Senior Manager/Associate Director - Financial Services Technology at BDO South Africa

• The Associate Director will lead our project management, digital transformation and specialist advisory projects within FS. It will be the job of the Advisory Associate Director to provide specialist oversight and guidance to the team. The Advisory Associate Director will also mentor, upskill and coach the existing team to ensure that we build a sustainable specialist FS advisory team.

Main Duties And Responsibilities

Take ownership of, and manages work assignments (any budget or complexity) to completion within the allocated time frame and to an appropriate standard (quality), through:

• proper planning before the assignment, appropriate coaching during the assignment,
• attention to quality of the deliverable and the supporting documentation, adequately completing provisions,
• managing the WIP appropriately and within budget, where applicable, billing the engagement, and
• closing the engagement.
• Is an effective project manager and coaches other to be effective project managers. Agrees development plan with the partner at the start of the assignment.
• Coaches the team in the writing of Management Letter Points (MLPs) of an appropriate standard for weaknesses identified. Discusses with the client and obtains their comments.
• Reviews written documents to ensure that they are organised, well-written, referenced and easy to follow.
• Establish effective working relationships directly with key clients, and broader BDO stakeholders.
• Understand what the company you are working on, actually does and how they make revenue. Bring industry insights and recommendations to the client during client discussions. Ensures value-added delivery to the client driving sustainability of client relationship and work allocation.
• Drives up-selling and cross-selling opportunities at the client.
• Reviews general IT control testing and documentation/assigned scope of work.
• Understands the relevance of application controls workings and reviews the testing and documentation.
• Leads meetings with the key client stakeholders and internal senior stakeholders in the absence of the partner. Review project risks, processes, and controls.
• Develop a comprehensive understanding of the client’s processes and methodologies, including the reviews of process flows.
• Can work in, manage and coach teams and effectively communicate across different levels within the organisation. Is able to run multiple engagements concurrently.
• Mentor, coach, upskill and supervise managers.
• Has a focus on building the business and be able to identify potential leads. Drives these with the client through to conclusion and winning the work.
• Run with the end-to-end proposal and business development process. Coordinate and lead meetings with C-level client stakeholders.
• Actively seek out new client opportunities and relationships as part of the team’s business development.
• Has a strategic view of the business and, together with the partners, develops/evolves the business strategy, new initiatives. Drives these to operationalisation/business as usual. Has a strong strategic view of the business that encompasses more than client assignments.
• Able to lead initiatives from commencement to conclusion with minimal coaching and mentoring. Understands when to request input or assistance.
• Owns and drives an area of focus for the business under the guidance and coaching of the partners. Ensures sustainability and no key person dependency in the maturation of the allocation business area.
• Provides coaching to managers responsible for operational roles in the business

Qualifications

One of the below qualifications:

• BSc. Computer Science.
• BCom. Information Systems/Informatics
• Bcom Management

Experience And Knowledge

• Minimum 9 years’ experience in IT external audit, IT internal audit and/or IT advisory
• Proficient in senior stakeholder management
• CISA
• Certification in IT management, IT Risk or CRISC is advantageous
• Experience in Financial Services clients
• Proven experience in dealing with senior IT executives advising on IT strategy and IT risks.

Technical Competencies

• IT external audit
• IT internal audit
• IT Risk management
• Project risk assurance
• Emerging technology risk assurance
• Digital transformation core methodologies

Behavioural Competencies

• Effective Communication Skills, both written and verbal.
• Problem-solving techniques and effective conflict management skills.
• Must have a customer first execution philosophy. Demonstrate awareness of business and industry dynamics. Ability to analyse technology trends and operational business issues and make informed decisions.
• Must demonstrate the ability to respond effectively to changing environments (expected and unexpected). Ability to evolve own ideas and solutions in response to changing circumstances.
• Must have an awareness and openness to diversity – promote inclusion and sharing of ideas and convey respect for different perspectives.
• Demonstrate the ability to use different problem-solving strategies and select the one that best meets the requirements of the situation. Keep the big picture of the problem in mind while focusing on its specifics.
• Must have excellent communication skills, both written and verbal. Demonstrate the ability to effectively interpret the needs of all stakeholders, respond to their needs, and manage expectations.
• Ability to collaborate with all stakeholders in the pursuit of common goals. Must have strong interpersonal skills to manage large teams with influence.
• Must be a proven leader and manager, able to take charge and act assertively without guidance. Use business criteria and values to evaluate alternative courses of action. Make a timely choice based on the options and information available
• Focus on desired results and business outcomes. Must be both a problem solver and a risk taker. Define performance standards in terms of doing what is appropriate (and doing it well). Work to achieve goals despite barriers or difficulties.
• Must be able to engage, build and manage relationships with relevant internal and external stakeholders. Demonstrate the ability to handle and resolve conflict situations to ensure ongoing goal achievement.
• Practical orientation and current knowledge in the areas of enterprise architecture design (including cloud architectures), platform and application design principles, data management standards and analytical methods, security principles, redundancy, data protection and recovery systems.