Executive Head: Segment & Product Management

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Role Purpose/Business Unit:

• Responsible for developing and driving the customer segment and product strategy to deliver sustainable growth, market differentiation, and enhanced customer value for the organisation. This role leads the end-to-end customer lifecycle—combines leadership, commercial & financial acumen, and cross-functional influence to ensure sustainable market share and heighten competitive advantage. The incumbent ensures deep understanding of customer behaviours and needs, translating these into compelling propositions that optimise product portfolios, manage product performance across verticals in the organisation, and deliver profitable growth through data-driven insights and stakeholder collaboration.
• To translate enterprise segment strategy into clear segment plans, propositions, and roadmaps, ensuring cross-functional alignment and commercial impact for specific segment

Your responsibilities will include:

1. Segment & Product Strategy

• Develop and own the long-term strategic roadmap for the specific customer segment and adapt as necessary. This evolves beyond the go to market process, and requires product management from developing new products, changing existing products, and ensuring the lifecycle of the product is appropriate to this customer segment and product.
• Leverage customer insights, behavioural data to drive alignment of segment and product strategy with business objectives, product plans, commercial priorities, and digital transformation initiatives.
• Provide leadership and direction to cross-functional teams via an agile squad (Marketing, CVM, Sales, Digital, Customer Experience, Finance).
• Operationalise segment - led operating model that enable integrated decision-making and accountability.

2. Revenue Optimisation (IBRO)

• Own and govern the IBRO framework to maximise segment and product profitability.
• Design and implement pricing, bundling, and value propositions that enhance customer satisfaction while driving incremental revenue.
• Use IBRO models to identify pain points across products, successes and revenue drivers. Further IBRO to be used to ensure appropriate market share within this segment and product is achieved , both for revenue and customers.
• Able to lead and hold cross functional teams accountable for IBRO performance and trends. These span across the verticals of the entire organisation

3. P & L Accountability

• Lead forecasting, budgeting, and commercial planning for the segment and product so that appropriate targets are set and achieved that are reflective of the group strategy
• Drive P&L accountability by balancing customer value creation with revenue, margin, and cost optimisation.
• Analyse segment and product performance outcomes and provide executive-level reporting, recommendations, and strategic interventions.
• Commercial plans and playbooks to be built to reflect short term and long term actions that will allow the business to move in the desired direction

4. Cost Management

• Drive cost efficiency across the entire segment and product lifecycle, from development to operational execution.
• Collaborate with finance and operations to establish sustainable cost structures without compromising quality or customer experience.
• Champion initiatives that reduce complexity and improve operational agility.

5. Base Management & Retention

• Partner with base management teams to design and execute retention, upsell, and cross-sell strategies that strengthen customer loyalty.
• Ensure segment and product initiatives contribute to overall base growth, churn reduction, and lifetime value improvement.
• Utilise predictive analytics to anticipate customer needs and proactively address attrition risks.

6. Cross-Functional Leadership

• Influence and align stakeholders across marketing, technology, finance, and customer operations within a matrix structure.
• Drive execution of segment and product priorities through collaboration and governance frameworks that enable accountability and value creation.
• Act as a strategic advisor to senior leadership on segment and product performance and growth opportunities.

7. Customer Insights, Research & Analytics

• Translate insights into clear segment and product opportunities and gaps.
• Partner with data analytics teams to define segment and product-level KPIs, dashboards, and performance review cadences.
• Establish robust reporting mechanisms to track KPIs and ensure transparency in performance management.

8. Customer Experience & Lifecycle Management

• Own the end-to-end customer journey for the segment and product, from onboarding to retention.
• Partner with CX teams to identify pain points, journey breakages, and opportunities for delight.
• Build segment and product-focused lifecycle programmes (welcome journeys, upsell, cross-sell, loyalty, win-back).
• Champion an agile test-and-learn culture across lifecycle interventions.

9. Innovation & Growth

• Identify and capitalise on emerging market trends, technologies, and partnership opportunities to strengthen segment and product positioning.
• Drive innovation in product offerings and business models to maintain competitive advantage.
• Foster a culture of continuous improvement and agility within the segment and product team.

10. People Leadership & Capability Development

• Provide strategic leadership to the segment and product management team, ensuring clarity of purpose, accountability, and performance excellence.
• Build a high-performing, customer-centric team with strong capability in insights, proposition development, and commercial execution.
• Drive talent development, succession planning, coaching and ongoing capability uplift across the function.
• Foster a culture of collaboration, innovation, agility and data-driven decision-making.
• Role model Spirit values and champion the adoption of a segment -led operating model across the broader business

11. Value Proposition Development & Management

• Develop differentiated, customer-centric value propositions for each segment and product.
• Oversee proposition design across product, pricing, distribution, digital journeys, and service experience.
• Ensure propositions are compelling, commercially viable, and aligned to customer needs across the lifecycle.
• Drive cross-functional execution of propositions through effective governance, project management, and commercial readiness.

12. Go-to-Market & Commercial Execution

• Lead the planning and execution of segment and product-specific go-to-market strategies.
• Partner with Sales, Digital, Retail, and Channel teams to ensure optimal reach, visibility, and conversion.
• Oversee campaign design, targeting, messaging, and sequencing for segment and product growth.
• Track commercial performance and adjust tactics to improve acquisition, revenue growth, usage and churn reduction.

The ideal candidate for this role will have:

• Matric Essential and
• Bachelor’s Degree in Business, Commerce, Finance, Marketing, Analytics or related (NQF 7)

• Minimum of 8 - 10 years’ experience in telecommunications, ICT or related commercial/customer strategy roles inclusive of:
  
  • 5+ years in customer segment and product, value proposition design, insights, or lifecycle management or product management and
  • 3+ years senior leadership experience in cross-functional environments and
  • 2+ years People leadership experience and
  • Experience managing commercial performance / P&L, forecasting and business cases.
  • Experience with go-to-market execution, customer journeys, and digital/omni-channel environments.
  • Solid understanding of the South African telecoms market, customer behaviour, and regulatory context (ICASA, POPIA).

Strategic Thinking

• Demonstrates the ability to anticipate market trends, identify growth opportunities, and translate insights into actionable strategies that deliver measurable business impact.
• Deeply skilled in balancing short-term priorities with long-term objectives to ensure sustainable competitive advantage.

Commercial Acumen

• Experience with commercial modelling, pricing strategy, and P&L management.
• Ability to make data-driven decisions that maximise profitability while maintaining customer value and market relevance.
• Skilled in structured problem solving and developing data-led business cases.

Analytical & Problem-Solving Skills

• Strong ability to interpret data and insights to inform strategy.
• Strong knowledge of customer analytics, segment and productation frameworks, product development and market research techniques.

Stakeholder Management

• Ability to shape and articulate strategic vision aligned to business goals.
• Strong leadership experience in cross-functional environments.
• Excellent stakeholder management, influencing, and collaboration capabilities.
• Ability to drive a segment -led culture across the organisation.

Customer-Centric Mindset

• Possesses comprehensive knowledge of telecom market trends, customer segment and products, and product ecosystems, enabling sound strategic decision‑making.
  
• Champions customer‑focused innovation to drive enhanced experience, retention, and long‑term value creation

Product Development Expertise

• Knowledge of product development processes, GTM planning, and lifecycle management.
• Understanding of digital channels, customer journeys, and omni-channel engagement.

Communication & Interpersonal Skills

• Exceptional executive communication skills (written, verbal, presentation).
• Ability to translate insights and strategy into simple, compelling narratives.
• Strong negotiation and partner management skills.

Personal Attributes

• Customer-obsessed mindset.
• Innovative thinker with a growth orientation.
• High resilience and the ability to work in complex, fast-paced environments.
• Strong accountability and ownership of outcomes.

Closing date for Applications: 08 May 2026

The base location for this role is Midrand, Vodacom 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.