Career Opportunities at Absa Group Limited (Absa)

Job Summary

• Lead the agile solution design, deployment & ongoing optimization & evolution of enterprise wide technology products and services (full stack engineering & ownership / control) in low complexity environments.

Job Description

Product & Service Direction Setting, Solution Design & Performance Management

• Work with the CIO & business product owners to define the product & technical strategy (Full Stack – 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 (Front End, Back End & Integration) – (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 e.g. OLA’s, IAAS, PAAS, SAAS, Containerisation etc.
• Strategically & operationally monitor the performance of products and services (all applications) – ensuring ongoing optimization & cost to value for our businesses (think bank wide)

DevOps (with deep knowledge & understanding of context within which we develop architecturally & infrastructurally)

• 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 (e.g. AWS, Azure, Google, & on prem-Cloud, etc.)
• Ensure the most optimal design & deployment of technical products and services in the organization (via pipeline – not manually)
• Design & Implement Automation Testing, Continuous Integration & Continuous Delivery Strategies & frameworks across squads for effective solution development & deployment (understand and apply expert knowledge in e.g. Kubernetes, Jenkins, TeamCity, Arifactory, MS Powershell, Collaborative Lifecycle Management (CLM) Tools, APM Tools (e.g. NewRelic & Splunk) etc.
• Ensure solution designs deliver on the key techuilding architectural patterns, security / security domains)
• Effectively manage the DevOps pipeline & assonical principles of: self-service, repeatability, testability, scalability & resilience
• Guide code development practices and processes through an understanding of complex concepts and developmental practices such as threading, parallel processing, asynchronous programming, domain driven design, lambdas etc. & coding language expertise (e.g. Java, C++, Groovy, Python, Bash, Perl, Ruby etc.)
• Guide & ensure the delivery of quality development (code) based on own experience in developing across a range of applications including but not limited to: server side, client side, web (SOAP, REST, JSON), socket based programming, batch & real time, bciated releases for maximum customer impact & minimum business risk
• Manage the maintenance & optimization of applications, products & services as a ‘way of doing things / culture’ 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 DevOps 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. RETRO’s 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

• Set & Cascade Product & Service direction across squads
• 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 ‘one stop shop’ accountability for all risk associated with technical decision making (from ideation to deployment)
• Manage & Apply the organization risk & governance frameworks
• 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)

Education

• Bachelor's Degree: Information Technology

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Job Summary

• Support the Relationship Executive in the optimisation of profit and economic value for portfolios of Growth Business key account clients requiring medium to high complexity commercial banking requirements by focusing: a) origination efforts to quire new clients; b) cross-sell to existing client base; c) coverage efforts to service clients in accordance to the segment CVP

Job Description

• Portfolio Management: Ensure appropriate management of respective portfolios that includes but not limited to client engagement, portfolio performance management, reporting and executing of client requirements | Business Development: Agree financial targets/new business targets and set out tactical plans to achieve this on an annual basis | Risk Management: Ensure that portfolio meets the required risk management standards

Education

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

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Job Summary

• Provides financial services to meet client specific needs to promote, market and sell Financial Solutions in accordance with relevant legislation, to meet sales targets and achieve strategic business objectives.

Job Description

• Sales Target : Proactively make self-initiated contact with customers in order to deliver against the required sales targets | Collaboration : Constantly seek to improve ways of working by challenging the status quo and supporting an empowering climate within the team, sharing knowledge, experience, best practice and providing constructive feedback as required. | Compliance and Risk Management: Fulfil all activities in adherence to relevant control and compliance requirements, and quality standards | Customer Experience: To provide service excellence and achieve customer satisfaction

Education

• Further Education and Training Certificate (FETC): Business, Commerce and Management Studies

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Job Summary

• Provide specialist advise and support for day-to-day work, in order to execute predefined objectives as per agreed standard operating procedures (SOPs).

Job Description

• Source Utilisation: Obtain walk in client or data leads from the Bank staff in the branches (Consultants, | Customer Experience: To provide service excellence and achieve customer satisfaction | Risk & Control: Ensure that staff members where applicable, i.e. Planner Assistants have a clear | Manage Sales & Growth Targets: Capture the correct Policy Relevant Information (PRI) number on the EBankpac system On a monthly basis, check the accuracy of the commission statements received from the AIFA Commissions department. Verify that all the PRI numbers reconcile to the commission paid and reflected on the statements 

Education

• Further Education and Training Certificate (FETC): Business, Commerce and Management Studies (Required)

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Job Summary

Work in high complexity environments, fully embedded in a DevOps team, leveraging specialist analysis tools, frameworks, techniques and practices to elicit, define and organize business requirements, across multiple stakeholder groups. Translate & document these business requirements into user stories & specifications (Full Stack, Cross System) detailing integration points, business & associated risk / opportunities to be realised. And following this analysis, work collaboratively within squads to ensure the business requirements are met through DevOps design & delivery activity & lead the application of testing processes & frameworks ensuring all products & services are effectively tested. Business complexity is determined by:

• Customer Impact
• Number of integration points:
• Data
• Teams to talk to
• Systems
• Enabling function
• 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)

Job Description

Analysis (including Business Case)

• Lead the analysis process for complex business areas
• Proactively build relationships, apply analytical techniques to elicit and validate business (product & service) needs ahead of demand
• Implement routines to get to know / become an expert in various business processes (e.g. spend time in business & with users)
• Translate elicited needs and knowledge acquired into user story format that is immediately usable for DevOps teams (right languaging, format for building & testing)
• Prepare and prioritise the backlog of requirements for the user stories linked to the proposed solutions
• Proactively scan the internal & external environment to predict change requirements & opportunities for improvement ahead of demand (e.g. market, risk, regulatory, customer, organizational change etc.)
• Work collaboratively with Tribe Leads (Technical Product / Service Owners) to build a roadmap & vision for the products and services (including detailed analysis requirements & solution scope)
• Define measures of success & key outcomes for various solutions / changes including detailed acceptance criteria for all features
• Define testing requirements (pass or fail test cases)
• Support the development of detailed business cases (including defining solution characteristics, effort estimations etc.)

Solution Design (within DevOps Context)

• Translate business requirements into an integrated system vision & detailed systems requirements. Detailed system requirements must include all capabilities, interfaces and functionalities within and across technologies.
• Build detailed user stories to be leveraged for system requirements design (modular)
• Leverage business analysis & modeling tools and apply notation standards such as UML/BPMN to diagrammatically/visually document: business requirements, business processes, system processes & integration .
• Facilitate processes to ensure integrated requirements are socialized, understood & approved across the broad range of stakeholders to be impacted (this includes various processes e.g. risk / governance forums, change council, scrum meetings / DevOps team capability building, solution design sessions etc.)
• Understand & leverage knowledge on the organisations technical landscape, environment and broader architecture to define integration points across tech stacks for various requirements
• Work collaboratively with project / program teams, squads, scrum masters and engineers to define backlog, release & DevOps / project planning implications of the requirements development & roadmap (what should happen when)
• Work as part of the embedded DevOps team to continuously improve system requirements mapping (e.g. leverage input from questions asked etc. to consistently improve the quality of the requirements analysis for easier interpretation by the development teams)
• Work as part of the embedded DevOps team throughout the design process to review solution design (features and functionality)
• Facilitate resolution & decision making during development & testing phases for any change requirements

Solution Delivery & Testing (manual)

• Define the manual testing strategy & test cases for various solutions (where it makes sense to do so)
• Define & validate quality & testing parameters (+/-) & plans for the solution (socialize & translate these to automation testing teams)
• Develop manual testing frameworks and patterns for the solution
• Lead the manual testing process for various solutions (e.g. execute test cases, analyse results)
• Provide real time feedback to the DevOps teams on change requirements identified throughout the testing process
• Review & monitor system stability, resilience etc. throughout the testing process (e.g. integration) & in production
• Define & monitor overall backlog planning for effective solution delivery
• Provide Developer & User support during user acceptance testing

Process Design & Modelling

• Provide input & or lead the development / improvement of organization wide process design approaches, templates & modeling tools

People

• Provide coaching & mentoring across the DevOps team as well as to developing analysts across the estate
• Build strong analysis capability across the analysis team
• Conduct peer reviews & problem solving within and across the broader team
• Provide technical subject matter expertise and support in the attraction and recruitment of Analysts for the organization
• Participate as a subject matter expert in the development & development planning of the broader analyst team
• Support the people change teams in the design of adoption processes (Customer, Employee & 3rd Party Adoption of new system requirements)
• Proactively attract, recruit, develop, retain, reward & deploy & manage a diverse resource base aligned to an ever evolving tech environment (ahead of demand) where you are the leader

Education

• Bachelor's Degree: Information Technology

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Job Summary

• Provide complex advice and support in ensuring statutory requirements relating to the Company's Act are complied with.

Job Description

Accountability: Stakeholder engagement

• Act as the primary point of contact for the portfolio of companies.
• Establish trust and credibility by demonstrating knowledge of key areas within the AFS portfolio.
• Act as a trusted advisor on ICC related matters and provide guidance to the boards and/or committees on relevant regulatory matters.
• Build consensus amongst diverse viewpoints – able to champion the interests of all stakeholders in a balanced manner by applying the required discretion and diplomacy.
• Engage with relevant members of management, and the Group Secretariat team in alignment with relevant stakeholders to ensure effective calendar planning, meeting logistics and distribution of board and committee papers.
• Collaborate and contribute to the preparation of the companies’ annual financial statements and be accountable for the approval and distribution thereof to relevant stakeholders such as the Regulators.
• Work closely with Compliance to ensure the boards proactively and effectively comply with all relevant legislation and best practices.
• In regard to board and/or committees, liaise with relevant Chairman and other colleagues regarding the items referred to above.
• Manage the system of distribution of papers (Diligent) and ensure appropriate quality, availability and risk controls in relation to such system.
• Liaise with pack contributors and ensure appropriate training with a view to quality products.
• Access global and local practices, industry best practice and optimise the benefit of engagement with others in the field including in the Group Secretariat team.

Accountability: Board and Committee meetings

• Act as the Secretary to the nominated boards and/or committees.

In particular:

• Take accurate minutes at all meetings and distribute them timeously (within 7 days);
• If required, prepare a summary of the board and/or committee meeting for dissemination to the members (first submitting to seniors in the Secretariat team and thereafter to the Chairman of the board and/or committee, within 3 days of the meeting (or sooner if required);
• Identify all matters arising, verify these and distribute them to relevant stakeholders within 7 days of the meeting;
• Attend to the drafting of meeting agendas in consultation with the board and/or committee Chairman and the responsible executives to reflect the matters for discussion at each meeting;
• Update the board and/or committee forward planners;
• Distribute the agenda in advance of the meeting to the Chairman of the board and/or committee, for comments;
• Distribute the minutes well in advance of the meeting pack being distributed to the Chairman of the board and/or committee, for comments;
• Coordinate the preparation and distribution of meeting packs;
• Load agendas and papers on Diligent;
• Check that all logistical arrangements have been made in relation to the meeting (technology to be used; invitations to presenters; PDF extracts of the pack for presenters; etc);
• Obtain the timeous signature of the board and/or committee Chairman on the approved minutes;
• Coordinate the preparation of the annual meeting schedules;
• Assist with incoming queries related to the board and/or committee.

Accountability: Corporate Governance

• Advise Directors on the proper application of applicable governance requirements.
• Ensure that the Group Governance Framework, ICC Governance Framework, and Legal Entities and Directors Policy is applied to all entities within the assigned portfolio.
• Coordinate Board succession planning by ensuring that Board Succession Planning is discussed at least annually.
• Upon the exit or appointments of new directors, update the information on all company documents and advise the requisite authorities, regulators including but not limited to Prudential Authority, Financial Sector Conduct Authority, CIPC, South African Reserve Bank
• Make available to new members of the board and/or committee a suitable induction process and, for existing members, ongoing training where appropriate including developments and trends in regard to the mandate of the board and committee and as arranged with the Chairman.
• Identify Corporate Governance trends and training topics and ensure that the board and/or committee members are trained on a regular basis.
• Ensure directors and members are informed of changes in legislation as may be appropriate.
• Review board charters and terms of reference for relevant committees from time to time having regard to governance, operational and policy requirements and particular regulations / governance requirements.

Accountability: People Management

• Supervise direct reports to ensure effective daily operations.
• Develop a high performing team by conducting regular operational performance discussions.
• Coach and mentor team members on how to improve their own productivity and use of the bank’s processes and systems and on technical matters.
• Based on training plans agreed with the line manager of the area, monitor team members to ensure that planned training is undertaken.
• Together with the line manager for the area, interview candidates to join the team and provide input into the recruitment decision. The line manager for the area is the final decision-maker on who joins the team.
• Make recommendations to the line manager on how to improve the plans and suggest how resources could be reallocated in case of excessive workload.
• Review and update the team’s role descriptions on at least an annual basis to ensure that they are fit for purpose and contain all the accountabilities of each team member. Explain any updates to team members.
• When required, recommend to the line manager to initiate disciplinary processes for team members. Participate in collecting the evidence for the case.
• Identify employees that are not meeting performance targets and make recommendations to the line manager to place employees on the relevant performance improvement programme.

Accountability: Records Management

• Record all the critical documents such as minutes, annual reports, resolutions and CoR forms in the correct format as per the Companies Act, Insurance Acts & the Absa Records Management Policy.
• Ensure that records are kept at the registered addresses of the companies and that records are constantly updated on Secretarial Software Solutions (SSS).
• Ensure that signed minutes of meetings are maintained on the server and hard copies pasted in the minute book.
• Dispose of records 7 years after the liquidation or deregistration of the entry concerned, unless otherwise required.

Accountability: Your own career

• Agree your goals and objectives with your line manager.
• Advise your line manager if you have insufficient work or have insufficiently challenging work in order to assist with the balance of work in the team.
• Identify any training, or areas for development, that you feel that you have.
• Collaborate with peers in the team for the benefit of Group Secretariat as a whole.
• Contribute towards training initiatives for the benefit of Group Secretariat as a whole.

Role / Person Specification

Education And Experience Required

• B-degree in Commerce or Law. NQF level 6
• A recognised degree or diploma in Corporate Governance
• Registered with Chartered Governance Institute of Southern Africa (formerly Chartered Secretaries Southern Africa) or similar institution
• 5 -7 years previous experience in a reporting function dealing with reporting to Board / Board Committee / Exco / Exco subcommittee level
• At least five (5) years' experience in dealing with internal and external stakeholders, where deadlines require effective organisational planning, time management and a track record of delivering quality deliverables

Specific Knowledge and Skills for Board Committees to be supported

• Very commercially and financially literate
• Understanding of the banking environment in context of the bancassurance business model
• Sound knowledge of insurance and financial services sector
• Familiar with banking and insurance metrics including but not limited to financial, and risk management
• Understanding of legislation and regulations applicable to Insurance and financial services or the ability to easily familiarise in regard thereto.

Knowledge & Skills:

• Professional engagement with particularly senior and executive stakeholders
• High level of attention to detail and accuracy
• Strong written communication skills including minutes and report writing
• Effective verbal skills
• Team management and engagement skills
• Well organised
• Good time management skills
• Ability to operate under pressure
• Discretion - sensitive and confidential material Level
• PC literacy incl. Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook

Competencies

• Deciding and initiating action
• Learning and researching
• Entrepreneurial and commercial thinking
• Relating and networking
• Adapting and responding to change
• Persuading and influencing
• Creating and innovating
• Attention to detail
• Demonstrated ability to lead a small team
• Demonstrated ability to work effectively in a complex organisation across multicultural environments and teams
• Team player who can work collaboratively as part of a task or a process-oriented group

Education

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

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Job Summary

• Drive the design and delivery of complex fit for purpose, business strategy-aligned, high impact, cross domain technology solution blueprints & associated solutions & build architectural capability in Dev teams across an estate.

Job Description

Architecture

• Leverage a solid & deep understanding of the organization strategy to identify, design & deliver relevant, scalable, testable, re-usable technology solutions
• Work in collaboration with delivery teams to independently analyse customer requirements & varying business capabilities & leverage analysis to identify & accurately spec / frame ‘the complex business problems we are aiming to solve’ with each solution design or solution evolution
• Through the above processes, leverage emotional, social & business / commercial quotient to understand consumers and the broader range of stakeholders, their opinions & perspectives and reconcile these within the solution designs (negotiation skills and dealing with complex and divergent stakeholder opinions are a must)
• Leverage expertise in analytical & creative problem solving to synthesise a solution design (build a solution from its components) beyond the analysis of the problem
• Lead design thinking processes to successfully deliver solution blueprints & associated roadmaps
• Create end to end solution blueprints & ensure these can be implemented across all phases of the initiative life-cycle (ideation through to product launch & commercialization)
• Design & or contribute to the design & implementation of detailed feasibilities & business cases
• Leverage a strong engineering background to make the right choices in solution design – this knowledge includes but is not limited to: domain driven design, loosely coupled integration, microservices and other modern software design practices
• The above extends to identifying the best fit tools to be used for a particular solution, understanding those that would not be a good choice and leveraging researching skills to pivot towards something better
• Assume ‘one stop’ shop accountability for solution blueprint design & delivery decisions within an organization based on the above
• Work with project / program management teams to design solution roadmaps aligned to the strategic requirements of an organization and through which the solution can be implemented across all phases of the initiative life-cycle (ideation through to product launch and commercialization)
• Work embedded, as part of a delivery team, to ensure the successful design & implementation of solution blueprints
• Ensure that the detail of the solution (across all architecture domains) is accurate to the implementation of the initiative, true to the bank’s architectural principles/preferences, implementable by the different teams involved in the solution
• Work as part of embedded delivery teams to conduct solution reviews, code reviews, testing and other disciplines associated with solution design & delivery
• Attend various Group & Business specific architectural design forums and present solution designs and detailed business cases for approval
• Leverage synthesis & creative problem skills to identify risk (impending danger & challenges) and work with a cross functional group of stakeholders across the value chain for support & direction
• Conduct solution reviews against defined customer metrics and ensure the ongoing achievement of business results through solution implementation
• Ensure a solid understanding of emerging & evolving architectural principles and hold one stop shop accountability for the evolution of solutions in alignment with these principles (where it makes sense to do so)
• Build architectural capability across delivery teams in a business to ensure ongoing evolution of skills in solution delivery
• Contribute to the architecture body of knowledge
• Contribute to the design & evolution of architectural principles and preferences

People

• Participate in peer reviews (code, solution, testing etc.) and transfer knowledge and capability across delivery teams for improved solutioning & evolving architectural practices
• Set & Cascade solution direction across technology delivery teams
• Build & evolve the architectural capability of Delivery teams across the business – through active coaching & information / knowledge sharing
• As an SME, support the proactive attraction, recruitment, development, & retention of strong technology teams across an estate
• Leverage and embed agile practices in delivery teams and work to build strong self-directed, high performance teams through agile working practices (including daily, weekly, etc. sprint routines, regular & honest feedback etc.)

Financial & Vendor Management, Risk & Governance

• Carry the ‘one stop shop’ accountability for all risk associated with solution design (from ideation to deployment)
• Apply the organization risk & governance frameworks
• Ensure solution design alignment to Group guidelines & ensure solutions are sustainable for the enterprise
• Proactively involve / engage chapter & guild leads in solution decision making, applying an enterprise wide lens to product & service development
• Ensure solution design alignment to regulatory requirements and continuously update knowledge on regulatory requirements for the successful design of new & evolution of existing solutions
• Deliver on time & on budget (always)

Education

• Bachelor's Degree: Information Technology