Commercial Lead

Job Description

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:

The Commercial Lead is responsible for delivering positive outcomes on Vodacom Business’s largest and most
complex opportunities. This is a customer facing role that requires a deep understanding of Vodacom & Vodafone’s
complex global products and solutions as well as the macro-economic factors that influence decision making.
The Commercial Lead will need to understand the customer’s business and how multiple scenarios might evolve
through the opportunity life-cycle.

Your responsibilities will include:

Strategy Formulation and Execution:

• Create a strong commercial strategy that delivers against the customer’s objectives, constantly evaluating win chance whilst also ensuring profitable growth for Vodacom and mitigating business risk.
• Develop negotiation strategies using industry best-practice. Lead customer negotiations to achieve the best possible outcomes for Vodacom.

Stakeholder Management:

• Play a pivotal role in aligning a robust set of internal stakeholders behind a deal strategy that they have developed whilst driving the opportunity through to positive closure.
• Strong stakeholder relationships within all functions involved in the bid process and the Vodacom Business subsidiaries.
• Provide regular updates and briefings on in-flight deals to C-Level customer and Vodacom stakeholders. The Commercial Lead will need to be comfortable with engaging with senior stakeholders through all mediums of communication

Internal Alignment and Governance:

• Be accountable for the appropriate governance and approval of their opportunities and will need to manage squads of Bid and Commercial professionals from various teams.
• Recognise partner dependencies and ensure accountable functions are held accountable to deliver solution and commercial requirements specific to each deal

The ideal candidate for this role will have:

• Business / Finance or Telecoms related Bachelor´s Degree compulsory
• Post Graduate or relevant professional qualifications desirable
• 10 years of Telecommunication experience in Commercial, Finance, Sales or Operations, leading virtual teams in the delivery of complex, global projects
• Data driven with strong analytical and insight focus. Good knowledge of Excel and SQL is desirable.

Technical Competencies:

• Highly developed and proven commercial skill set coupled with the ability to program manage cross-functional teams in a technology environment.
• Proven leadership of complex multi-national opportunities working across a complex sales and business environment.
• A track record of working with blue chip customers, demanding internal stakeholders and a strong appreciation of sales processes and methodologies.
• Strong decision-making capability. The ability to balance conflicting priorities and strong, individual personalities.
• Above average negotiation skills and the ability to engage with customer and Vodacom C-suite.
• Exceptional understanding of risk. Knows how to identify, prioritise, quantify and mitigate risk to optimise Vodacom’s exposure.
• Understand the competitive landscape of Enterprise Business markets, and their customer base, and act as a credible advisor to the Vodacom Business Exco.
• Understand the complexity of Vodacom Business and how it impacts customer proposals

Behavioural Competencies:

• Customer Focus: Prioritizing customer needs and delivering excellent service
• Accountability:seeks feedback and identifies opportunities for improvement or innovation
• Collaboration: Actively fosterAs collaboration, seeks input and effectively partner
• Resilience: Actively seeks opportunities for growth, demonstrates a strong commitment to self-improvement and has a growth mindset
• Flexibility: uses various techniques to influence others (lobbies, approaches decision makers, finds sponsors)
• People Management: Ensure team work together to deliver on their responsibilities creating accountability and ownership
• Organizational Savvy: Demonstrates strong understanding of assigned strategy for the Business/ Function and creates strong team alignment to the strategy

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: 17 April 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.