Head: Digital Delivery CIB Pan Africa at Absa Group Limited (Absa)

Job Summary

The Digital Delivery Head is a strategic leadership position in charge of the overall governance of the Digital Transformation Programme for CIB with an initial focus on overseeing and directing the Absa Access program, which is a multi-faceted initiative across Geography (ARO), Business Units and Functions.  This role is accountable for creating and implementing the overall structure, governance and reporting for the digital agenda for CIB, aligning and communicating with the senior stakeholder group with respect to overall delivery expectations and aligning the CIB Cluster around desired outcomes. 

The initial focus will be on creating and implementing the overall programme structure and governance for the Absa Access programme across the Group.  The role will be responsible for stakeholder engagement and alignment across the continent, setting and managing the expectations of delivery, communicating the delivery plans, changes and outcomes and managing the delivery to meet the needs of the organization with respect to its strategic channels.
The Digital Delivery Head will collaborate closely with executive leadership, cross-functional teams, across the organization.  Given that Absa Access is the primary channel for driving the digital journey in our client environment, there is heightened expectation to ensure the Absa Access program's successful implementation and achievement of its objectives.

Job Description

Accountability: Programme Governance 

• Establish and execute on the Governance of the Digital Programme with an initial focus on the Absa Access Programme of work.  This will include but not be limited to the following:
  • Formal meeting structures which will manage the execution alignment of the programme taking into account and/or ensuring that it has been set up as a series of self empowered teams.
  • Establishing and monitoring the success measurement of the programme (delivery outcomes, economic outcomes, investment outcomes, strategic progress)
  • Addressing the resource requirements of the programme and assessment of the demand required (both scaling up and down)
  • Managing the investment required.
• Aligning stakeholders on the methods of work and the outcomes driven approach.
• Compiling and coordinating the reporting on the programme ensuring that the reporting requirements of the various CIB and Group governance structures are met. .
• Risk Management: Identifying, assessing, and managing program risks and issues (at a portfolio level), and develop contingency plans, escalation and mitigation strategies to ensure program success while adhering to regulatory requirements and risk management policies.
  • Giving visibility to and addressing the risks through the structures of the programme (Platforms, Value Streams, Sales, Service and Operations)
• Understanding dependencies across different delivery teams and facilitating prioritization and trade-off decisions where they’re needed.
• Setting thematic priorities given the specific priorities will be managed within the Platform and Value Stream teams.

Accountability: Stakeholder Alignment and Communications

• Establish and maintain strong relationships with key stakeholders to ensure effective collaboration, alignment, and support for the Digital programme.
  • Be the primary interface for organizing and managing stakeholder alignment and communications.
• Communications must be managed at senior levels within the organization including (but not limited to) Business Excos, Country Management Committees (CMC), Risk Committees and Change Councils. 
  • Alignment of Value Streams, Platform Teams, Service, Sales and Operations Teams will also be included.
• Alignment of content and key messages to assist the forward momentum of the programme.
• Creation of a narrative that ties together multiple streams of work (all acting reasonably independently) to keep senior stakeholders aligned with the strategic message and intent.
• Developing a framework and rhythm for setting and managing expectations amongst all stakeholders .

Accountability: Reporting and Analytics:

• Prepare and present regular progress reports (single source of data) to executive leadership and stakeholders, providing program status updates, performance metrics, and recommendations for improvement, including impact measurement and reporting.
• Oversee the establishment and sustainability of a data resource to give high levels of visibility of the digital programme.

Accountability: People and Culture 

• Work closely and provide clear strategic direction to the internal team to identify opportunities for partnership, co-creation, and collective impact whilst ensuring Absa guiding principles are communicated and upheld.
• Provide strong leadership and direction to cross-functional program teams, ensuring that roles and responsibilities are clearly defined and team members are motivated, engaged, and empowered to achieve program objectives.
• Create sense of urgency around the vision and values and ensure individuals actions, processes and practices are aligned. This includes leading change management efforts associated with the digital programme, including communication, identifying internal staff training needs to ensure smooth adoption of digital.
• Inspire teams to work closely together to achieve the strategic vision by establishing, leading, managing and motivating high performing global teams (including virtual teams) to high standards and excellence.
• Developing teams by assisting them to achieve stretch targets and developing their professional careers through effective career development techniques such as coaching, training, and supporting colleagues on their journeys.
• Ensure the group standards for formal  performance development are implemented in a practical and effective manner.
• Ensure the development and regular updates on the succession plans for key and high risk roles in the overall digital estate of delivery
• Ensure that the function’s transformation objectives are aligned, incorporated and support the DPS and broader group transformation objectives
• Annually oversee the overall business enablement’s talent management process

Accountability: Innovation and Business Impact:

• Drive innovation initiatives to continuously improve the digital programme, such as piloting new approaches, testing new technologies, and leveraging data analytics to inform decision-making and drive self empowered teams.

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