Head Of Data at Old Mutual South Africa

Job Description

• Define and direct a data strategy and roadmap that supports the OMC strategy. 
• Establish a consolidated data management function responsible for embedding and maintaining data architecture; data cataloging and MetaData management; data quality assessment and enhancement, including enrichment efforts; engagement and alignment with Group; GCS/Tamr accountability. 
• Establish a consolidated reporting enablement function responsible for building and maintaining the semantic layer and producing flexible and usable reporting in relevant analytical tools to support business needs.
• Support Compliance and Regulatory functions. 
• Work closely with senior leadership to improve quality and value of core data assets

Responsibilities

• Deliver an updated data strategy and roadmap which aligns to and enables the broader OMC and OML strategies.
• Provide leadership and direction to ensure key decision makers and team leaders understand and support what is required to deliver the data roadmap.
• Initiate and drive change management efforts to embed the Data team as a federated data management and reporting enablement team for Corporate team, as well as entrenching the self-service reporting capability. 
• Support key business initiatives – including digital servicing delivery, automation efforts and leveraging AI as prescribed in the AI strategy.

Data Management responsibilities:

Data architecture & modelling:

• Work with the business data architect to embed and develop the proposed data infrastructure.
• Enable and establish effective and purpose-aligned data pipelines from the data architecture and facilitating data ingestion from multiple sources to achieve efficient and effective data usage within the business.
• Data quality:
• Drive data ownership throughout Operations by establishing and leading a data stewardship program.
• Provide reporting on data quality & completeness.
• Proactively identify data quality/ completeness issues, prioritize and formulate solutions with operational team to address, including historic data cleaning exercises.
• Explore and apply enrichment processes to enhance quality, completeness and usability of data.

Group alignment and input:

• Ensure alignment with Group Policies and Standards, including Data Security and Privacy, in partnership with the Governance function.
• Participate in Group level forums and platforms to ensure sufficient representation and consideration for Corporate data assets.
• Explore linkages within the Group environment which align to OMC strategic objectives e.g. OM Bank.
• Data cataloging and MetaData Management: Leverage Group expertise to deliver and maintain a clear view of Corporate data assets, together with a data dictionary to enable alignment.

GCS/Tamr accountability for Corporate

• Outward: reviewing, updating and maintaining rules relating to how Corporate data is incorporated.
• Inward: reviewing updating and maintain rules relating to how Group data is brought into/ used in Corporate.
• Explore and implement ways to improve data maturity score for OMC.

Corporate Reporting Enablement Capability 

• Design and implement a semantic layer that organizes and standardizes data definitions, relationships, and business logic; enable consistent interpretation of data across the organization and supports self-service analytics, reporting, and advanced modeling.
• Produce and maintain an inventory of reporting.
• Work closely with the business data architect to optimize analytics capabilities; this includes selecting appropriate tools, designing data models, and ensuring that analytics solutions are scalable, maintainable, and aligned with best practice standards for data management and governance.
• Support the adoption of new technologies to improve the data capturing and analysis capabilities across the business.

Support Regulatory Compliance team

• Reporting enablement to meet data requirements, including reporting to the Data Governance Council and supporting any audit requirements.
• Support with expanding data pipelines as well as addressing relevant data quality issues.
• Support with prioritized investigations relating to AML, PPR, Data privacy, etc.
• Participate in Data Governance Council.

Skills, Qualifications and Experience required: 

• NQF Level 7
• Bachelor's degree in data analysis, statistics, mathematics, data science, business intelligence, or a related field.
• 10+ years of experience in data analysis, business intelligence, or a related field.
• Strong project management skills, with the ability to manage multiple projects simultaneously.
• Excellent ability to communicate complex data insights to non-technical stakeholders.

Skills

• Action Planning, Adaptive Thinking, Agile Project Management, Business Requirements Analysis, Commercial Acumen, Computer Literacy, Data Compilation, Data Controls, Executing Plans, IT Network Security, Management Reporting, Negotiation, Policies & Procedures, Project Risk Management, Readiness Assessments, Report Review, Workflow Management

Competencies

• Action Oriented
• Builds Effective Teams
• Communicates Effectively
• Cultivates Innovation
• Ensures Accountability
• Manages Complexity
• Optimizes Work Processes
• Persuades

Education

• NQF Level 7 - Degree, Advance Diploma or Postgraduate Certificate or equivalent

Closing Date

• 03 May 2026