Job Description

Mission
The Senior Manager Information Security AI role is responsible for leading the security pillar of the AI COE and be the custodian of MTN’s BRAIN policy (our enterprise policy for safe, secure, and responsible AI).

The role will collaborate with Group Information Security and the Cloud Centre of Excellence design and operate MTN’s AI security strategy, controls, and assurance model—covering GenAI, classical ML, data pipelines, and AI-enabled products—so that innovation scales secure-by-design, compliant, and resilient to adversarial manipulation.

Context
MTN's strategy toward 2030, focuses on transitioning from a traditional telecom company into a platform-based technology business. The "Beyond 2025" strategy aims to establish MTN as a holding company managing three core platforms—Connectivity, Fintech, and Digital Infrastructure—with a strong emphasis on sustainability, AI, and Pan-African growth

MTN is establishing a Group AI Centre of Excellence (AI COE) to accelerate secure, responsible, and value-generating adoption of AI across our platforms—Connectivity, Fintech, and Infraco—and functions. The role must therefore ensure the successful delivery in context of

• The rapid scale of digital channels and consumer/enterprise digital services

• API marketplace expansion, resilience, scalability and platform engineering

• Rise of digital identity, privacy and data protection, fraud intelligence, and trust frameworks

• Multi‑market harmonisation of digital architectures across 19+ OpCos and PlatformCos

• A dynamic regulatory environment regarding data privacy and consumer protection

• Ongoing digital ecosystem partnerships leveraging hyperscalers and external developers

• Sustainable, autonomous, green tech

• AI capability and related guardrails

• An expertise-based multicultural federated organisation

• A dynamic and evolving field of API Marketplace and platforms

• Revolutionary workforce practices which are bringing together global labour markets

• Evolving industry sector constantly presenting new challenges, opportunities and threats to the core businesses

Values
We at MTN are a purpose and value-led organization. At MTN, we believe that understanding our people’s needs and aspirations is key to creating experiences that delight you at work, everyday. We are committed to fostering an environment where every member of our Y’ello Family is heard, understood and empowered to live an inspired life.

Our values keep us grounded and moving in the right direction. Most importantly, they keep us honest. It is not something we claim to be. It is in our DNA.

As an organisation, we consider it our mission to create an exciting and rewarding place to work, where our people can be themselves, thrive in positivity and ignite their full potential. A workplace that boosts creativity and innovation, improves productivity, and ultimately drives meaningful results. A workplace that is built on relationships and achieving a purpose that is bigger than us.

Our commitments go beyond an organisational promise. It is in our leadership and managerial ethos to meaningfully partner with our employees, customers and stakeholders with a vision to realise our shared goals.

Live Y’ello

• Lead with Care

• Can-do with Integrity

• Collaborate with Agility

• Serve with Respect

• Act with Inclusion

The Senior Manager Information Security AI COE is responsible for the following key performance areas

AI COE (Security Pillar) & Governance

• Establish the AI COE security mandate, operating model, and RACI across Group functions and OPCOs; embed BRAIN policy requirements into standards, procedures, and product gates.

• Support activities of AI Steerco, ISF, AWC and TSGC; integrate with Group Risk, Legal, Privacy, and Procurement for policy, third‑party, and contract controls.

• Define enterprise AI control objectives, assurance plans, and attestation mechanisms aligned to BRAIN and Group policies (in particular GISP).

Enterprise AI Security Strategy & Architecture

• Define and implement MTN’s AI security strategy aligned to Group cyber reference architecture and recognized industry principles (e.g., Zero Trust, cloud security frameworks, secure SDLC, IAM, and detection & response).

• Publish secure architecture standards for AI platforms, MLOps stacks, and model-serving patterns; embed security-by-design across the AI lifecycle (data, training, evaluation, deployment, operations) whence approved by AWC and TSGC

Generative AI & LLM Security (BRAIN Policy Enablement)

• Operationalize BRAIN policy via guardrails: prompt security, input/output filtering, data loss prevention for prompts/outputs, access control & usage monitoring, and secure LLM architecture patterns for hosted and API models.

• Define approval workflows for model access, use cases, and sensitive data handling; implement usage analytics and model egress controls to prevent leakage.

Adversarial Machine Learning Defence & AI Red Teaming

• Build MTN’s AI threat modelling methodology, in collaboration with GIS; institute adversarial robustness testing (poisoning, evasion, prompt injection, API exploitation) and AI red teaming exercises for models and applications, in collaboration with GIS Cyber-defense

• Define secure model deployment controls and post‑deployment behavioural drift monitoring for manipulation detection in collaboration with the CCOE.

Secure MLOps & Data Security

• Set Secure MLOps standards: CI/CD for models, integrated security testing, hardened model registry & artifact stores, signed/attested models, and pipeline authN/authZ, in collaboration with S2 COE and main repevant suppliers.

• Protect training/validation datasets; enforce patterns for secure data ingestion, sensitive data minimization, and prevention of training data leakage.

AI Security Monitoring & Incident Response

• Integrate AI platforms, data pipelines, and model-serving endpoints with enterprise SIEM/SOC for continuous monitoring and anomaly detection.

• Extend cyber incident response playbooks to AI scenarios, in collaboration with Cyber-defense: containment of compromised models, forensic acquisition of model artifacts, and post‑incident model integrity verification.

Risk, Compliance, and Policy Alignment

• Map AI security controls to BRAIN and Group policy; align with POPIA, GDPR, ISO/IEC 27001/27701, ISO/IEC 42001 (AI), NIST AI RMF, and applicable sectoral obligations in telco and fintech.

• Establish Model Risk Management (MRM) with 1st/2nd line—including risk taxonomy, criticality tiers, control baselines, testing cadence, and assurance reporting to Group risk committees.

• Oversee third‑party & cloud AI risk, in collaboration with Legal, Procurement and GIS-GRC: vendor due diligence, contract clauses (data, IP, security SLAs), and ongoing assurance.

Platform & Product Enablement

• Partner with Connectivity, Fintech (MoMo), and Infraco product lines—and with the GenAI adoption stream—to embed design‑time controls, privacy-by-design, and production guardrails into AI‑enabled services.

• Define reference architectures and “secure patterns” for common use cases (RAG, copilots, fraud analytics, network optimization), in collaboration with GIS.

People Leadership & Capability Uplift

• Build and lead a high‑performing AI Security team within the AI COE; develop community of practice with GIS, OPCO CISOs and DPOs.

• Launch training & awareness for engineers, data scientists, and product teams on BRAIN policy, secure GenAI usage, and adversarial ML, in collaboration with GIS OPCO Operations.

Performance, KPIs & Reporting

• Define and track KPIs: % AI use cases cleared by BRAIN gates, time-to-approve models, adversarial test coverage, model drift MTTR, policy exceptions, third‑party assurance completion, and reduction in AI security incidents.

• Provide executive dashboards and Board/Exco reporting on AI risk posture and maturity. There KPI will be periodically reviewed at Steerco.

Budget, Tooling & Vendor Management

• Own budget for AI security tooling (e.g., secrets scanning for ML, model provenance/attestation, content safety, AI Security Posture Management), and manage vendors/partners via Group procurement.

Minimum Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science/Engineering/Mathematics

• Honours degree advantageous

• Relevant security certifications (e.g., CISSP, CCSP), plus data/AI credentials (e.g., cloud AI specialties, ML engineering) are advantageous.

Experience

• 5–10+ years across cybersecurity/platform security with 3-5+ years securing AI/ML platforms, GenAI/LLM ecosystems, or data-intensive analytics at enterprise scale.

• Demonstrable track record establishing security operating models/COEs and driving group-wide policy adoption in complex, multi‑country organizations (preferably telco/fintech).

• Hands‑on exposure to cloud-native AI stacks (in particular Azure), MLOps toolchains, and embedding controls in agile product delivery.

• Experience integrating AI systems into SOC/SIEM, designing AI incident response, and conducting AI red teaming and robustness testing.

Core Competencies and skills

• Security architecture for AI/ML;

• Threat modelling and adversarial ML;

• Secure MLOps; data security & privacy;

• GenAI/LLM guardrails;

• Risk & compliance;

• Leadership and stakeholder management.

As part of MTN’s recruitment process, your personal information may be processed using secure Artificial Intelligence (AI) technology to assist with the shortlisting of candidates. This is done in compliance with the Protection of Personal Information Act (POPIA). By applying for this position, you consent to the processing of your personal information for recruitment purposes. All data will be handled securely and used solely for evaluating suitability for the role.

We are a purpose and value-led organization.

At MTN, we believe that understanding our people’s needs and aspirations is key to creating experiences that delight you at work, everyday. We are committed to fostering an environment where every member of our Y’ello Family is heard, understood and empowered to live an inspired life.

Our values keep us grounded and moving in the right direction. Most importantly, they keep us honest. It is not something we claim to be. It is in our DNA.

As an organisation, we consider it our mission to create an exciting and rewarding place to work, where our people can be themselves, thrive in positivity and ignite their full potential. A workplace that boosts creativity and innovation, improves productivity, and ultimately drives meaningful results. A workplace that is built on relationships and achieving a purpose that is bigger than us. This is what we want you to experience with us!

Our commitments go beyond an organisational promise. It is in our leadership and managerial ethos to meaningfully partner with our employees, customers and stakeholders with a vision to realise our shared goals.

We are delighted that you are considering us as your career partner to make a mark in the world. We look forward to your application!