Infrastructure Programme Manager at Massmart (A Walmart Company) (2021-06 – Present)
Lead the successful delivery of enterprise ICT infrastructure and technology transformation programmes across one of Africa's largest retail organisations. Responsible for programme governance, strategic planning, project controls, stakeholder engagement and the delivery of complex infrastructure initiatives supporting retail operations, Teraco Datacentres and enterprise technology platforms. Provide leadership across multidisciplinary teams, implementation partners and executive stakeholders, ensuring programmes are delivered in accordance with organisational governance standards while maintaining control of scope, schedule, budget, quality, risk and change.
- Lead enterprise ICT infrastructure projects remotely across 322 nationwide retail locations and Tier III datacentres, managing delivery through full lifecycles, virtual SteerCom sessions, and operational handovers.
- Develop programme strategies, delivery roadmaps and implementation plans aligned with business objectives.
- Manage multiple concurrent projects and workstreams, coordinating multi-disciplinary remote delivery teams to ensure milestone completion.
- Develop and maintain detailed Microsoft Project (MSP) schedules utilising activity sequencing, resource allocation, and baseline tracking.
- Manage project baselines, dependencies, milestones, and critical paths across complex technical workstreams.
- Apply rolling wave planning techniques to progressively refine project schedules as requirements evolve.
- Forecast project completion dates, track variances, and monitor overall schedule performance.
- Established and maintained rigorous project control systems, actively tracking project health through detailed Incident, Issue, Risk, Change, and Decision Registers to manage scope creep and cost variations.
- Execute integrated scope, schedule, and cost control processes aligned with enterprise governance standards.
- Monitor project financial performance against baseline budgets and administer formal change requests.
- Implement quality assurance controls and deliver executive progress reporting via Jira and Confluence dashboards.
- Facilitate Steering Committee meetings and present programme status, critical risks, and key decisions to C-level stakeholders.
- Produce weekly and monthly integrated executive project reports, cost reports, and status updates.
- Ensure governance compliance and policy adherence throughout the entire project lifecycle.
- Build trusted relationships with executive stakeholders across multiple business departments.
- Coordinate internal delivery teams, vendors and external implementation partners.
- Monitored and assured the quality of deliverables provided by external project consultants, third-party implementation partners, and technology vendors against contractual SLAs.
- Successfully led three strategic enterprise infrastructure transformation programmes over a three-year period.
- Delivered initiatives supporting 322 retail locations and Teraco datacentre environments.
- Directed multiple concurrent projects comprising complex technical and business workstreams.
- Standardised Jira and Confluence reporting and RAID frameworks across Massmart's infrastructure portfolio, providing executive steering committees with clear line-of-sight on critical path risks and budget allocations.
- Delivered Business Continuity and Disaster Recovery (BCDR), Datacentre Rationalisation and SD-WAN transformation programmes supporting strategic organisational objectives.
Programme Manager at Business Connexion (BCX) / INTEGR8 (2010-07 – 2019-03)
Led the successful planning and delivery of multiple concurrent ICT infrastructure projects for enterprise customers, ensuring effective governance across scope, schedule, budget, quality, risks, and change throughout the project lifecycle. Worked closely with customers, account executives, technical specialists, and third-party vendors to deliver complex infrastructure solutions aligned to contractual obligations.
- Managed multiple concurrent enterprise ICT infrastructure projects from initiation through implementation and formal closure.
- Directed complex enterprise ICT infrastructure deployments, including enterprise networking, VMware virtualisation, SAN storage, and SD-WAN migrations, ensuring full alignment with contractual SLAs and customer baselines.
- Managed project scope, schedule, budget, and quality throughout the project lifecycle, maintaining project tolerances for time and cost.
- Governed end-to-end customer project lifecycles using the Projexion PMO framework, maintaining complete Quality, Risk, Issue, Change, and Communication Registers.
- Managed project budgets, monitored expenditure against approved baselines, and coordinated multidisciplinary delivery teams, vendors, and customer representatives.
- Managed multiple concurrent enterprise ICT projects across diverse customer environments.
- Delivered all assigned projects within agreed scope, schedule and budget tolerances.
- Established structured governance through PMO processes and executive reporting.
- Built long-term customer relationships across enterprise accounts.
- Led multidisciplinary delivery teams, vendors and technical specialists.
Career Progression: Account Executive, Software Licensing Specialist, Service Delivery Manager, Helpdesk Manager at INTEGR8 (2002-06 – 2010-06)
Progressed through roles of increasing responsibility prior to promotion to Programme Manager.
- Managed Microsoft Volume Licensing Agreements and advised enterprise customers on licensing optimisation strategies (Microsoft Certified Licensing Specialist).
