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Role Purpose/Business Unit:
The Product Architect: Smart Utilities exists to convert strategic market opportunities, recurring customer requirements and internal technology capabilities into technically credible, repeatable and supportable Smart Utilities capability packages for Vodacom’s IoT business.
The role is a technical specialist position anchored in Smart Utilities and Connected Infrastructure. It sits within the IoT line of business and supports pre-sales, business development and major bid activity by shaping reusable capability constructs, technical patterns, solution assets and domain guidance that can be applied consistently across opportunities.
Unlike a customer-facing Solution Architect role, this position does not own customer-specific end-state solution design. Instead, it provides the Smart Utilities product and domain architecture perspective that guides, supports and strengthens opportunity teams, especially in complex pursuits, large RFPs and strategic customer engagements. The role ensures that Vodacom’s Smart Utilities capabilities are technically coherent, market-relevant, supportable and clearly articulated for use in customer pursuits and proposition development.
Your responsibilities will include:
Smart Utilities Product Architecture and Technical Leadership:
Lead the technical definition and maintenance of reusable Smart Utilities capability architectures that align market needs with Vodacom products, technologies and partner inputs. This includes developing and maintaining:
Product-aligned architecture views
Domain blueprints
Technical capability packages
Integration models and interface principles
Standard implementation patterns
Technical standards guidance
Capability reference artefacts
Cross-domain architecture inputs
The role acts as the Smart Utilities technical anchor, ensuring that capability packages remain scalable, supportable, relevant and aligned to available enabling technologies.
Capability Packaging and Offer Enablement:
Drive the packaging of Smart Utilities technologies, partner capabilities and internal enablers into coherent, reusable capability offerings for use in the market. This includes defining and refining technical capability packages across:
Smart Metering
Digital Water Management
Non-Revenue Water enablement
Utility Revenue Protection and Assurance
Infrastructure Telemetry
Situational Awareness Centres
Smart Buildings
Energy Management
Utility Analytics
The role develops the technical intellectual property, standard patterns, use-case structures, capability descriptions and reusable assets needed to support proposition shaping, opportunity development and bid responses.
Opportunity Support and Technical Bid Enablement:
Support strategic opportunities, complex pursuits and major RFPs by providing authoritative technical inputs that improve solution quality and bid competitiveness. This includes:
Opportunity qualification support
Technical feasibility input
Technical risk identification
Gap identification
Build versus partner input
Technical response development
Scope clarification
Assumptions and dependency articulation
Partner contribution support
The role supports bid conversion by strengthening the technical quality and credibility of Vodacom’s response, while remaining primarily a technical contributor rather than a commercial owner.
Large Bid, Tender and Proposay Contribution:
Lead or support the Smart Utilities technical workstream within complex tenders, bids, RFIs, RFQs and RFP responses. Responsibilities include:
Developing technical response inputs
Drafting methodology and technical approach sections
Preparing technical scope content
Producing architecture views and diagrams
Supporting compliance and technical clarification inputs
The role helps ensure that Vodacom can assemble a technically credible ecosystem for each opportunity without losing solution integrity.
Pre-Sales and Business Development Support:
Act as a technical enabler for pre-sales and business development activities within the IoT line of business. Activities include:
Supporting opportunity shaping
Participating in discovery engagements
Providing technical presentations and demonstrations
Supporting customer workshops
Assisting with qualification of strategic pursuits
Equipping sales and pre-sales teams with domain-specific technical content
The role strengthens the technical depth of customer engagement while enabling the business to pursue Smart Utilities opportunities with confidence.
Proposition Support and Technical Credibility:
Provide technical inputs into propositions and ensure that Smart Utilities narratives remain technically sound, supportable and aligned to real capability. This includes:
Supporting proposition development with technical inputs
Validating technical credibility of value propositions
Contributing to use-case framing and capability articulation
Supporting proposition managers with technical evidence and structure
Helping shape customer-facing narratives from a technical standpoint
The role supports proposition shaping, but does not own proposition management or commercial positioning.
Technical Assurance and Governance Support:
Provide subject matter expertise into technical governance and assurance processes. This includes:
Preparing responses to technical governance queries
Clarifying architecture assumptions and constraints
Supporting design validation discussions
Explaining Smart Utilities technical positions to governance authorities
Assisting with technical risk and dependency interpretation
The role is not the formal governance authority, but is expected to be the Smart Utilities technical expert that supports governance forums with accurate, defensible and domain-specific guidance.
Knowledge Development and Reusable Asset Creation:
Create and maintain reusable technical assets that improve consistency and efficiency across opportunities. Examples include:
Capability statements
Technical playbooks
Standard response modules
Technical templates
Architecture diagrams
One-page solution summaries
Technical FAQ documents
Knowledge repositories
Partner capability summaries
The role acts as a force multiplier by converting specialist Smart Utilities knowledge into reusable institutional assets.
Innovation and Digital Enablement:
Identify opportunities to improve the throughput, quality and consistency of Smart Utilities technical support through digital tools, automation and AI. Activities include exploration of:
AI-assisted technical response support
Smart Utilities knowledge repositories
Automated requirement interpretation
Technical content accelerators
Reusable domain-pattern libraries
The role actively improves the technical enablement function to reduce dependency on fragmented expertise and improve responsiveness in complex pursuits
Collaboration Model
Collaboration with Solution Architect
The Product Architect: Smart Utilities works with Solution Architects who sit elsewhere in the business and own customer-specific solution design. The Product Architect:
Provides Smart Utilities domain expertise
Supplies reusable capability patterns and supported technical approaches
Guides and supports customer-specific design where required
Clarifies product, domain and partner capabilities
Helps solution teams interpret requirements and constraints in the Smart Utilities context
Strengthens the technical quality of complex pursuits and large RFPs
The Solution Architect:
Owns the customer-specific end-to-end solution design
Integrates multiple domains into an opportunity-specific architecture
Takes responsibility for the final solution structure in a live customer pursuit
In practice, the Product Architect contributes domain depth and capability guidance, while the Solution Architect owns the opportunity-specific solution.
Collaboration with Product Managers
The role interacts with Product Managers who own formal product management responsibilities in adjacent or enabling domains. The Product Architect:
Packages domain capabilities into usable Smart Utilities constructs
Identifies technical gaps and dependency requirements
Feeds recurring market needs and field patterns into product teams
Supports interpretation of how product capabilities can be applied in the utilities context
Product Managers: Own product lifecycle decisions, roadmap priorities, commercial constructs and formal product governance within their portfolios.
The relationship is collaborative: Product Managers own products, while the Product Architect applies and interprets those capabilities in the Smart Utilities domain.
Collaboration with Proposition Managers
The role works with Proposition Managers to ensure that market-facing propositions are technically credible and well-supported. The Product Architect:
Provides technical inputs into proposition development
Validates technical credibility
Supports use-case structuring and capability articulation
Assists with technical narrative shaping
Ensures the proposition is grounded in real and supportable capability
The Proposition Manager: Owns the commercial story, value proposition, market framing and go-to-market positioning
Together, the roles ensure that Vodacom’s Smart Utilities propositions are both compelling and technically defensible.
The ideal candidate for this role will have:
Relevant Diploma/ 3 year degree would advantageous
CISCO CCNA or equivalent
CompTia N+
TOGAF 10 advantageous
A technically strong Smart Utilities domain specialist who can package complex capabilities into reusable, credible and market-relevant technical constructs. The incumbent should be able to:
Operate as a recognised subject matter expert in Smart Utilities and Connected Infrastructure.
Support complex pursuits without taking over customer-specific solution ownership.
Convert recurring opportunity needs into reusable technical assets.
Work effectively across pre-sales, bids, proposition development and partner ecosystems.
Explain complex technical concepts clearly to commercial, governance and customer stakeholders.
Experience and Capability Requirements
Strong experience in Smart Utilities, IoT, telecoms, digital infrastructure, managed services or adjacent technology environments.
Technical understanding of smart metering, utility data flows, connectivity, platforms, hosting, integration and security considerations.
Ability to work with cross-functional teams including solution architects, product managers, proposition managers and partners.
Strong documentation, structuring and technical storytelling capability.
Utility, municipal or infrastructure-sector experience is advantageous.
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: 04 November 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.
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