Data Architect (Gig role) at Eskom Pension and Provident Fund

Description

Governance: Advising on, monitoring, and governing enterprise data

• Develop, coordinate, and implement data strategies that support the business’s development plans and that capture new opportunities.
• Implementing data privacy policies and complying with data protection regulations.
• Ensure compliance with regulatory and privacy requirements.
• Regulate how the business captures, maintains, presents and apply data and information at EPPF in order support business processes and measure performance.
• Manage the lifecycle of data and information in order to comply with the business’s requirements.
• Partners closely with business’s IT leadership responsible for data analytics, custodianship, and infrastructure ensuring alignment with the Data and Analytics department avoiding conflicting activities, and availing the most efficient data analytics insights across the business.
• Acts as an authority within the Data and Analytics department, promoting the use of industry leading trends and new data management technologies.

Operations: Enabling data usability, availability, and efficiency

• Reduce costs and redundancies that result from duplication of data functions across the business.
• Establish the Data Platform & Engineering operating model and architecture to support both traditional reporting requirements as well as advanced analytics requirements to enhance business decisions, both operationally and strategically.
• Establish the service model and relevant service level agreements with business stakeholders invested in the data platforms.
• Availing an environment that makes data and information accessible to all departments and personnel across the business.
• Establishes the strategic direction for building the business’s data management program and optimising how the business uses data both internally and externally.
• Provide the data analytics infrastructure that support and achieves operational business requirements.
• Oversee cross-functional data governance while simultaneously ensuring adoption and adherence to data quality and process governance in the relevant collaborating departments.
• Lead the design and governance of enterprise data, integration, and AI architectures, providing expert guidance and final approval on data, analytics, machine learning, and AI models (IBM and Microsoft platforms)to ensure alignment with business and technology strategies.
• Maintain strong technical credibility through deep hands-on expertise in data architecture, integration patterns, platforms, and emerging AI capabilities, driving scalable, secure, and high-performing solutions.

Innovation: Driving enterprise digital transformation innovation, cost reduction, and revenue generation

• Leverage opportunities to monetise data and insights.
• Establish and continuously improve agile ways of working in the delivery of platform related enhancements.
• Works towards enabling stellar business performance by utilising not only the data already available to the business, but also tapping into new and innovative sources of data.
• Oversees the strategic data priorities of the department and identifies new business opportunities based the existent data

Analytics: Supporting analytics and reporting on products, customer, operations, and markets

• Define and drive all analytics and business intelligence initiatives in the Data and Analytics department
• Defines appropriate analytical models necessary to support use cases such as customer segmentation, among others and leverages the power of predictive insights and analytics.
• Guide the Data and Analytics on which data to store, analyse, and exploit for the business’s benefit.

People Management

• Train, mentor and coach subordinates based on development needs identified.
• Set and agree performance areas with subordinates and manage employee performance in accordance with HR policy and procedure.
• Delegate work to subordinates in order to maximise productivity.
• Manage staff resources and productivity, minimizing absenteeism.
• Discipline staff in accordance with organizational codes and procedures so that improvement is shown.
• Facilitate communication through appropriate structures and systems.

REQUIRED MINIMUM EDUCATION/TRAINING

• Bachelor’s degree in computer science, IT or relevant discipline.
• Data Certifications highly advantageous

REQUIRED MINIMUM WORK EXPERIENCE

• At least 8 years job-related experience, which should include at least 2 years’ experience in a management role.
• Experience of applying Data Platform and Engineering in a Life Insurance or financial services business context would be advantageous