Senior Specialist, Innovation - Centurion at Exxaro Resources

QUALIFICATIONS:

• B Eng (Relevant) (Essential/Minimum or)
• B Degree (Hons) (Relevant) (Essential/Minimum)
• Certificate Project Management (Recommended/Desirable)
• Lean Six Sigma Black Belt (Recommended/Desirable)

EXPERIENCE: 

• 6-8 years  Extensive experience of developing, maintaining and delivering innovation activities in a corporate support service environment.
• Experience in business process modelling, workflow analysis and process redesign.
• Experience in stakeholder management. Strong analytical and problem-solving

skills

• Knowledge of project management methodologies, tools and software.
• Strong planning, organising and integration skills, with proven ability to manage multiple projects and prioritise tasks effectively.
• Ability to work independently and in a team environment.
• Highly effective engagement and communication skills with an emphasis on translating technical concepts to variety of project stakeholders.
• Ability to balance multiple priorities, meet timelines and budget and pro-actively raise scope, schedule, and budget risks.  

REQUIREMENTS: 

• Project Management Professional (Recommended/Desirable)
• Certificate of Fitness (Essential/Minimum)
• Psychometric Assessment (Essential/Minimum)

Duties & Responsibilities

Best Practice and Knowledge Management    

• Intellectual property management and protection
• Create and manage professional networks
• Participate in tertiary educational relationships
• Participate in professional external forums
• Stay abreast with advances in field of technology and innovation
• Support functional sponsors and process owners in the development and implementation of improvement and innovation strategy
• Support functional sponsors and process owners in the development and implementation of improvement and innovation strategy

Business Review Process    

• Support business review process by evaluating critical performance areas – bi-annually, quarterly, and monthly within support functions
• Implement and track metrics to enable measurement of process efficiency and effectiveness

Creativity    

• Develop new ideas and strategies for the organizations by utilizing AI and Digital tools
• Research trends in the industry, customer preferences and other information to develop innovative ideas.
• Research other industries and their processes to find inspiration for new ideas

Customer and Client Relationship Management    

• Manage internal and external relations including the interface with external providers or other functions responsible to ensure that business needs are met, and processes are optimised.
• Provide relevant support to applicable stakeholders

Functional Excellence    

• Adhere to functional policies, standards, guidelines, procedures, end to end processes, tools, templates etc.
• Assist in standardising, simplifying and speeding-up functional processes, eliminating duplication/bureaucracy
• Apply functional best practices, promote sharing of best practices/ knowledge

Optimisation Support    

• Support Business Improvement (BI)/Operational Excellence (OE) initiatives through business analysis, root cause analysis, idea generation facilitation and structured innovation
• Support the identification, management, and execution of breakthrough projects
• Project planning and tracking against work plans including budget and cost control
• Define project level issue management processes and procedures

Optimisation and Efficiency    

• Design and execute improvement and innovation framework and processes for support functions across the organisation
• Implement common continuous improvement methodology for support functions across the organisation
• Assist with, and manage multiple innovation projects across support functions throughout the organisation
• Facilitate knowledge transfer and contribute to innovation community of practice (COP)
• Ensure continuous business process reviews in conjunction with business owners/users, determine needs and facilitate business improvement initiatives, upgrades, or enhancements
• Ensure integration, alignment, and realisation of synergies between support functions in conjunction with leaders
• Keep abreast with industry trends regarding best practice and benchmark processes at regular intervals
• Assure new best practice processes are facilitated and established for support functions across the organisation
• Keep abreast with innovation practices, benchmark data and technology- based enablers which impact on support functions.
• Translate business goals and challenges to functional and area targets across the organisation
• Assist and support functional teams to drive and embed innovation to improve performance

Safe and Healthy Work Environment    

• Adhere to all health/safety practices and promote good housekeeping on an ongoing basis
• Address all unsafe practices/potential hazardous situations and rectify/report to superior