Head Digital Solutions job at Absa Bank

About Organisation:

ABSA Bank Uganda is a diversified standalone African financial services group, delivering an integrated set of products and services across personal and business banking, corporate and investment banking, wealth, investment management and insurance. Absa Group Limited is listed on the JSE and is one of Africa’s largest diversified financial services groups with a presence in 12 countries across the continent and around 41 000 employees.

Job Summary:

Reporting to the Head of Digital Banking, the holder will drive the development, management, and enhancement of digital products offered by the bank. The holders primary focus will be creating, enhancing, delivering & management of customer centric digital products. Further, they will manage & groom the product roadmap while prioritizing & reprioritizing in line with customer and business needs. Holder will play the core task of shaping the banks digital solutions portfolio, driving innovation, and delivering value to customers while achieving business objectives and maintaining a competitive superior digital edge in the market.

Key Duties and Responsibilities:

Digital Strategy 50%

• Develop digital solutions that will drive successful product strategies and tactics in the fintech consumer space and platform models that will attract new partners, producers, and consumers.
• As the Innovation steward, define an innovation strategy that is relevant for core innovations, adjacent innovations, and disruptive innovations.
• Manage digital products through the product lifecycle right from development to decline and applying the right strategic focus for each phase of in the life cycle.
• Define the right key performance indicators for each product and track these indicators to ensure that the product is meeting business goals, and that the product is meeting its strategy.
• Continuous review of product strategies taking into consideration; competition, product performance, trends and catapult bank goals and capabilities.
• Vetting potential opportunities for strategic partnership, opportunity sizing and reviewing commercial and technical feasibilities for investment.
• Owning and driving the overall digital road map in line with business needs, oversee implementation and delivery of the same within budget and commercial targets and cost effectively.
• Define digital strategy and align digital solutions to meet the set revenue mission.

Product Management 30%

• Design the unit’s digital product management architecture and ensure its execution across all delivery actors.
• Define best practices digital product management processes which includes digital product vision, digital product strategy formulation, roadmap development.
• Link between commercial and technology teams to ensure to ensure optimal build for commercial value & alignment to GTM strategies.
• Assure effective governance of the unit’s practices in line with the Group policies and service standards.
• Craft and build the solutions for scale and distribution via digital and alternative channels.
• Uphold operational excellence to meet the Audit and Enterprise risk framework of the Group.

People Management 20%

• Build and grow high capability digital product teams, demonstrate success in hiring, coaching, developing, and enabling a team of product managers in a B2C, B2B business and ecosystems.
• Leading a team of digital channel managers, designers, working and collaborating with tech, vendors, partners, commercial, financial, legal compliance, marketing, and finance teams to ensure the solutions meet the criteria

Qualifications, Skills and Experience:

• University Degree
• Preferred Experience
• At least 8 years’ work experience, 3 of which should have been in a similar capacity with a proven track record.
• 5 years of Technical Product Management experience (i.e. creating strategic product roadmap(s) from conception to launch and working with cross-functional teams).
• Experience driving the product vision, go-to-market strategy, and design discussions.
• Knowledge of multiple functional areas such as Digital Technologies, Digital business model design, Engineering, UX/UI, Product Management, In-depth understanding of the various mobile banking platforms
• In-depth understanding of Financial Technology (Fintech).
• Maintain up to date knowledge of competitor and local market activity

Technical Competencies

• Able to form a clear product vision that align the digital business goals with the overall company goals. Ensures that product strategies and product tactics are based align to product visons and goals thereof.
• Can use an extremely broad range of influencing approaches, tactics and styles in order to engage effectively with the stakeholder landscape, whilst recognising the cultural context.
• Naturally inquisitive and successful in researching key issues. Can reflect on what needs to happen next, what might get in the way, and therefore what needs to be put in place to ensure progress. Is aware of what constitutes best practice in the commercial and Fintech sector and strives to deliver this.
• Creates a commercial and customer-oriented team framework that ensures that tasks are performed by staff members with appropriate capacity and authority level (based on knowledge, skills and competence).
• Effective in establishing appropriate goals and objectives and can ensure that they are delivered on time and within budget.
• Inculcates a culture of product management excellence – product leadership, accountability, high-performance teams, customer and market focus, robust solutions, alignment, discipline, speed and quality.
• Implements incentives and metrics to support such agility.
• Assess the organization’s vision, goals, objectives, and strategies to identify the desired future. Can analyse the existing organizational structure, policies, politics, problems, opportunities, technology, etc., to build a compelling business case for change.
• Anticipates internal and or external business challenges and/or regulatory issues and leads process, product, or service improvements.
• Safeguards ROI of an organisation by ensuring the right investments are being made in at the right time for the right reasons.
• Understands financial concepts and terms, can use them to describe events and can incorporate the same in problem solving and decision making.

Behavioral/ Cognitive competencies.

• Knows own strengths and limits; aware of own emotions and the effect they have on others and has the self-control to keep disruptive emotions and impulses in check.
• Interacts with people (colleagues, customers, stakeholders and the public at large) in different social and cultural environments, showing respect and positive regard for them in an ethical and appropriate that are consistently with the values of the organization.
• Able to change plans, methods, opinions, or goals considering new information, with the readiness to act on opportunities. Highly effective in adapting to differing environments.
• Inculcates a digital mind-set in the organization, institutionalising cross-functional collaboration, flattening hierarchies, devolving decision making to smaller teams, and building environments that creatively partnering with external companies to extend necessary capabilities to encourage the generation of new ideas and developing more iterative and rapid ways of doing things.
• Implements incentives and metrics to support such agility.
• Have a strategic approach to personal and professional development actively seeking feedback from others to which they will respond by establishing self-development goals.
• Seek to experience a range of relevant career opportunities in the context of a long-term plan enabling them to deliver the truly outstanding contribution required.
• Delivers results and has significant impact on an organiza

• Develop digital solutions that will drive successful product strategies and tactics in the fintech consumer space and platform models that will attract new partners, producers, and consumers.
• As the Innovation steward, define an innovation strategy that is relevant for core innovations, adjacent innovations, and disruptive innovations.
• Manage digital products through the product lifecycle right from development to decline and applying the right strategic focus for each phase of in the life cycle.
• Define the right key performance indicators for each product and track these indicators to ensure that the product is meeting business goals, and that the product is meeting its strategy.
• Continuous review of product strategies taking into consideration; competition, product performance, trends and catapult bank goals and capabilities.
• Vetting potential opportunities for strategic partnership, opportunity sizing and reviewing commercial and technical feasibilities for investment.
• Owning and driving the overall digital road map in line with business needs, oversee implementation and delivery of the same within budget and commercial targets and cost effectively.
• Define digital strategy and align digital solutions to meet the set revenue mission.
• Design the unit’s digital product management architecture and ensure its execution across all delivery actors.
• Define best practices digital product management processes which includes digital product vision, digital product strategy formulation, roadmap development.
• Link between commercial and technology teams to ensure to ensure optimal build for commercial value & alignment to GTM strategies.
• Assure effective governance of the unit’s practices in line with the Group policies and service standards.
• Craft and build the solutions for scale and distribution via digital and alternative channels.
• Uphold operational excellence to meet the Audit and Enterprise risk framework of the Group.
• Build and grow high capability digital product teams, demonstrate success in hiring, coaching, developing, and enabling a team of product managers in a B2C, B2B business and ecosystems.
• Leading a team of digital channel managers, designers, working and collaborating with tech, vendors, partners, commercial, financial, legal compliance, marketing, and finance teams to ensure the solutions meet the criteria

• Able to form a clear product vision that align the digital business goals with the overall company goals. Ensures that product strategies and product tactics are based align to product visons and goals thereof.
• Can use an extremely broad range of influencing approaches, tactics and styles in order to engage effectively with the stakeholder landscape, whilst recognising the cultural context.
• Naturally inquisitive and successful in researching key issues. Can reflect on what needs to happen next, what might get in the way, and therefore what needs to be put in place to ensure progress. Is aware of what constitutes best practice in the commercial and Fintech sector and strives to deliver this.
• Creates a commercial and customer-oriented team framework that ensures that tasks are performed by staff members with appropriate capacity and authority level (based on knowledge, skills and competence).
• Effective in establishing appropriate goals and objectives and can ensure that they are delivered on time and within budget.
• Inculcates a culture of product management excellence – product leadership, accountability, high-performance teams, customer and market focus, robust solutions, alignment, discipline, speed and quality.
• Implements incentives and metrics to support such agility.
• Assess the organization’s vision, goals, objectives, and strategies to identify the desired future. Can analyse the existing organizational structure, policies, politics, problems, opportunities, technology, etc., to build a compelling business case for change.
• Anticipates internal and or external business challenges and/or regulatory issues and leads process, product, or service improvements.
• Safeguards ROI of an organisation by ensuring the right investments are being made in at the right time for the right reasons.
• Understands financial concepts and terms, can use them to describe events and can incorporate the same in problem solving and decision making.
• Knows own strengths and limits; aware of own emotions and the effect they have on others and has the self-control to keep disruptive emotions and impulses in check.
• Interacts with people (colleagues, customers, stakeholders and the public at large) in different social and cultural environments, showing respect and positive regard for them in an ethical and appropriate that are consistently with the values of the organization.
• Able to change plans, methods, opinions, or goals considering new information, with the readiness to act on opportunities. Highly effective in adapting to differing environments.
• Inculcates a digital mind-set in the organization, institutionalising cross-functional collaboration, flattening hierarchies, devolving decision making to smaller teams, and building environments that creatively partnering with external companies to extend necessary capabilities to encourage the generation of new ideas and developing more iterative and rapid ways of doing things.
• Implements incentives and metrics to support such agility.
• Have a strategic approach to personal and professional development actively seeking feedback from others to which they will respond by establishing self-development goals.
• Seek to experience a range of relevant career opportunities in the context of a long-term plan enabling them to deliver the truly outstanding contribution required.

• University Degree
• At least 8 years’ work experience, 3 of which should have been in a similar capacity with a proven track record.
• 5 years of Technical Product Management experience (i.e. creating strategic product roadmap(s) from conception to launch and working with cross-functional teams).
• Experience driving the product vision, go-to-market strategy, and design discussions.
• Knowledge of multiple functional areas such as Digital Technologies, Digital business model design, Engineering, UX/UI, Product Management, In-depth understanding of the various mobile banking platforms
• In-depth understanding of Financial Technology (Fintech).
• Maintain up to date knowledge of competitor and local market activity