M-Pesa Africa: Network & Firewall Integration Engineer

M-Pesa is a pioneering fintech business and global market leader in mobile money. Starting from 2007 as a convenient means by which the unbanked and underbanked could make digital payments, M-Pesa has now grown to offer over 60 million active customers Financial Services, Enterprise, Merchant and Retail solutions. We are proud of our work in enabling the digital economy in our markets, and in driving financial inclusion. M-Pesa Africa is the largest FinTech providing services to more than 60 million customers and 5 million businesses solutions across Financial Services, Enterprise, Merchant and Retail. We are now well on our way to becoming the preferred digital payment method across the markets that we serve, for both in-store, remote and online payments. With headquarters in both Nairobi and Johannesburg, we serve markets that include Kenya, Tanzania, DRC, Lesotho, Ghana, Egypt, Ethiopia, and Mozambique. We are a united, energetic and passionate team. A place where leaders coach, teams connect, and everyone is empowered to go further, faster. A place where heroes become superheroes; through growth, opportunity, and the chance to work with the best minds in FinTech. Role Purpose: Network & Firewall Integration Engineer within the Cloud Integration Team, focused on core virtual networking, cloud connectivity, firewall security, VPN integration, and IP/MPLS engineering across M-PESA operating markets, Vodafone Group platforms, cloud environments, and third-party partners.The role acts as a subject matter expert for network integration and security, ensuring the delivery of resilient, scalable, and secure connectivity solutions that support critical M-PESA services. The position drives end-to-end network integration initiatives, enables cloud connectivity strategies, and ensures adherence to architecture standards, security policies, operational resilience requirements, and service level commitments across the M-PESA ecosystem.The role provides technical leadership across complex multi-country integration programmes and contributes to the evolution of network capabilities through automation, continuous improvement, and adoption of emerging technologies. Your responsibilities will include: Key accountabilities and decision ownership: Participate in numerous network integration projects, including design, deployment and testing of new flows and VPNs between a virtual core data centre and multiple external 3rd parties. Support architects to document the essential components of core networks provided by Vodafone Group and between our MPesa OPCO’s, and their associated change control processes and SLA’s. Documentation includes architecture and design documents, communications matrices, detailed deployment plans, VPN forms, and Firewall configuration. Updates to required documents of the relevant components of the local market networks to facilitate the associated change control processes and SLA’s. Implement end-to-end network changes in order to support the creation of new application services. Effect network changes either hands on, through change process or by directing others. Test and sign off network changes performed for projects. Conform to network availability and performance monitoring standards and ensure that best practice is applied in these areas to ensure the continuity and safety of Mpesa services Identify and implement automated solutions to streamline daily operations and improve accuracy Understand network security including VPNs, certificates and encryption mechanisms and how they can be applied for safe communication of data. Identify areas where security or other attributes could be improved and use system logs to track and detects events. Communicate between network teams to facilitate implementation and troubleshooting. Create professional technical documentation and presentations for internal and external use. Provide support in maintaining the MPA SSOC network and ensure the delivery of network connections/intergartions to SSOC for any new monitoring projects The ideal candidate for this role will have: Qualifications Bachelor’s/ B.Tech Degree: A bachelor’s degree in Engineering, Computer Science, or any related field is essential. FortiGate 7.6 Administrator certification required. Cloud certification on Microsoft Azure, AWS and GCP. CCNP Security & Enterprise Networking (or equivalent) certification required. Azure Network Engineer Azure Security Engineer Terraform Associate Core Competencies, knowledge and experience: 5 years or more of technical experience across on networking and integration components in terms of architecture, design, implementation and testing. Deep knowledge of IP network routing and switching technology. Specifically, broad and deep technical knowledge of the following as a minimum: MPLS (LDP, RSVP, fast re-route, Segment Routing), BGP, OSPF, Ethernet (inc. QoS), STP, L2 & L3 VPNs (inc. IKE, IPsec), NAT & PAT, IP Multicast.. Firewall configuration experience essential, FortiGate, Cisco ASA and F5 Big-IP firewall configuration experience. Engineering skillset implementing IP/MPLS technologies. Experience working with Cloud technologies such as AWS and Microsoft Azure. Demonstrable security best practice awareness across service provider IP/MPLS domains. Familiar with Traffic and KPI indicators on IP/MPLS Networks. Experience with Linux and Windows server environments required. Demonstrable understanding of emerging technologies for example Software Defined Networking and Network Functions Virtualisation. Understanding of key IP/MPLS operational and/or IP/MPLS network design requirements. Good background on HW and SW characteristics and lifecycle, in depth understanding of firewall and network features and how they operate in various environments. Closing date for Applications: 29 August 2026 . The base location for this role is, Vodacom Midrand 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.