Lead, Consumer Products and Propositions

Job Description

What we’re looking for;

In keeping with our current business needs, we are looking for a person who meets the criteria indicated below

Reporting to the Chief Consumer Business Officer , the role purpose is as highlighted below;

The Lead, Consumer Products and Propositions is accountable for shaping and delivering the end-to-end Consumer Product portfolio strategy within Safaricom’s Consumer Business, driving sustainable revenue growth, margin expansion, product convergence, and lifecycle value optimization across connectivity, terminals, digital services, and ecosystem offerings. In addition, the Lead translates the multi-year Consumer growth ambition into a cohesive, future-fit product architecture that integrates mobile connectivity revenue (mobile data, Voice, SMS, Okoa, digital services), and ecosystem partnerships into differentiated, customer centric propositions. The role ensures disciplined portfolio governance, AI-enabled hyper-personalization and monetization, and rapid product innovation in alignment with the broader Consumer Business strategy.

The Lead leads the product growth system, embedding convergence across product categories ,institutionalising lifecycle management discipline, and ensuring that every product initiative contributes measurably to customer acquisition, ARPU uplift, churn reduction, digital adoption, and long-term customer lifetime value. Through strong cross-functional orchestration with Sales & Distribution, Brand & Marketing, CVM, Care & Experience, Technology, Finance, and Regulatory functions, the role ensures seamless execution from product ideation to market scale.

The Lead further accelerates ecosystem expansion by integrating platform-based commercial models, strategic partnerships, and AI-driven personalization capabilities into the product portfolio, strengthening

Safaricom’s position as a digital-first, customer-centric consumer brand.

Responsibilities

The Lead, Consumer Products and Propositions is strategically accountable for:

• Product Portfolio Strategy & Convergence: Defining and governing a cohesive, future-ready product portfolio that integrates connectivity, digital services, and ecosystem partnerships into converged, value-led propositions aligned to Consumer Business growth priorities.

• Product Revenue & Margin Performance: Owning product portfolio revenue, profitability, ARPU expansion, and lifecycle monetization within the Consumer Business P&L, ensuring disciplined pricing governance and commercial optimization.

• Digital Ecosystem & Platform Integration: Designing and scaling platform-based product models and ecosystem partnerships that enhance customer stickiness, expand digital engagement, and drive

incremental revenue streams.

• AI-Led Lifecycle & Personalization: Embedding predictive analytics, automation, and next-best-action frameworks into product journeys to enhance customer experience, reduce churn, and maximize lifetime value.

• End-to-End Product Lifecycle Governance: Overseeing product ideation development, launch, optimization, and retirement through structured stage-gate processes that balance speed, quality, and commercial discipline.

• Go-to-Market & Cross-Functional partnerships: Working together with Segments, Sales, Brand, CVM, Care, and Technology to deliver seamless, journey-led market launches and accelerated adoption curves.

• Product Operating Model & Capability Development: Building and leading high-performing product tribes and squads, embedding agile governance, data-driven decisioning, and strong commercial accountability.

Key accountabilities and decision ownership:

Product Portfolio Strategy & Convergence

• Define and continuously evolve a 3–5-year Consumer Product roadmap aligned to the Consumer Business strategy set by the Chief CBO.

• Architect converged propositions integrating mobile data, GSM, fixed broadband, digital services, and fintech adjacencies into unified customer solutions.

• Establish structured cross-product bundling frameworks to increase wallet share, stickiness, and lifetime value across segments.

• Ensure segment-led convergence by aligning product architecture to Micro, SOHO, Home, Achievers, Aspirers, Strivers and Youth customer needs.

• Design single-billing and cross-product recognition capabilities in partnership with Technology and Commercial Management.

• Lead structured portfolio rationalisation to retire low-value legacy products and reallocate capital to high-growth, converged offerings.

• Embed AI-native design principles into new product categories to ensure automation, personalisation, and digital scalability from inception.

• Provide strategic product input into Consumer Business planning cycles, ensuring alignment with sales, care, brand, and CVM growth levers.

• Ensure adequate number planning, allocation, and assignment to drive customer acquisition, oversee numberlifecycle management, routing, network translation and work together with risk team to ensure compliance (Sim box fraud, identify misuse)

Product Revenue, Margin & Commercial Governance

• Own product portfolio revenue and gross margin performance within the Consumer Business P&L framework.

• Drive ARPU expansion through converged bundles, premium tiers, digital add-ons, and cross-sell orchestration.

• Establish pricing governance models that protect margin integrity while remaining competitive and value-led.

• Implement cross-portfolio revenue attribution models to measure incremental value from bundled and converged offers.

• Partner with Finance to ensure forecast accuracy, revenue predictability, and disciplined cost-toserve optimisation.

• Lead corrective interventions for underperforming product lines, including pricing resets, bundle

redesign, or discontinuation.

• Align commercial incentives within product tribes to revenue, adoption, and margin outcomes.

• Chair product commercial review forums to ensure disciplined investment governance and ROI tracking.

Digital Ecosystem & Platform Integration

• Design and scale platform-based commercial models integrating connectivity, content, fintech, and digital lifestyle services.

• Structure and negotiate ecosystem partnerships that enhance product value propositions and incremental revenue streams.

• Drive integration of third-party digital services into converged bundles through API-enabled architecture.

• Ensure interoperability across platforms to enable seamless multi-service customer journeys.

• Embed monetisation levers such as subscriptions, tiering, micro-payments, and loyalty-linked incentives.

• Partner with M-PESA and fintech platforms to strengthen cross-service convergence.

• Establish governance for partner onboarding, performance monitoring, and risk management

within product ecosystem.

• Continuously expand ecosystem footprint into adjacent verticals aligned to consumer lifestyle

evolution.

AI-Led Product Innovation & Lifecycle Monetisation

• Embed predictive analytics, next-best-offer, and churn propensity modelling into product lifecycle

strategies.

• Sponsor automation-first redesign of high-volume journeys to reduce cost-to-serve and improve customer satisfaction.

• Drive AI-enabled cross-sell and bundle optimisation across converged portfolios.

• Implement experimentation frameworks (A/B testing, kill-scale gates) to accelerate learning cycles and innovation velocity.

• Ensure product telemetry enables real-time usage tracking and rapid performance intervention.

• Align with Technology to integrate AI capabilities into product architecture and roadmap

prioritisation.

• Establish closed-loop feedback mechanisms between CVM, Care, and Product to drive lifecycle optimisation.

• Build internal AI and data fluency within product leadership teams.

End-to-End Product Lifecycle & Experience Governance

• Govern full product lifecycle from ideation through launch, growth, maturity, and structured

retirement.

• Ensure care-readiness and CX gatekeeping prior to launch to reduce post-launch service friction.

• Define experience benchmarks across activation, onboarding, usage, reliability, and digital

containment.

• Monitor and reduce product-driven contact drivers and repeat complaints.

• Drive time-to-market reduction through disciplined stage-gate governance without compromising

quality.

• Align product feature roadmaps with evolving segment needs and convergence strategy.

• Ensure regulatory, pricing, and compliance alignment in partnership with Legal and Risk.

• Institutionalize quarterly portfolio health reviews to maintain competitive relevance.

Go-to-Market Convergence & Commercial Velocity

•Together with Segment, Brand, Sales and CVM jointly develop an appropriate GTM to drive awareness and adoption.

• Ensure converged journey readiness across retail, digital, partner, and care channels prior to launch.

• Drive frontline enablement and training for crossproduct selling and solution-based engagement.

• Monitor 30/60/90-day adoption curves and accelerate uptake through tactical commercial interventions.

• Establish commercial war-room structures for priority launches and bundle activations.

• Coordinate promotional calendars across product verticals to avoid fragmentation and cannibalisation.

• Ensure alignment between product roadmaps and retail transformation initiatives.

• Continuously refine GTM model based on performance insights and competitive intelligence. Cross-Functional Product Operating Model & Squad leadership

• Design and evolve the Consumer Product operating model to support convergence, agility, and commercial discipline.

• Establish clear tribe and squad accountability frameworks aligned to shared KPIs and revenue outcomes.

• Drive collaboration across Sales, Brand, CVM, Care, Finance, and Technology to eliminate siloed execution.

• Embed performance dashboards linked to revenue, margin, digital adoption, and lifetime value metrics.

• Build succession depth across product verticals to strengthen leadership bench and continuity.

• Foster culture of experimentation, accountability, and data-driven decision making.

• Align squad remuneration and performance management to cross-functional commercial outcomes.

• Ensure strong governance cadence (quarterly roadmap resets, performance reviews, prioritisation councils).

Enterprise Alignment & Strategic Influence

• Serve as senior product advisor to the CCBO on portfolio growth, convergence opportunities, and monetisation levers.

• Represent Consumer Products in enterprise governance forums and cross-cluster design discussions.

• Collaborate with Enterprise and Financial Services clusters on converged consumer-business propositions.

• Align product roadmap with network investment, fixed rollout, and device strategy priorities.

• Provide strategic input into annual planning, budgeting, and capital allocation cycles.

• Influence Technology roadmap decisions to ensure commercial feasibility and speed-to-market.

• Support cross-market knowledge sharing (Kenya & Ethiopia) through product best-practice

exchange.

• Act as delegated authority for the CCBO on product portfolio matters when required.

Leadership & Talent Development:

• Coach, mentor, and empower the leadership team to drive strategic excellence, collaboration, and disruptive thinking.

• Drive diversity, inclusion, and leadership bench strength, ensuring succession readiness for pivotal roles within the function.

• Build critical capabilities through targeted hiring and continuous learning programs.

• Institutionalize a Consumer Products Academy - develop playbooks, methodologies, and training

for execution, and digital-first innovation models.

• Embed OKRs and a performance-driven culture, aligning incentives to strategic impact, and innovation.

• Champion cross-functional collaboration across Safaricom to ensure integrated delivery of products.

• Lead change management for major shifts (new operating models, and innovation platforms) with clear narratives, stakeholder engagement, and adoption tracking.

• Foster a culture of agility and experimentation, encouraging teams to pilot emerging technologies, new business models, and disruptive solutions.

• Model ethical leadership and values, reinforcing integrity, transparency, and responsible innovation in all strategic decisions.

• Ensure governance and compliance in all initiatives, safeguarding organizational reputation and stakeholder trust.

• Champion adoption of emerging technologies (AI, IoT, cloud, blockchain) to enable disruptive innovation and digital transformation.

Anchored on Safaricom’s purpose of Transforming Lives, this role shapes innovative, converged consumer solutions that enable digital inclusion, connectivity access, and lifestyle enrichment, while delivering sustainable commercial impact and strengthening Safaricom’s competitive advantage in the evolving digital economy.

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree in business administration, Economics, Marketing, Technology, Engineering, or related field from a recognized institution.

• MBA or relevant Master’s degree (e.g., Strategy, Finance, Technology Management, Digital Transformation) is highly desirable.

• Professional certifications in Product Management, Digital Strategy, Data Analytics, or Commercial Leadership are an added advantage.

• Minimum fifteen (15) years’ progressive experience in product management, commercial strategy, digital services,

telecoms, or technology-led consumer businesses, with at least 5–7 years leading large, multi-category product portfolios at senior leadership level.

• Proven track record of owning and delivering product portfolio revenue and margin performance at scale, including pricing governance, ARPU optimization, churn reduction, and lifecycle monetization.

• Demonstrated experience architecting and scaling converged propositions integrating connectivity, digital services, fintech adjacencies, and platform-based ecosystems.

• Strong commercial acumen with experience in business case development, capital allocation, ROI analysis, revenue forecasting, and portfolio rationalization.

• Deep understanding of consumer segmentation, Customer Value Management (CVM), bundling strategies, and cross-sell orchestration in highly competitive markets.

• Demonstrated success leading cross functional product tribes or squads, embedding agile governance while maintaining commercial and financial discipline.

• Experience leveraging advanced analytics, AI-driven personalization, predictive modelling, and experimentation frameworks (A/B testing, kill-scale models) to drive product innovation and lifecycle optimization.

• Strong knowledge of telecom and digital ecosystem dynamics including OTT partnerships, device financing models, subscription-based monetization, and API enabled platform integrations.

• Demonstrable capability in ecosystem partnership structuring, commercial negotiations, and revenue-sharing model design with strategic partners (content providers, OEMs, fintechs, aggregators).

• Experience operating in regulated environments with familiarity in telecom regulatory frameworks, data privacy laws, consumer protection standards, and compliance governance.

• Strong executive stakeholder management capability, with ability to influence cross cluster leaders (Sales, Brand, CVM, Care, Technology, Finance) and align complex commercial agendas.

• Demonstrated leadership capability in building high-performing productor organizations, succession planning, and embedding a performance-driven culture

How to apply If you feel that you are up to the challenge and possess the necessary qualification and experience, kindly proceed to create/ update your candidate profile on the recruitment portal and then Click on the apply button. Remember to attach your resume