General Manager - Brand and Marketing.Commercial Operations SA

MTN Group; Roodepoort; On-site; ZAR 600 000 - 750 000; Full time

Job summary

A leading telecommunications company seeks an experienced marketing leader to oversee its brand and marketing strategies. The ideal candidate will have a strong background in strategic marketing, brand governance, and digital communication. Responsibilities include driving growth through marketing initiatives, managing a collaborative team, and ensuring ROI-driven marketing spend. Candidates should have at least 15 years of experience in global brand management and a relevant degree. This role is crucial for steering the marketing direction aligned with business goals.

Qualifications

• Minimum 15 years’ experience in a strategic Global Brand Management role.
• Experience in telecommunications industry and understanding of emerging markets.
• Senior management track record for at least 5 years.

Responsibilities

• Drive overall Brand and Enterprise-wide Marketing strategy.
• Lead GTM strategies for product launches and campaigns.
• Develop and manage the brand and marketing budget.

Skills

Leadership

Strategic Planning

Data Analysis

Digital Marketing

Brand Management

Collaboration

Education

Minimum of 4 year Commercial/Marketing/Business Degree

MBA or Masters in relevant field of study

Job description

• Marketing Strategy & Commercial Leadership: Unlock revenue potential for MTN byformulating and execute MTN’s marketing strategy aligned with beyond 2025 strategic priorities, driving growth across connectivity, Home, simplifying digital solutionsand value-added services.
• Brand & Communications: Ensure a consistent brand experience across all customer touchpoints, strengthen brand leadership, brand trust and lead integrated ATL, BTL, and digital campaign
• Marketing Spend Governance & ROI: Implement ROI-driven models, budget controls, and eliminate inefficient spend
• Product Marketing & Go-To-Market: Lead GTM strategies for launches, pricing, and promotions
• Leverage AI and data: Champion the use of AI and advanced analytics to optimize marketing processes, reporting, and campaign performance
• Digital & Performance Marketing: Drive CRM, MarTech adoption, personalization, and data-led optimization
• People Leadership: Reset team culture, resolve silos when they arise, and build a high-performing, collaborative team.

Marketing Strategy and Commercial Leadership

Collaborates to develop and drive overall Brand and Enterprise-wide Marketing strategy by identifying competitive advantage, and formulating the position that the brand wants to take in the market, integrating inputs from team across BU (including Regions) and business. Lead the implementation of yearly plans across functions, multiple processes, discipline technologies, products, teams and customers in line with the overarching business goals and Strategy. This includes setting and communicating collective goals and objectives, integrating the Group and MTNSA strategy and direction

Develop strategy using customer opportunities highlighted through marketing insights and communicating these strategies to the product houses

Using key data, play a key role in defining end-to-end segment strategy for MTN SA

Drives growth marketing through continuous experimentation and optimisation of marketing strategies and channel innovation while predicting the future needs of the market

Ensure effective implementation of strategy within own team and portfolio by means of providing direction, and best-in-class methodologies, frameworks, models and roadmaps

Collaborate regularly with Group COE leaders to align solutions with best practice and to the overall MTN strategy and guidance

Brand and Marketing Growth and Performance

Broadens marketing scope beyond traditional campaigns to uncover untapped target segments

Leverages the latest digital and data platforms to find new ways of acquiring and retaining customers and creating different marketing models that fuel growth

Ability to leverage AI to find opportunities and optimize processes and ways of work

Play a critical role in creating thought leadership (Area-specific trends , industry best practice) across each BU space

Research and keep abreast of new innovations , identify and share leading practices, concepts and benchmarks on a continual basis with own teams

Participate in communities of practices and conferences to facilitate knowledge sharing and positioning of MTN’s intellectual property and employer of choice brand towards the external marketplace

Proven ability to design, commission and interpret customer focus groups and qualitative research to test campaign concepts, messaging and creative prior to launch

Marketing Spend Governance, ROI & Budget Control

Establish a robust marketing investment governance framework

Measures and controls the marketing function’s growth performance by the assessment of key performance benchmarks such as return on marketing investments, sales leads generated and revenue from marketing-generated sources

Analyses revenue sources and develops advertising predictions to generate the highest possible return of investment

Implement Return on Marketing Spend (ROMS/ROMI) models

Partner with Finance on ROI-led budgeting and forecasting

Introduce attribution models, dashboards and reporting rhythms

Eliminate inefficient or non-performing spend

Brand Governance, Policies and Procedures

Oversee end-to-end marketing governance across products, processes, technologies, functions and customer segments. This includes BU campaign teams adhere to governance as set out by the Brand & Marketing team and to manage performance and quality

Lead a central team that drives, monitors ensures compliance of the business-wide marketing strategy. This includes leading frequent strategy and operational alignment sessions with BUs

Promote a ‘MTN centric’ and ‘partnership approach’ to develop strong relationships with other working groups and ensure adherence to Group governance. Ensure effective implementation of (and compliance towards) company policies, processes, and procedures. Put effective methods and standards in place in alignment with aforementioned

Manage and provide solutions to escalations that have multiple processes / functions impact on critical path of service delivery

Continuously review key risks, issues and dependencies and set mitigation actions

Brand and Marketing Execution Leadership

Acts as custodian of the MTN SA brand and drives a brand-centric organisation across multiple BUs and locations, and continually monitors brand eminence and perception through Brand Health tracking

Lead and ignite digital marketing capability and teams based on the latest customer trends to achieve the greatest customer reach and demand generation. This includes collaboratively designing and testing solutions through agile ways of work

Manage performance and marketing success across BUs and segments and ensures synergies in operations

Sets the marketing metrics and KPIs that the entire marketing function will be measured against and provides monthly dashboards on marketing performance. This includes tracking performance of marketing execution for the BUs and continuously managing and reviewing the performance and deliverables of direct and indirect reports to ensure that the goals and objectives are achieved. Ensure service delivery excellence at all times within area of responsibility

Use AI and data analytics to optimize marketing operations, campaign targeting, and reporting

Report on a monthly basis to CCOO relating to progress made within the division and in accordance with the measurement metrics set by the organisation

Identifies opportunities for performance marketing and manages marketing partners to achieve marketing goals

Oversee implementation, measurement, and evolution of brand and marketing solutions and activities for the business across area of responsibility. Establish feedback loops to measure ROI on successful solutions and report back on progress to leader and/or business leadership

Oversee collaboration with BU teams to define problems (based on data insights), provide business relevant solutions and lead desirable initiatives that bring about meaningful change through synergies across all teams

Lead, prioritise, align and enable implementation of related projects for MTN SA (impacting Brand and Marketing functions)

Partner with vendors to provide design support for key services. Collaborate on the design of solutions and provide key inputs for execution

Outline, develop and deploy change management practices and activities where required and as guided, and in collaboration with HR colleagues

Financial Management

Develops and manages the brand and marketing budget for MTN-SA for maximum return of marketing investment and economies of scale. Collaborate closely with finance team in budgeting exercises

Forecast, plan, develop and review the budget and secure the necessary approvals

Manage and optimise the budget, ensuring all expenditure is in line with the agreed budgets

Optimize spend, identify efficiencies, and drive innovative approaches to achieve more with less - maximise cost/benefit ratios

Ensure that all MTN company financial targets are met

Ensure Vendor & IT costs are effectively managed

People Leadership /Management

Reset team culture and address silos and conflict when they arise

Build a collaborative, high-performing leadership team

Establish clear operating models and decision rights

Set integrated goals and objectives for the Brand and Marketing team within MTN in order to achieve a future-focused, future-fit high-performing organisation

Provide technical, procedural and policy guidance to staff, colleagues , partners and vendors

Attract, develop and retain appropriate talent. Build talent by identifying and developing new leaders for the respective environment

Create and implement personal development plans

Define the KPAs and KPIs that will be cascaded down to each area

Manage Performance and identify training needs. Coach and guide subordinates

Enable and model healthy employee relations and collaborative teamwork

Manage diversity, develop, and embed an Employment Equity plan for the business area

Contribute to building a cultureof continuous evaluation and improvement. Drive a culture of high performance, accountability and consequence management

Act as an ambassador for the team by living the Brand values and vital behaviours and changing and influencing employees’behaviour.

Education:

Minimum of 4 year Commercial/Marketing/Business Degree

MBA or Masters in relevant field of study (Preferred)

Experience:

Minimum 15 years’ experience including:

Work experience in a strategic Global Brand Management/Commercial/ Chief Marketing Officer role

Experience working in a global/multinational enterprise /FMCG

Understanding of emerging markets

Senior management track record of 5 years or more, with at least 3 years in relevant sector/industry

Experience in Digital Communication and Media

Experience in continuous improvement through the implementation of best practices (Global Brand Management)

Experience in Global Brand leading practices and trends

Pan Africa multi-cultural experience

Telecommunications industry experience

Proven marketing ROI and budget turnaround experience

Experience leading large, complex teams

Regulatory knowledge (ICASA, POPIA Compliance, BCCSA)