Automation Lead - Centre Of Excellence (COE) at Datacentrix

Datacentrix is seeking an Automation Lead - Centre of Excellence (COE) for our Digital Business Solutions division to be based in Cape Town, Midrand or Durban. The successful candidate will have experience in a Technical or Operational Management role and be the point of Escalations for the Automation COE and will collaborate and work closely with the relevant organization to find the root cause of key and critical problems, issues and customer escalations by providing domain expertise and involving the right support.

Requirements:

• Matric or Grade 12 (Minimum Schooling requirements)
• Bachelor's Degree in the appropriate field of study or equivalent work experience
• Graduate degree – Advantageous
• OEM certifications – Advantageous
• Experience in an OpenText environment - Advantageous
• Drivers Licence and own reliable vehicle 
• In depth knowledge of the AUTOMATION Centre of Excellence (COE) with significant experience of managing an AUTOMATION COE system incorporating support and project management, including a number of implementations
• Strong competences around the concept of the AUTOMATION COE with a track record delivering AUTOMATION COE Portfolio and Solutions
• Strong technical background in IT, including Leadership roles and minimum 5-10 years of experience in Sales, Presales and Service Delivery.
• Experience providing "Thought-Leadership" to clients & C-Level Executives
• Significant experience in Human Resources (HR) with regards to managing teams comprising permanent staff, consultants, and contractors (onshore and possibly offshore), including performance management, billing of hours worked by resources
• Must have experience in managing budgets
• Must have experience in handling tenders, including estimates in line with budget requirements.
• Strong competences around the concept of the AUTOMATION COE
• Strong interpersonal, cultural, social and presentation skills
• Proven record in managing utilization and billability targets
• Track record for working in high energy, customer-centric and performance-driven organization
• Strong record in leadership and ability to delivery significant impact
• Leading & supervising resources within solid line and dotted line teams across multiple countries
• Broad technical understanding, Problem-solving ability, Creative thinking, Consultative Approach
• Track record for working in high energy, customer-centric and performance-driven organization
• Excellent client-facing and internal communication skills
• Exceptional Customer Handling Skills
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills
• Acute Business acumen
• Exceptional communication, interpersonal, organizational, project and time management skills. 
• Exceptional customer service orientation
• Work schedule flexibility to adjust to multiple demands, shifting priorities, ambiguity and rapid change
• Established partner relationship management experience
• Demonstrated track record of continuous support service and cost improvement and optimisation
• Ability to liaise, establish strong relationships and work effectively with key leader
• High level proficiency in all aspects of communicating with team members, supervisor and peers

Responsibilities:

• Being the point of Escalations for AUTOMATION COE - collaborating and working closely with the relevant organization to find the root cause of key and critical problems, issues and customer escalations by providing domain expertise and involving the right support from AUTOMATION COE
• Handle stakeholder relationship e.g. vendors, subcons, partners, etc and needs for AUTOMATION COE portfolio
• Responsible for the competency of Automation architecture & provide guidance, driving software architectural patterns, knowledge and designs to be created by the team for the applications owned within domain
• Training & Development - promoting of knowledge sharing and mentoring of resources, providing leadership and strategy to the AUTOMATION COE team and ongoing AUTOMATION COE developments
• Lead a team of Subject Matter Experts (SMEs) and Service delivery staff, including offshore based
• Resource planning fulfilment with Professional Services Head for all requirements
• Continuously improve own and team’s competence and technological knowledge in the relevant areas
• Responsible for the Utilization and Billability of the team members and ensure that it meets the Organizational targets
• Ensure meeting organizational hygiene weekly for time reporting and zero missing hours
• Set Individual Performance Goals and Development goals for each team member that ensures the fulfilment of the domain growth objectives.
• Follow up on Individual Performance Goals regularly with individual team members and set performance improvement plan when necessary.
• Apply the proper delivery model to ensure right delivery efficiency – ensure continuous improvement of the AUTOMATION COE and its service delivery capability
• Support and provide expertise for any service transformation initiatives within DBS or Datacentrix more widely