Lead Design Enablement at Absa

The Lead, Design Enablement (LDE) is responsible for ensuring the consistency and coherence of the delivery and operations across the entire Customer Design Office, including design standards, measurements, research, operations, and budgets. She / He has accountability for the adoption of efficient processes and high-quality design standards within and outside the Design office, and alignment with key stakeholders, such as Finance, Risk, and Infrastructure. LDE manages the people resourcing, including driving the training and development curriculum to upskill the team.
The ideal LDE is equally strong in strategic thinking and operational delivery. She/he has a strong track record in managing versatile functions in a complex environment and is passionate about delivering the highest quality output. LDE can demonstrate strong influencing skills in different levels of the organization, as well as a solid understanding of analytics.

Job Description
Accountability: Design Office Strategy and projects

• Provide insights and input to the development of Design Office strategy and targets
• Align Design Office strategy with stakeholders in the Group, RBB, and CVM level, e.g., Finance, Risk, and Infrastructure
• Actively identify areas of development for the Design Office through the interaction with stakeholders and analyzing the information across projects.
• Drive projects across the strategic priorities to continuously improve efficiency, effectiveness, and quality in alignment with CVM and RBB strategic direction
• Support Head of Design in managing the budget and planning cycles for the Design Office

Accountability: Design Standards and Measurements

• Drive the development and adoption of high-quality design standards and measurements across all aspects of design to elevate the level of customer experience across all products and channels.
• Continuously iterate the standards and measurements, by collecting and implanting input from design projects, stakeholders, and external best practice, pulling in resources as appropriate
• Ensure the adoption of the design standards by the design office, as well as by all relevant stakeholders (e.g., developers, product managers, customer experience managers)
• Drive the governance process, to ensure that the standards are adhered to across the businesses and products for Absa to present itself as a single, customer-driven bank with exceptional customer experience.
• Provide insights to the leadership, stakeholders, and designers from strategic measurements, identifying areas of excellence and opportunities to improve
• Support Design Directors in developing a set of metrics to be used for data-driven decision making in different design projects

Accountability: Research

• Establish innovative methods and strategies of knowledge collection and dissemination internally within the Design Office and with other Absa businesses
• Develop research and knowledge management strategies to serve the business needs, and enhance Design outcomes
• Analyze data coming from various sources, including business unit measurement, external research, and customer measurements into both qualitative and quantitative insights
• Translate data into management-level reporting and actionable insights for design project teams, and present these insights regularly to the senior leadership
• Lead the Customer Research Function to support design teams and business teams in understanding and implementing the customer feedback and insights

Accountability: Operations

• Maintain ongoing transparency to the Design project pipeline, identifying skill and capacity gaps in advance and providing plans on how to close them
• Balance the project demand with design resources, optimizing for skill match, high-quality delivery, and people development
• Drive the Design Office people processes and talent management by e.g., ensuring an effective recruitment and talent pipeline, onboarding and performance management process for permanent and contract resources alike
• Manage and maintain the relationships with strategic external contractors

Accountability: People Leadership

• Actively manage the people in your team, supporting them in prioritization, problem-solving and technical development
• Create a Design office and team environment in which your team members will thrive, be motivated by, and develop as professionals
• Promote the professional development of the individual professionals through one to one mentoring, training, and providing the right opportunities for development

Education

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