Network Operations Manager

Purpose of the Job    

• Join Shoprite Group as a Network Operations Manager based in Brackenfell, Cape Town, Western Cape, leading end-to-end network service delivery across retail operations.
• The Network Operations Manager is accountable for end-to-end network service delivery, including people, process, performance, and vendor management, to ensure a stable, scalable, and resilient connectivity environment.
• The role leads the delivery of high-availability network services across retail operations, ensuring that stores remain fully operational and customer transactions are uninterrupted.
• Operating as the bridge between technical infrastructure and business operations, the role translates complex network challenges into clear business outcomes, driving operational resilience, proactive optimisation, and continuous service improvement.  
• This role offers the opportunity to shape network strategy, enhance service delivery, and impact business continuity within South Africa's leading retailer.

Job Objectives    

Network Operations & Service Delivery 

• Lead the day-to-day network operations environment, ensuring high availability across platforms.  
• Ensure continuous uptime and performance of store and enterprise connectivity services. 
• Oversee service request management, monitoring, and performance tracking against defined SLAs.  
• Ensure all network environments support uninterrupted retail trading and operations. 

Incident Management & Operational Resilience 

• Drive the incident and problem management function, ensuring rapid response to critical outages. 
• Reduce Mean Time to Repair through structured escalation, root cause analysis, and corrective actions. 
• Establish proactive monitoring, predictive analytics, and alerting capabilities to prevent incidents. 
• Implement resilience measures including failover, redundancy, and continuity solutions. 

Vendor, SLA & Contract Management 

• Manage ISPs, OEMs, and service providers, ensuring delivery against contractual and SLA commitments.  
• Conduct regular SLA reviews, vendor performance assessments, and governance forums. 
• Enforce service credits, penalties, and performance improvements where required. 
• Collaborate with vendors on solution design, optimisation, and network innovation initiatives.  

Stakeholder Engagement & Business Alignment 

• Act as the primary interface between technical teams and business stakeholders. 
• Translate network performance into business impact. 
• Provide clear communication on network health, risks, and improvement plans. 
• Build strong relationships to enable aligned service delivery and decision-making.  

Project Delivery & Network Rollouts 

• Lead and support network provisioning for new stores, closures, and upgrades. 
• Participate in projects from concept through to implementation, ensuring delivery within timelines and risk constraints.  
• Act as a single point of accountability for network deliverables within projects.  
• Ensure smooth execution of change management and CAB processes.  

Continuous Improvement & Innovation 

• Analyse network trends, usage patterns, and incident data to identify optimisation opportunities.  
• Drive automation, efficiency improvements, and proactive service enhancements. 
• Evaluate and implement new technologies (e.g. SD-WAN, improved Wi-Fi, IoT readiness). 
• Transition operations from reactive support to proactive network management.  

Leadership & Team Management 

• Lead and develop a team of network engineers and specialists, driving performance and accountability. 
• Improve team productivity through clear processes, tooling, and performance metrics.  
• Foster a culture of operational excellence, responsiveness, and innovation. 
• Align internal teams and external partners to achieve service delivery objectives. 

Governance, Financial & Risk Management 

• Manage network budgets, forecasting, and cost optimisation initiatives.  
• Ensure adherence to IT governance, CAB processes, and compliance standards. 
• Collaborate with Security and Continuity teams to mitigate risks and vulnerabilities. 
• Ensure governance frameworks support efficient and responsive service delivery. 

Qualifications    

• IT related field Qualification (essential)ITIL or equivalent certification (preferred)

Experience    

• +6 years’ experience in IT Service Management within a retail stores or multi-site branch environment, supporting store operations systems, connectivity, and in-store technology. (essential)
• Of which 2 years experience in people management (essential)
• Experience in managing suppliers, contracts and service levels (essential)
• Strong technical expertise in VeloCloud, WAN, LAN, Wi-Fi,  and telephony environments (essential)

Knowledge and Skills    

• Experience in managing suppliers, contracts and service levels (essential)

Closing Date    

• 2026/07/09