ESPO: Head Strategy and Architecture (Randburg) at Absa South Africa

Job Summary

• As a Strategic Lead for the Engineering, Services and Platforms Office (ESPO), you will play a pivotal role in the successful transformation of the infrastructure estate across Absa by ensuring a future fit strategy across our Pan African operations. 
• You will lead the long-term strategy for the area working with Architecture and the various Infrastructure tower heads of Networks, Compute, Cloud, DBaaS and End User. This strategic direction will help ensure we land an infrastructure foundation that enables agility and speed to market for the business units that build on this infrastructure foundation. This position requires a deep understanding of Infrastructure and Cloud, Management, and change management expertise to ensure the bank's competitiveness and future growth.

Job Description

• Strategic Planning: Develop a comprehensive strategy for implementing the transformation initiatives that aligns with the bank's overall goals and objectives, demonstrating acceleration of our Digital Transformation.
• Execution Leadership: Lead a multidisciplinary team to work with the infrastructure towers to ensure both the strategic direction and the successful delivery of the transformation initiatives.
• Change Management: Manage the team responsible for change management across the various infrastructure towers.
• Risk Management: Identify potential risks and issues associated with the implementation and develop and manage mitigation strategies to minimise execution risk and protect business value.  Adopt the ‘Think Big, Start Small, Learn Fast’ approach to ensure that the programme never becomes too big to fail, that benefit aligns closely to investment.
• Stakeholder Communication: Maintain effective communication with key stakeholders, including Technology Executive, Business CIOs, and colleagues, to keep them informed about the progress and benefits of the transformation.
• Financial Motivation: Manage the process for motivating for investment for strategic initiatives across the ESPO to ensure the funding to drive out the technology infrastructure strategy.
• Quality Assurance: Implement quality control measures to ensure the Transformation initiative meets the highest industry standards and regulatory requirements. Leverage the advisory board that is established, and as necessary conduct the assurance required.
• Performance Evaluation: Monitor and measure the effectiveness and impact of the Transformation after implementation, making necessary adjustments and improvements.
• Platform Readiness: Transform the technology capability so that it is fit for purpose in terms of speed, cost effectiveness and agility for the iterative rapid pace delivery approach. Work with the owner of the technology platform to achieve this.
• Leading Talent: Direct the development and implementation of talent across the portfolio to ensure the achievement of the people strategy in line with our purpose, values and culture.

Preferred Education

• Bachelor's degree in Technology, Business, Finance, or a related field (Master's degree preferred).

Preferred Experience

• Proven experience in implementing large scale Transformations within a Tier 1 Bank.
• Proven track record of successfully delivering large-scale, complex, and strategic technology initiatives.
• Experience with technological advancements, digital transformation, and innovation in financial services environment.
• Change management experience preferably on a Pan African scale.

Knowledge and Skills

• Strong delivery skills, including experience with agile/iterative approaches to delivery.
• Strong financial and business acumen, with the ability to manage budget, costs, and benefits.
• Excellent communication and interpersonal skills.
• Ability to work collaboratively in a diverse, cross-cultural environment.
• Strong leadership and problem-solving skills.

Education

• Bachelor`s Degrees and Advanced Diplomas: Business, Commerce and Management Studies (Required)