Operations Support Engineer

Vodafone Group; Midrand; On-site; ZAR 600 000 - 800 000; Full time

Job summary

A leading global telecommunications company seeks an Operations Support Engineer in Midrand, South Africa. This role is pivotal in ensuring operational excellence across production systems handling Big Data and Machine Learning. Successful candidates will have at least 5 years of experience in IT support, strong knowledge of cloud technologies, and a Bachelor’s degree in a relevant field. We offer competitive benefits, including retirement funds and exclusive staff discounts.

Benefits

Enticing incentive programs

Retirement funds

Medical aid benefits

Cell phone and data benefits

Qualifications

• 5+ years of experience in Big Data and ML Operations Support.
• Strong programming skills in Python and SQL.
• Experience in production support for data platforms and cloud infrastructure.

Responsibilities

• Monitor and maintain the health of production data and ML pipelines.
• Implement ITIL processes including Incident and Change Management.
• Drive continuous improvement initiatives to enhance system reliability.

Skills

Big Data operations support

Machine Learning

Cloud technologies (AWS, GCP, Azure)

Communication skills

Agile methodologies (Kanban, Scrum)

Education

Bachelor’s degree in computer science, Engineering, or related field

Tools

AWS (S3, Glue, EMR)

Kubernetes

Docker

Monitoring tools (Prometheus, Grafana)

Job description

Overview

When it comes to putting people first, we're number 1.

The number 1 Top Employer in South Africa. Certified by the Top Employer Institute 2025.

Role purpose / Business unit

The job role for Operations Support Engineer is:

To ensure operational excellence across all production systems supporting Big Data and Machine Learning platforms. This role is responsible for maintaining system reliability, managing incidents, changes and delivering ITIL-aligned support services to ensure seamless platform performance and user satisfaction.

Responsibilities

Your responsibilities will include:

• Production Operations & Support
  • Monitor and maintain the health of production data and ML pipelines, platforms, and services.
  • Perform root cause analysis and resolution of production incidents.
  • Manage and coordinate incident response, escalation, and communication.
  • Ensure timely resolution of support tickets and service requests.
• ITIL Service Management
  • Implement and manage ITIL processes including Incident, Problem, Change, and Release Management.
  • Maintain service documentation, runbooks, and operational procedures.
  • Participate in CAB (Change Advisory Board) reviews and ensure compliance with change protocols.
• Operational Excellence
  • Drive continuous improvement initiatives to enhance system reliability and performance.
  • Collaborate with DevOps, MLOps, and Platform Engineering teams to automate operational tasks.
  • Track and report on SLAs, SLOs, and KPIs for operational services.
• Monitoring & Observability
  • Set up and maintain monitoring, alerting, and logging systems.
  • Ensure visibility into system performance and proactively identify issues.
  • Support observability tooling and dashboards for platform health.
• Stakeholder Engagement
  • Act as the first point of contact for production-related issues.
  • Liaise with internal teams and external vendors to resolve operational challenges.
  • Provide regular updates and reports to leadership on operational status and risks

Qualifications

The ideal candidate for this role will have:

• Bachelor’s degree in computer science, Engineering, or related field.
• 5+ years of experience in Big Data, ML Operations Support.
• Experience with Cloud based data technologies such as AWS, GCP or Azure.
• 5+ years of overall IT experience with Big Data, Advance Analytics, Data Warehousing and Business Intelligence.
• Relevant cloud certification at professional or associate level would be advantageous.
• Strong communication and collaboration skills.
• Agile exposure, Kanban, or Scrum

Core competencies, knowledge, and experience

Core competencies, knowledge, and experience:

• In-depth knowledge of data as a product & Information best practices.
• Experience in using a wide range for data tools such as AWS services – S3, SFTP, Glue, EMR (Spark), Airflow, Athena, CloudWatch, CouldTrail, KMS, Kinesis, OpenSearch, etc.
• Strong understanding of ITIL frameworks and service management.
• Experience in production support for data platforms, ML systems, or cloud infrastructure.
• Familiarity with monitoring tools (e.g. Prometheus, Grafana, Postgress).
• Knowledge of incident and change management workflows.
• Excellent troubleshooting, communication, and documentation skills.
• Working experience with Cloud platforms such as AWS and GCP.
• Working experience with Kubernetes and Docker containers.
• Working experience with CI/CD, IAC and DevOps tools such as CDK, Code Repos, etc.
• Strong programming skills in Python and SQL.

We make an impact by offering

• Enticing incentive programs and competitive benefit packages
• Retirement funds, risk benefits, and medical aid benefits
• Cell phone and data benefits, advantages fibre connection discounts, and exclusive staff discounts offered in collaboration with partner companies

Closing date for Applications: 06 November 2025.

The base location for this role is Vodacom, Midrand Campus.

The company's approved Employment Equity Plan and Targets will be considered as part of the recruitment process. As an Equal Opportunities employer, we actively encourage and welcome people with various disabilities to apply. Vodacom is committed to an organisational culture that recognises, appreciates, and values diversity & inclusion.