Absa Group

Empowering Africa’s tomorrow, together…one story at a time.

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

Lead the transformation of digital channels through secure development practices (DevSecOps), enhancing customer engagement and operational efficiency. Drive innovation and automation across platforms to support strategic business objectives and ensure compliance with security standards.

Job Description

KEY FOCUS AREAS

• Implement and operate DevSecOps platforms and delivery pipelines within approved infrastructure frameworks
• Lead CI/CD toolchain implementation, container orchestration, and microservices platform operations
• Ensure reliable, secure, and efficient application deployment and release management processes
• Drive automation excellence in development environment provisioning and platform monitoring
• Manage application security implementation, code quality frameworks, and operational observability
• Optimize developer productivity through platform services and self-service capabilities within infrastructure governance standards

ACCOUNTABILITIES

Strategy Formulation and Execution

• Lead the strategic integration of DevSecOps principles into digital channel development and operations.
• Define and execute digital transformation roadmaps that prioritise secure, scalable, and customer-centric platforms.
• Align digital channel strategies with enterprise architecture and security frameworks.
• Translate long-term strategic objectives into aligned business plans, execution roadmaps and key milestone measurements for the business area.
• Cascade strategic goals and ensure alignment between business unit vision and functional implementation priorities, setting clear short, medium and long-term milestones.
• Develop effective partnerships to enable business performance and contribute to sector-wide influence aligned with strategic initiatives.
• Respond to emerging policy and regulatory trends by adapting operational strategy and ensuring compliance alignment.
• Coordinate business enablement efforts for Business Banking, ensuring delivery capability across systems, processes, and teams.
• Track execution progress against key strategic initiatives and intervene to correct course where needed.
• Support transformation initiatives through structured programme delivery and change management practices.
• Provide expert advice and support in operating model, strategy, and value chain formulation and delivery alignment.
• Identify practices and technologies that provide competitive advantage and enable knowledge sharing and integration of practice areas.
• Undertake analysis of management and specialist information and guide reporting tool implementation to improve decision-making quality.

Customer Primacy

• Champion secure and seamless digital experiences that meet evolving customer expectations.
• Leverage DevSecOps practices to ensure reliability and responsiveness of customer-facing platforms.
• Use customer feedback and analytics to continuously improve digital service delivery.
• Interpret market and customer insights to inform operational plans and prioritise capability investments.
• Utilise customer data to improve processes and propositions, ensuring measurable customer value delivery.
• Instil customer-centric decision-making in teams, balancing experience and efficiency targets.
• Implement initiatives that improve customer engagement and retention through operational enhancements.
• Coordinate cross-functional initiatives to deliver consistent customer journeys and service quality.
• Represent the voice of the customer within leadership forums to influence service delivery priorities.
• Plan and deliver services that create a culture which aims to exceed customer expectations in all aspects of the business.
• Provide expertise in designing integrated frameworks to embed service excellence.

Sustainable Growth

• Drive growth through the expansion and optimisation of secure digital channels.
• Identify and implement technologies that support scalable and sustainable digital operations.
• Collaborate with business units to align digital initiatives with revenue and engagement goals.
• Develop business area growth plans aligned to segment and enterprise priorities.
• Work with business partners to define and execute on growth strategies and operational initiatives.
• Mobilise functional teams to deliver growth targets and embed performance accountability.
• Monitor growth delivery, resolving barriers and reinforcing strategic objectives at operational levels.
• Evaluate financial and customer returns on initiatives to ensure alignment with business viability.
• Formulate and develop multi-function operating frameworks that contribute to sustainable growth.

Client-Driven Innovation and Change

• Foster a culture of innovation by embedding DevSecOps into the digital delivery lifecycle.
• Lead initiatives that transform customer engagement through automation and agile delivery.
• Evaluate emerging technologies to enhance digital channel capabilities and security.
• Monitor competitive landscape and identify opportunities to improve products, services, or operations.
• Drive continuous improvement and innovation within the team to enhance customer outcomes.
• Shape client experience initiatives through project ownership and delivery responsibility.
• Lead operational change, ensuring readiness, engagement, and measured impact across delivery teams.
• Influence and communicate across all levels of the business to minimise resistance to change and ensure onboarding of target audiences.
• Scan the external environment to investigate alternative delivery models and offer innovative advice for competitive advantage.
• Drive change management activities across a single value chain for optimal adoption of change.

Leading Talent

• Build and lead high-performing teams skilled in DevSecOps, agile delivery, and digital innovation.
• Mentor talent in secure development practices and cross-functional collaboration.
• Promote continuous learning and capability development in digital disciplines.
• Embed people processes and values into business routines, reinforcing a strong leadership culture.
• Develop workforce capabilities to meet business plan execution requirements and future readiness.
• Create inclusive team environments that support performance, wellbeing, and growth.
• Address escalated people issues and ensure application of performance and development processes.
• Develop future leaders through mentorship, stretch assignments, and tailored development experiences.

Operational Effectiveness

• Execute platform operations within approved infrastructure governance frameworks and budget allocations
• Collaborate with infrastructure teams to ensure seamless integration between strategic architecture and operational delivery
• Report platform performance metrics and operational excellence indicators to infrastructure governance forums
• Implement DevSecOps pipelines to streamline development, testing, and deployment processes.
• Optimise digital operations for speed, security, and scalability.
• Use performance metrics and analytics to drive operational improvements across digital channels.
• Operationalise strategic goals into functional plans with clear deliverables, timelines, scorecards with team and individual KPIs to enable effective tracking of business and individual performance.
• Set appropriate financial and other resourcing plans to enable business performance, tracking against budgets and investments for both current and long-term strategic goals.
• Ensure integration across business units by resolving operational friction and dependencies.
• Represent the business area in operational forums and with delivery partners.
• Leverage data insights to improve operational effectiveness and customer outcomes.
• Continuously improve processes for agility, quality, and alignment with customer needs and digital tools.
• Identify problems and formulate alternate solutions to resolve value chain conflicts.
• Provide expert advice on operating model, strategy, value chain formulation, and business controls/governance frameworks.

Digital Adoption

• Accelerate the adoption of secure digital tools and platforms across the organisation.
• Promote automation and self-service capabilities to enhance user experience and efficiency.
• Ensure digital solutions are integrated with enterprise systems and aligned with business outcomes.
• Execute digital initiatives and promote adoption of technologies that improve efficiency and user experience.
• Monitor digital platform performance and ensure integration with business processes and outcomes.
• Deliberately identify opportunities to digitise, automate, and implement solutions for customer primacy, innovation, and operational effectiveness.

Governance, Risk and Compliance

• Embed security and compliance into every stage of the digital delivery lifecycle.
• Monitor and manage risks associated with digital channel operations and data handling.
• Ensure adherence to regulatory standards and internal governance frameworks.
• Implement governance, risk, and compliance frameworks in business processes and team routines.
• Promote risk awareness and lead the response to regulatory changes and emerging issues.
• Support audit readiness and ensure operational teams adhere to compliance requirements.
• Define and consolidate the risk profile for the business area, manage critical risks, and ensure resolution feedback to stakeholders.
• Enable the development and implementation of integrated corporate governance frameworks in areas of specialisation.
• Influence the implementation of effective internal controls systems and corporate governance practices.

Data Monetisation

• Use data from digital channels to uncover insights and drive strategic decisions.
• Develop secure data pipelines that support analytics and performance monitoring.
• Enable data-driven innovation in customer engagement and operational efficiency.
• Apply data insights to support business planning and decision-making in the business area.
• Develop mechanisms to ensure data is collected, validated, and used to drive performance improvement.
• Oversee the explicit use of data and its inherent value to explore opportunities and guide decisions.

Stakeholder Management

• Participate in infrastructure governance forums to represent operational delivery requirements
• Coordinate with CIO Digital on platform architecture decisions and technology standard implementations
• Manage relationships with key stakeholders to support aligned delivery and issue resolution.
• Ensure stakeholder expectations are managed and engagement is consistent with transformation priorities.

QUALIFICATIONS AND EXPERIENCE

Education/ Qualification:

• Post Graduate Degree: Honours Degree, Post Graduate Diploma and Professional Qualifications [NQF8]

Field of Study:

• Computer Science, Information Systems, Software Engineering, or related fields.

Work Experience:

• 12 - 15 years experience in a specific capability of importance to the bank, including a track record of 5 years in a people management position in a large enterprise.
• Experience must include developing integrated customer-centric product or service solutions or corporate practice development while working with and managing stakeholders across business and/or functional areas and budget management.
• Exposure to digital transformation and data-driven decision-making is preferred.
• Demonstrated success in leading secure digital transformation initiatives, implementing DevSecOps frameworks, and enhancing customer experience through technology
• Experience in engaging executive stakeholders in strategic planning, digital innovation, and enterprise-wide security and compliance initiatives.

COMPETENCIES

Leadership Competencies:

• Strategic Thinking
• Business Acumen
• Communication
• Influence
• Leadership
• Creativity and Innovation
• Delivering Results
• Adaptability
• Collaboration

Knowledge and Skills:

• DevSecOps frameworks and practices
• Agile and lean methodologies
• Digital platform architecture
• Secure software development lifecycle
• Cloud-native technologies and automation
• Customer experience design
• Data analytics and performance monitoring
• Regulatory compliance and governance in digital environments
• Strategic planning and execution
• Stakeholder engagement and communication

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

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