Head of Business Intelligence & Subscriber Management at Smile Communications

Role Description

• This is a full-time, on-site role based in Lagos for the Head of Business Intelligence & Subscriber Management. The Head of Business Intelligence & Subscriber Management plays a pivotal leadership role, championing data-driven decision-making across the organization. This position is responsible for steering the Business Intelligence (BI) function to deliver actionable insights that foster both commercial and operational growth. Additionally, the role oversees strategies for customer Churn and Retention, ensuring sustained business performance and customer loyalty.

Key Responsibilities:

Business Intelligence

• Define and implement BI performance objectives aligned with the company's commercial strategy.
• Lead and manage the BI team to deliver high performance standards and foster a culture of teamwork and innovation.
• Drive the implementation of group BI projects and liaise with vendors on technology selection.
• Direct, organize, and lead BI work stream projects involving new BI software tools and systems.
• Maintain data integrity between source systems and the data warehouse.
• Define data access policies and procedures in alignment with group business risk management.
• Design, publish, and maintain KPI reports in reporting tools (e.g. Power BI and Micro Strategy).
• Set up and manage security of access to data.
• Impose commercial KPI definitions to ensure full alignment of customer management and base reporting.

Business Planning & Forecasting

• Lead the development of subscriber and revenue forecasts across planning cycles, including rolling forecasts (3+9, 6+6) and annual budgets.
• Build and maintain detailed financial and business models to project revenue performance, identify variances, and inform strategic planning.
• Develop revenue gap analysis and design business models for revenue initiatives to bridge identified gaps between targets and actuals.
• Collaborate with Finance, Sales, Network and Product teams to align forecasting assumptions and ensure consistency across business planning processes.
• Prepare and present Board-level presentations, synthesizing business performance, forecasts, and strategic recommendations in a clear and compelling format.
• Gather, analyze, and monitor market intelligence, including competitor activity, regulatory developments & industry trends, and assess their impact on business performance.
• Evaluate macroeconomic and socioeconomic conditions (e.g. inflation, currency fluctuations, GDP trends, consumer spending) and translate their implications into business planning assumptions.
• Monitor the impact of external market forces on subscriber behavior, pricing sensitivity, and revenue outlook, providing timely insights to leadership.
• Support scenario planning and sensitivity analysis to stress-test revenue forecasts under varying market conditions.
• Provide regular business performance reporting against budget and forecast, highlighting risks, opportunities, and recommended actions.

Churn & Retention Management

• Create and own the churn and retention road map for Nigeria.
• Develop and direct strategic churn management plans; translate strategies into short-term objectives and oversee implementation.
• Build and leverage customer segmentation and journey analysis to increase engagement.
• Analyze customer base behavior to improve revenues from the existing base.
• Create and manage churn forecasts.
• Work with products, IT and CX to reduce churn through targeted campaigns to activate dormant customers.
• Generate customer loyalty to increase customer lifetime value and ARPU.

Analytics & Reporting

• Perform subscriber base reporting and ensure accurate deliverables aligned with the monthly closing timetable and finance reporting cycle.
• Set daily KPI tracking reports compared to forecasts and targets.
• Analyze market trends, competition, customer behavior, and customer satisfaction.
• Perform quantitative and qualitative research and gather key market and performance indicators.
• Investigate and recommend pricing, evaluate product performance, and examine channel performance.
• Review customer journey to draw actionable insights and share tactical recommendations.
• Ensure definitions alignment across company units (Acquisition, Loyalty & Retention).

Cross-Functional Collaboration

• Collaborate with the product manager to influence the broader product roadmap to enable higher engagement and retention rates.
• Support Smile markets in the creation and management of BTL campaigns.
• Develop detailed requirements for campaign management tools and strategy in coordination with cross-functional teams.
• Support revenue assurance data requirements.
• Define processes to accommodate newly launched services and promotions and ensure their impact on current definitions.

Qualifications & Experience

• Bachelor’s degree in business, Statistics, Computer Science, or a related field; a master’s degree is an advantage.
• Proven experience (typically 7+ years) in Business Intelligence, analytics, or churn management role, preferably in the telecommunications sector.
• Strong leadership experience managing cross-functional BI or analytics teams.
• Hands-on experience with BI platforms (e.g. Micro Strategy, Power BI, Tableau) and data warehousing concepts (ETL).
• Solid understanding of customer lifecycle management, retention strategies, and loyalty programs.
• Experience with campaign management tools and subscriber base analytics.
• Excellent analytical, problem-solving, and strategic thinking skills.
• Strong interpersonal and communication skills, ability to translate data insights into business recommendations.

Key Competencies

• Integrity & Professionalism
• Strategic Thinking & Commercial Acumen
• Data-Driven Decision Making
• Leadership & Team Development
• Innovation & Continuous Improvement
• Stakeholder Management & Collaboration
• Results Orientation