Job Description

Bring your possibility to life! Define your career with us

With over 100 years of rich history and strongly positioned as a local bank with regional and international expertise, a career with our family offers the opportunity to be part of this exciting growth journey, to reset our future and shape our destiny as a proudly African group.

Job Summary The Card division within Everyday Banking Core Technology is looking for a Head Technology to lead the agile solution design, deployment & ongoing optimization & evolution of enterprise wide technology products and services (full stack engineering & ownership / control) across multiple squads in complex & high impact business areas Business complexity is determined by: 1. Customer Impact 2. Number of integration points: xe2x80xa2 Data xe2x80xa2 Teams to talk to xe2x80xa2 Systems xe2x80xa2 Enabling function xe2x80xa2 3rd party vs. internal 3. Complexity of business rules & Processes 4. Level of operational readiness 5. Introduction of new or changing old Tech (e.g. redo platforms)



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The Everyday Banking business supports over 8 million customers in their Everyday Banking needs, card is one of the most visible & critical elements that enables customer needs.

The Head of Technology for Card is responsible for all the card related systems for Absa, and includes the following systems:

• COMBI: Managing the card production & lifecycle as well as the linkage of the mobile app & cards to the relevant accounts.
• ACCS: Managing the complex xe2x80x9cChipxe2x80x9d (EMV) Card logic and cryptography related to the card itself & app login.
• CAMS: The Credit Card management system used for retail and corporate cards
• JAS, LOOKUP, BICOS, etc.

The Head of Technology role takes full accountability for:

• xe2x80x9cRunxe2x80x9d / operational availability of these systems
• All change / projects affecting these systems.
• Setting the architectural direction and driving modernization
• Supporting the relevant business with advice, guidance & support from a technical perspective
• Managing a team of over 70 team members
• Managing the venders & costs associated with the underlying technology
• Managing the technology risks in the estate

Stakeholders include Absa Everyday Banking, Relationship Banking and ARO as well as Woolworths Financial Services.

Key Accountabilities:

Product & Service Direction Setting, Solution Design & Performance Management

• Work with the CIO & business product owners to define the product & technical strategy (Full Stack xe2x80x93 End to End)
• Act as the single point of partnership & assume responsibility for managing the senior business interface (product owner) relationship
• Assume one stop shop accountability for the delivery of the product & solutions (risk cannot be outsourced to vendors)
• Apply design thinking practices to deliver architecturally sound technical product & service solutions (and explain / guide / coach others on this architecture holistically and technically)
• Lead & facilitate the design of the product & or service solution blueprints aligned to the organization strategy (Short, Medium & Long Term)
• Collaborate across the tech value chain (CSO, CTO, etc.) to guide the business on the appropriate technical solution (cost to value) & the range of strategic technical choices to be made
• Lead the detailed scoping, prioritisation & integration planning for the design & deployment of products & services with & across multiple stakeholder groups (aligned to solution blueprints)
• Meaningfully contribute & ensure solutions align to the design & direction of the Group Architecture standards, principles, preferences & practices. Short term deployment must align to strategic long term delivery.
• Meaningfully contribute & ensure solutions align to the design and direction of the Group Infrastructure standards and practices.
• Strategically & operationally monitor the performance of products and services (all applications) xe2x80x93 ensuring ongoing optimization & cost to value for our businesses (think bank wide)

xe2x80x8bTechnical Leadership

• Leverage the required expert level (own) skill & knowledge in architecture & Infrastructure, design and manage all development & development practices & outputs across squads (apply knowledge on virtualization, containerization, automation, storage & serverless technologies (Beneficial)
• Ensure the most optimal design & deployment of technical products and services in the organization (via pipeline xe2x80x93 not manually)
• Design & Implement Automation Testing, Continuous Integration & Continuous Delivery Strategies & frameworks across squads for effective solution development & deployment
• Ensure solution designs deliver on the key technical principles of: self-service, repeatability, testability, scalability & resilience
• Guide code development practices and processes through an understanding of complex concepts and developmental practices
• Guide & ensure the delivery of quality development (code) based on own experience in developing across a range of applications
• Effectively manage the delivery pipeline & associated releases for maximum customer impact & minimum business risk
• Manage the maintenance & optimization of applications, products & services as a xe2x80x98way of doing things / culturexe2x80x99 within the development teams. You are fully accountable for the longevity of applications aligned to Group Architectural practices.
• Coach & Mentor senior developers across squads on the technical competencies to effectively deliver on solutions (see Dev competency model in skills & competencies section). To do this, display proficiency in the Senior level competency requirements.

Delivery Management (where there is a specific product / service you manage)

• With fluency in the deployment of agile methodologies, resource & manage the appropriate number and nature (skill & capability) of squad based teams to execute on both Run & Change elements of delivery
• Work in collaboration with transformation & change teams for effective resourcing and delivery management of various programmes at all levels (SI, BU etc.)
• Ensure agile practices are implemented and sustained for effective delivery to business e.g. RETROxe2x80x99s etc.
• Positively & proactively manage product owner relationships including building product owner technical capability to enable balanced & best fit decision making
• Proactively engage with & partner CTO, CSO, SE, Risk and broader enablement functions to drive alignment & leading practice in technology design & deployment

People

• Proactively attract, recruit, develop, retain, reward & deploy a diverse resource base aligned to an ever evolving tech environment (ahead of demand)
• Build a high performance team environment through self-directed teams by driving performance management & measurement that is aligned with agile working practices (including daily, weekly, etc. sprint routines, regular & honest feedback etc.)
• Accountable for the right people in the right teams to deliver on our tech strategy (always!)
• Leverage coaching techniques in all squad related activity to drive a higher quality design and deployment of technical products and services

Financial & Vendor Management, Risk & Governance

• Carry the xe2x80x98one stop shopxe2x80x99 accountability for all risk associated with technical decision making (from ideation to deployment)
• Ensure decisions on infrastructure & product design are aligned to chapter & guild guidelines & are sustainable for the enterprise
• Proactively involve / engage chapter & guild leads in product design & infrastructure decision making, applying an enterprise wide lens to product & service development
• Manage all vendor selection processes & take full accountability for all related commercial impact
• Negotiate best fit contracts for the organization at an enterprise level and align decision making to our key business principles of scalability, resilience, captivity etc.
• Deliver on time & on budget (always)
• Manage & Apply the organization risk & governance frameworks

Education and experience required:

• 15+ years experience
• Relevant B-Degree in Computer Science OR; equivalent level of industry certification in Technical field & essential if minimum requirements of experience & practical application in the following is evident:
• Cross domain knowledge
• Architecture
• Infrastructure Solutioning
• Testing
• Web Applications
• Service Side
• Influencing
• Automation
• Messaging
• Integration
• Solutioning

With Card being a highly specialized area, the following experience is required:

• Cards and credit card management
• Software development & delivery
• Team management - critical
• Managing missing critical systems
• Building and supporting mainframe applications
• Payments and Core Banking strongly advantageous

Education

Bachelor's Degree: Information Technology

Absa Bank Limited is an equal opportunity, affirmative action employer. In compliance with the Employment Equity Act 55 of 1998, preference will be given to suitable candidates from designated groups whose appointments will contribute towards achievement of equitable demographic representation of our workforce profile and add to the diversity of the Bank.

Absa Bank Limited reserves the right not to make an appointment to the post as advertised

Absa