Talent Acquisition Manager - Technology

Reporting to the Senior Manager, Resourcing & Talent, the role holder will partner with the Technology Cluster to deliver end-to-end, skills-based talent acquisition that enables Safaricom’s AI-first and digitally driven ambitions, ensuring timely access to critical technology talent through a balanced build, buy and borrow approach.

The role works closely with hiring managers to define requirements, build strong talent pipelines and drive high-quality, data-informed hiring decisions, while prioritizing internal mobility, enhancing candidate experience and ensuring efficient, compliant and insight-driven recruitment delivery.
 

Health and Safety

• Uphold the company code of conduct, policies and procedures, ensuring integrity and accountability in every aspect of your work.
• All employees have a responsibility to adhere to safety, health, and wellbeing policies, guidelines and procedures in all actions and decisions.

Technology Talent Acquisition Delivery

• Deliver end-to-end recruitment for Technology roles (AI, data, engineering, digital) within agreed SLAs.
• Work with recruitment agencies and sourcing partners to fill critical roles aligned to workforce plans.
• Ensure high-quality, compliant and professional recruitment processes aligned to the Safaricom Way.
• Drive strong candidate experience and timely closure of vacancies.
• Balance speed, quality and cost in hiring execution.

Hiring Manager Partnership & Capability Building

• Partner closely with hiring managers to define role requirements, skills and hiring priorities.
• Deliver workshops and coaching to line managers on recruitment best practice and assessment approaches.
• Guide hiring managers on structured interviews, assessment centres and fair selection decisions.
• Ensure hiring decisions are consistent, objective and aligned to policy.
  Act as a trusted advisor on market insights, talent availability and hiring strategies.

Talent Pipeline, Diversity & Employer Branding

• Build diverse talent pipelines across gender, disability and underrepresented groups.
• Develop proactive sourcing strategies for scarce and future-critical technology skills.
• Participate in career fairs and external engagements to position Safaricom as an employer of choice.
• Build relationships with universities, institutions and talent communities.
• Strengthen employer brand visibility within the Technology talent market.

Internal Mobility & Skills-Based Placement

• Review all vacancies against internal talent pools before initiating external hiring.
• Place ready-now internal talent into roles to drive mobility and reduce time-to-fill.
• Partner with HRBPs to align hiring decisions to workforce and capability plans.
• Support skills-based hiring and redeployment across Technology teams.
• Track internal vs external hiring mix and improve internal fill rates.

Recruitment Governance, Reporting & Vendor Management

• Manage relationships with external providers (agencies, background checkers, institutions).
• Ensure all recruitment activities are legally compliant and ethically conducted.
• Produce weekly and monthly recruitment reports (pipeline, hires, challenges, KPIs vs workforce plan).
• Provide data-driven insights to improve hiring performance and decision-making.
• Identify process improvement opportunities to enhance efficiency and effectiveness.

Core competencies, knowledge and experience:

Customer Obsession
 

• Deepen team connection to our customers and communities.
• Foster authentic relationships with customers and partners that build trust.
• Explicitly take customer-centric decisions and take personal ownership to achieve results.
• Simplify processes through digitalisation and promote a digital mindset and digital first customer experience.
• Stay focused on the big priorities, know when to make meaningful trade-offs and demonstrate brilliant execution.

Purpose

• Create an inspiring vision for your team to drive strategy and performance.
• Show ambition and courage, empowering others to go beyond the plan.
• Bold and challenge teams to reimagine how things are done.
• Prompt new thinking and ideas by asking “what if” questions.
• Use knowledge of the external environment (customers, partners, competition, external bodies) to identify and act on opportunities for growth at pace.

Innovation

• Create psychological safety so everyone can have an impact.
• Fuel innovative ideas from others and test them to enable growth.
• Explore successes and failures with curiosity and resilience; fearlessly recognizing lessons learned.
• Share your ongoing learning and personal purpose with others.
• Learn fast from digital adoption, using learnings to drive simplicity, scale and efficiency.

Collaboration

• Articulate your team’s role in making our strategy happen, prioritizing and aligning resources with current and future needs.
• Actively collaborate to break silos and hold your team accountable to do the same.
• Develop others to make the most of their talents and coach them to take ownership to get things done.
• Create an inclusive environment ensuring the safety and wellbeing of others.
• Live our Purpose and demonstrate the highest Standard of integrity.

• Bachelor’s degree in Human Resources, Business Administration or related field.
• Higher National Diploma in HRM.
• 6–8 years’ progressive experience in Talent Acquisition, with at least 3 years, in a Senior Specialist and above level role dedicated to Technology/ Digital hiring in complex, fast‑paced environments (e.g. telecoms, fintech, big tech, consulting, or large-scale enterprises).
• Proven, hands‑on experience hiring across critical and scarce technology skills, including (but not limited to): Software & Platform Engineering, Data, AI / ML, Cybersecurity, Cloud, Digital Product, and Architecture roles.
• Demonstrated track record of senior‑level hiring and building sustainable talent pipelines for hard‑to‑fill and leadership roles.
• Experience partnering closely with senior business leaders to translate workforce strategy, capability gaps, and DEI ambitions into actionable hiring plans.
• Extensive experience in conducting competency based interviewing and assessment centers as selection tools.
• Strong knowledge of end-to-end recruitment processes, sourcing strategies and assessment methods.
• Experience working with recruitment systems (ATS) and data-driven hiring/reporting.
• Understanding of labour laws, recruitment compliance and ethical hiring practices.
• Proven ability to partner with hiring managers and manage external vendors/agencies.
• Experience in coaching staff and line managers on best recruitment and selection principles/practices and interviewing skills.
• Good stakeholder management experience.

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.

Safaricom is the leading technology company in East Africa. Our purpose is to transform lives by connecting people to people, people to opportunities and people to information. We keep over 60 million customers connected across Kenya and Ethiopia, and play a critical role in the society, supporting over 1.13 million jobs both directly and indirectly while our total economic value was estimated at KES 1.1 trillion ($ 8.5 billion) for the 12 months through March 2025.

Listed on the Nairobi Securities Exchange and with annual revenues of close to KES 388 billion as at March 2025, Safaricom provides connectivity through wide range of technology. Our 2G, 3G, 4G and 5G network in aggregate covers over 99% of Kenya’s population.

We run the world’s largest mobile payment system and Africa’s largest Fintech, M-PESA, the world’s first mobile money transfer system. By empowering millions of customers to transact, save or borrow money through their mobile phone, M-PESA has driven financial inclusion in Kenya to 84.8% of the adult population in 2024, from a low of 26.7% in 2006, and generated over KES 161 billion in revenue as at FY25.

Our subsidiary, Safaricom Telecommunications Ethiopia, has deployed world class network and services to contribute to Ethiopia’s digital transformation.

Safaricom is an equal opportunity employer, actively recruiting staff from different backgrounds reflecting the communities that we serve. We are committed to equal gender representation at all levels.

As part of our ongoing commitment to the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), we continue to work towards improving energy and resource efficiency in our network and facilities to reduce carbon emissions and our fuel consumption. We remain committed to becoming a Net Zero carbon-emitting company by 2050.