, functions, or business processes. Contribute to the development of repeatable methods, templates and ways of working for the Africa Analytics & AI capability.

Key Attributes and Competencies:

• Problem Solving - Structures ambiguous business problems into clear questions, hypotheses, options and next actions.
• Prioritisation - Balances value, urgency, feasibility and effort when shaping jetski work.
• Curiosity - Explores new AI, analytics and automation possibilities without losing business focus.
• Agility - Moves quickly between topics, functions and delivery stages while maintaining quality.
• Excellence - Agility - Moves quickly between topics, functions and delivery stages while maintaining quality.
• Resilience - Maintains momentum through ambiguity, shifting priorities, feedback and blockers.
• Boldness - Challenges unclear requests, proposes practical options and drives action.
• Collaboration - Works effectively across business, product and technical teams.
• Develop - Shares methods, templates and lessons learnt to raise capability across the team.

Minimum Requirements:

• Bachelor's degree in Business Science, Economics, Statistics, Data Analytics, Information Systems, Engineering, Computer Science, Behavioural Science, Visual Communication or a related field.
• 5+ years in analytics, insights, business analysis, strategy, process improvement, digital transformation or related roles.
• Demonstrated experience translating business problems into analytical approaches, solution requirements or decision-support tools.
• Experience working directly with business stakeholders and cross-functional delivery teams.
• Experience managing multiple priorities, ambiguous requests and tight turnaround work.
• Strong evidence of structured problem-solving, stakeholder communication and practical implementation.

Additional Information:

Band: VI AB InBev is an equal opportunity employer, and all appointments will be made in- line with AB InBev employment equity plan and talent requirements. Internal applicants require Line manager approval. Please note that only shortlisted applicants will be contacted. The South African Breweries (SAB) has reimagined what a beer company can be and has anchored this in a powerful brand purpose - We Dream Big to Create a Future With More Cheers - which articulates who we are and where we are going. At SAB it's always about more than the beer. We are driven by our passion to demonstrate the unique power of beer to propel South Africa forward. Since our inception over a century ago, SAB has grown to become South Africa's largest brewer, a powerful economic contributor, a leader in sustainability, and a champion of responsible consumption. SAB is one of South Africa's admired companies and corporate brands. The company has 7 breweries and 42 depots in South Africa, a total workforce of approximately 5000, and supports a beer economy 'from seed to sip' of over 250 000 jobs. Its portfolio of beer brands meets the needs of a wide range of consumers and includes leading brands in beer and beyond such as Castle Lager, Carling Black Label, Corona, Brutal Fruit, and Flying Fish