Digital Solutions Owner, Corporate and Investment Banking at Standard Bank Group

Job Purpose:

• To manage CIB Digital innovation initiatives through the innovation life cycle of ideation, incubation and acceleration.
• To create a vibrant network of digital activists and encourage the use of entrepreneurial management practices to deliver disruptive business solutions that are commercially viable and technically feasible and that can be sustained in the business context to deliver against well-defined business outcomes.

Key responsibilities include:

Strategic contribution

• Partner with Head, Digital Solutions to define, develop and drive the implementation of the Digital Solutions strategy, roadmap and framework to create new growth opportunities for CIB. Communicate the roadmap and manage its implementation with emphasis on measurable outcomes.

Tactical planning

• Cascade the strategy into plans to scout and filter digital innovation ideas, experiment with appropriate new emerging technologies and approaches and deliver enhanced solutions through a new Digital Platform. Ensure solutions align to the CIB digital strategy and customer needs as well as other interfacing strategies.

Squad formation

• Work with the Head Digital Solutions and other Chapter Leads to assemble diverse squads to execute the innovation lifecycle. Oversee the squads to keep work and activities efficient, creative, collaborative and engaged while adhering to applicable standards, operating procedures and policy.

Solutions design

• For each new venture, lead the development of the solution vision, strategy, business case and value proposition in line with the client’s objectives, business needs and external developments. Convey the vision to the squad to translate the client’s objectives and needs into user stories. Define the MVP to create valuable incremental solutions to clients.

Solutions delivery

• Manage the end to end delivery of digital solutions using best practice agile and lean delivery methodologies to ensure accelerated delivery. Lead squads through the innovation life cycle and approved validation processes to deliver commercially viable, technically feasible digital solutions that provide seamless client experience and that can be sustained in the business context.

Customer engagement and backlog management

• Develop and maintain the product backlog, including the hierarchy of epics / features and user stories. Keep in close contact with the customer / business and manage the stakeholders, represent them in the scrum team and report back on agreed approaches. Lead the gathering and translation of customer needs into product features, requirements, and user stories for the backlog. Manage and prioritise solution backlog based on value to the customer and impact to the business.

Keep it moving

• Coach the teams to identify and improve areas in the lifecycle with bottlenecks, inhibitors and/or obstacles to change and success, to reduce the time to market for initiatives, improve accuracy, consistency and scalability. Use various problem discovery methods to identify gaps and recommend the appropriate technology and digital design for a seamless client experience.

Process improvements

• Initiate and coordinate process improvement in the squads regarding overall design articulation, tooling, progress reporting, and documentation.

Continuous improvement

• Proactively keep up to date with local and global digital innovations. Analyse digital solution capabilities in the market to identify opportunities to disrupt current business solutions and industry best-practice, develop new and enhance existing solutions to meet customers’ expectations, maximise the return of investment and position CIB as a thought leader in digital corporate banking.

Insights and data analytics

• Work with Digital Insights to keep the squads updated with competitor intelligence and recommendations on resultant actions for maximising product client centricity and revenues.

Stakeholder engagement

• Build and maintain collaborative, cross-functional partnerships with internal and external stakeholders to promote understanding and awareness of digital initiatives and to influence and gain support / sponsorship for the digitalisation rollout. Lead alignment and approvals from relevant stakeholders for new products / product enhancements in line with CIB digital strategy and regulatory standards.

Ongoing management of digital solutions

• Manage the ongoing maintenance and execution of digital solution(s) or hand mature and sustainable solutions over to the identified area to run. Support business preparedness / readiness across people, process, data and content to incorporate the digital solution into their operating models in a timeous manner to enable successful launch of digital solutions and the realisation of economic benefits.

Financial management

• Partner with key stakeholders to prepare the solution / product budget. Monitor actual expenditure against the approved budget to ensure alignment and that return is generated in the form of client, shareholder and business value.

Solution performance management and measurement

• Identify and track key metrics to measure solution success. Monitor the utilization of the solution against the product performance indicators, in order to identify areas for improvement and suggest measures that will increase return-on-investment.

Leadership

• Manage the effective achievement of assigned objectives through the leadership of the assigned team by setting of individual objectives, managing performance, developing and motivating teams to maximise performance.

People management

• Contribute towards the talent development initiatives for squad members, collaborating with functional / technical / discipline experts to ensure the availability of talent to fit business requirements. Support the implementation of the people capability frameworks/ways of working to enable a culture of high performance, accountability and client excellence.

Qualification

• Bachelor’s Degree in Commerce or Information Technology;
• Masters Degree in Business Commerce preferred.

Experience

• 5 -7 years' experience in Corporate and Investment Banking. Experience in Corporate and Investment Banking with exceptional business and product knowledge. Commercial understanding and experience in business process, value creation, problem solving and innovation. Experience delivering successful financial services new business and product solution that enables significant business transformation. Product development and management experience with a leading financial institution in the corporate space or a FinTech. Experience working across multiple geographies with experience working in African markets required. Experience working at a senior managerial level managing a team and influencing and engaging a diverse set of senior stakeholders across the business.
• 5 - 7 years' experience in Digitisation. Experience in leading a virtual team in the ideation and development of digital solutions, leveraging emerging technologies and alternative delivery methods that results in an accelerated response to the market and client needs. Experience of digital product ownership in a team that practises lean / agile philosophies. An ability to solve problems in simple, innovative way. Product lifecycle experience encompassing the identification, testing, building, launching and optimising of products and services.
• 5 - 7 years' experience in Client relationship management. Experience in the field of ethnography and how it impacts Client Experience and User Experience and also in identifying customer experience.