Digital Operations Director
Johannesburg, Nairobi, Cape Town
Role Overview
The Digital Operations Director is a senior, central leadership role responsible for orchestrating operational excellence across one of Africa’s largest telecommunications businesses, spanning 14 markets. This role acts as the pivot between strategy and execution: translating large-scale digital media investment into measurable business outcomes through disciplined operations, governance, and performance management.
Working in close partnership with Account Leadership, the Digital Operations Director coordinates client stakeholders, digital strategy & planning teams, media buying, and ad operations to ensure consistency, quality, and impact across markets. The role focuses on ensuring day‑to‑day operational throughput by building scalable operating models, ensuring flawless execution, and enabling growth through operational rigor.
Core Impact
Strategic Orchestration: Own and drive the operational framework that connects client strategy, media investment, and execution across 14 markets.
Operational Excellence: Ensure digital media activity is delivered efficiently, consistently, and at scale, with best‑in‑class standards across planning, buying, trafficking, measurement, and reporting.
Business Outcomes: Translate digital investment into commercial outcomes by improving delivery quality, speed, accountability, and performance transparency.
Multi‑Market Enablement: Enable local market teams to perform at a high standard through clear processes, governance, tooling, and capability development.
Core Responsibilities
Operational Leadership & Governance
Design, own, and continuously improve the end‑to‑end digital operations model across all markets.
Establish clear governance structures, operating rhythms, and escalation paths across account leadership, planning, buying, and ad operations.
Define and enforce standards for campaign delivery, quality control, compliance, and financial accuracy.
Act as the senior operational escalation point for complex, multi‑market challenges.
Multi‑Market Execution Excellence
Oversee the operational delivery of digital campaigns across all channels and platforms, ensuring consistency and quality across markets.
Ensure seamless coordination between central and local teams, balancing global direction with local execution realities.
Drive operational readiness for large‑scale, multi‑market launches and always‑on activity.
Partner with Ad Operations to ensure flawless trafficking, tracking, tagging, and platform governance.
Performance, Measurement & Optimisation
Own the operational performance framework, including KPIs, SLAs, pacing, delivery accuracy, and reporting standards.
Ensure real‑time visibility of campaign delivery and performance across markets.
Translate performance data into operational insights that enable optimisation and improved outcomes.
Work with analytics and planning teams to improve measurement maturity and outcome‑based reporting.
Stakeholder & Client Enablement
Partner closely with senior account and client leadership to ensure operational delivery supports strategic and commercial objectives.
Coordinate cross‑functional teams to ensure alignment between client expectations and execution reality.
Lead operational discussions with senior client stakeholders, particularly around delivery, scalability, risk, and performance.
Support account teams by removing operational friction and enabling them to focus on growth and strategic value.
Commercial & Financial Stewardship
Ensure operational compliance with budgets, billing, financial controls, and regional requirements.
Partner with finance and account leadership to improve forecasting accuracy and financial hygiene across markets.
Identify operational efficiencies that improve margin, reduce waste, and unlock scalable growth.
Support commercial growth by ensuring the operating model can scale with increased investment.
Capability, Tools & Ways of Working
Champion the use and optimisation of proprietary planning, buying, ad‑tech, and workflow tools.
Define best‑practice ways of working across teams and markets.
Build operational capability through coaching, enablement, and clear role definition.
Stay abreast of platform, technology, and operational best practice to continuously evolve the operating model.
Leadership & Ways of Working
Lead through influence, clarity, and accountability across diverse, cross‑functional teams.
Create a culture of ownership, operational discipline, and continuous improvement.
Provide clear direction, priorities, and expectations across markets.
Foster strong collaboration between strategy, execution, and operations.
Subject Matter Expertise
Deep expertise in digital media operations, including planning‑to‑delivery workflows, ad operations, and platform governance.
Strong understanding of large‑scale, multi‑market digital ecosystems, ideally within telecommunications or similarly complex categories.
Ability to connect operational detail to broader business and growth objectives.
Success Metrics
Consistency and quality of delivery across all markets
Operational efficiency, speed, and accuracy across planning, buying, trafficking, and reporting
Delivery against budgets, timelines, and performance benchmarks
Stakeholder satisfaction (internal and client)
Ability to scale operations in line with business growth
Improvement in always-on performance indicators (delivery stability, pacing accuracy, optimisation velocity)
Contribution to subscriber (MAU) growth, ARPU uplift, and data product adoption through improved digital execution
Commercial outcomes for the agency, including:
Improved account profitability through operational efficiency
Reduced leakage, make-goods, and delivery errors
Support for incremental revenue growth via scalable operating models
Role Clarity & Responsibility Mapping (to Avoid Overlap)
Digital Operations Director (This Role) - Owns the end-to-end digital operating model across markets - Accountable for delivery standards, governance, scalability, and performance transparency - Translates strategy and media investment into executable, repeatable operations - Senior escalation point for multi-market delivery, risk, and complexity - Enables growth by ensuring the operating model can support increased spend and always-on activity
Account Director - Owns overall client relationship, commercial growth, and senior stakeholder trust - Leads strategic direction and commercial negotiations with the client - Responsible for revenue growth, scope expansion, and client satisfaction - Relies on Digital Operations Director to ensure strategy is executed flawlessly
Digital Account Director - Owns digital strategy, channel mix, and planning approach - Leads innovation, platform strategy, and audience approach - Defines what should be done to achieve business outcomes - Partners with Digital Operations Director on how that strategy is operationalised at scale
Ad Operations Lead - Owns technical execution: trafficking, tagging, QA, and platform governance - Ensures campaigns are correctly implemented and measured - Reports into the broader operational framework set by the Digital Operations Director - Focuses on execution detail, while the Digital Operations Director owns cross-market orchestration
Additional Role Requirements
Bachelor’s degree or equivalent
7+ years’ experience in digital media, digital operations, or large-scale account leadership
Demonstrated experience operating across complex, multi-market environments
Prior experience within the telecommunications industry or similarly complex, data-driven categories preferred
Strong understanding of telco growth drivers including subscriber acquisition, retention, ARPU, data usage, and always-on performance marketing
Proven capability in operational transformation, including building or redesigning operating models, processes, and governance structures
Advanced leadership competency, with the ability to influence without direct authority
Strong commercial and financial acumen, including forecasting, margin management, and cost control
High proficiency in managing cross-functional teams across strategy, buying, analytics, and ad operations
Comfortable operating in fast-paced, high-investment, performance-led environments
Profile Required
Senior digital operations leader with a track record of driving operational excellence at scale
Able to connect operational detail to commercial and business outcomes
Confident engaging senior client and agency leadership
Highly structured, decisive, and outcomes-oriented
Passionate about building systems, teams, and ways of working that enable sustainable growth