Head of Technology - Digital (ARO) at Absa South Africa

Job Summary

• The Head of Technology – Digital will be responsible for the growth, acceleration, and continuous improvement of ABSA's mobile and digital channels across 10 African markets. This leadership role is accountable for the strategic development, implementation, and optimization of digital products, ensuring that ABSA’s mobile banking app, digital wallet, internet banking, USSD services, and emerging mobile platforms deliver seamless customer experiences and drive business growth. The role involves a blend of strategic oversight, product development, UX optimization, and experimentation, all aimed at enhancing the adoption and usage of ABSA’s digital platforms.

Job Description

Key Responsibilities:

Digital Channel Growth and Acceleration

• Lead the growth and acceleration strategy for ABSA's mobile and digital channels, ensuring the successful implementation and continuous improvement of digital products and services.
• Drive initiatives that increase the adoption and usage of digital platforms, including the mobile banking app, digital wallet, internet banking, USSD, and emerging digital channels.
• Foster innovation and maintain a forward-thinking approach to digital transformation, driving ABSA’s position as a digital-first bank in the region.

Product Development and Delivery

• Own the end-to-end product development lifecycle, from business case definition to agile delivery, ensuring that digital products meet customer needs and deliver significant value for the business.
• Work closely with cross-functional teams including product managers, engineers, UX designers, and marketers to define and deliver high-impact features that enhance customer experience and engagement.
• Ensure alignment of digital products with ABSA’s broader business strategy, focusing on growth, efficiency, and competitive differentiation.

User Journey Optimization

• Continuously review and optimize user journeys across all digital channels, with a particular focus on reducing friction in key areas like bill payments, inter-account transfers, and beneficiary payments.
• Leverage user research, analytics, and feedback to improve usability and ensure that digital platforms are intuitive, efficient, and meet customer expectations.

User Experience (UX) and Sentiment Management

• Oversee the UX strategy for digital channels, ensuring an intuitive and delightful experience for customers across mobile banking apps, digital wallets, and internet banking platforms.
• Monitor and improve digital channel sentiment through metrics such as TNPS (Transactional Net Promoter Score), customer feedback, and sentiment analysis, ensuring a high level of customer satisfaction.
• Drive initiatives aimed at enhancing user engagement and ensuring long-term customer retention via ABSA's digital platforms.

Insights-Driven Strategy and Growth

• Lead the development and execution of data-driven strategies to increase digital channel usage across all customer segments, using tools like funnel analysis, heat maps, journey analytics, and abandonment rate analysis.
• Work closely with data and analytics teams to generate actionable insights from customer behavior, market trends, and digital platform performance.

Digital Transformation and Commercial Focus

• Spearhead the digital transformation agenda to position ABSA’s digital channels as the primary means for customers to access banking services and products, with a strong emphasis on driving commercial outcomes.
• Establish and maintain a commercial focus across digital platforms, ensuring that digital channels contribute effectively to revenue growth and customer acquisition.

Innovation and Growth Tactics

• Identify, test, and implement new growth tactics to drive adoption and engagement across digital channels.
• Lead experimentation and A/B testing initiatives to refine the digital experience, iterating based on results to continuously improve performance and user engagement.

Scalable Processes and Systems

• Develop scalable processes and systems for experimentation and measurement across digital channels to ensure continuous improvement can be done in a repeatable and efficient manner.
• Implement frameworks for performance monitoring, ensuring that all digital initiatives are measured against clear KPIs and goals.

Digital Onboarding and Activation

• Lead efforts to enable seamless digital onboarding for new customers, ensuring they can access and activate ABSA’s services and products entirely through digital channels, without the need to visit a branch.
• Drive initiatives to improve the speed, ease, and security of digital account activation and product onboarding.

Key Skills & Qualifications:

Experience:

• Proven track record in leading digital transformation initiatives, particularly in mobile banking, digital wallets, and related digital channels.
• Extensive experience in driving digital product development from concept to execution in an agile environment.
• Experience working across multiple markets, particularly in the African context, with an understanding of the region’s unique digital landscape.
• Leadership & Collaboration:
• Strong leadership skills with the ability to inspire and drive change across diverse teams.
• Ability to collaborate effectively with cross-functional teams, including business stakeholders, engineers, designers, and marketers.
• Excellent communication skills, with the ability to present technical concepts and business value to senior stakeholders.
• Technical Expertise:
• Strong technical understanding of mobile platforms, payment systems, digital wallets, and internet banking.
• Familiarity with agile methodologies and tools such as Jira, Confluence, or similar.
• Analytical & Strategic Thinking:
• Expertise in using data and analytics to drive decision-making, including tools for journey analytics, funnel analysis, and user behavior analysis.
• Strong strategic thinker with a focus on results-driven outcomes.

Education:

• Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Engineering, Business, or a related field (Master’s degree preferred).

Education

• Bachelor's Degree: Information Technology