Chief Information Officer: Digital Technology

Absa Group; Johannesburg; On-site; ZAR 1 200 000 - 1 600 000; Full time

Job summary

A leading financial services group in Johannesburg is seeking a Digital Technology Leader. This role involves driving the digital technology strategy, enhancing customer experience, and leading technology transformation to meet business objectives. The ideal candidate will have extensive experience in technology leadership within financial services and a postgraduate degree in Information Technology. The position offers the opportunity to shape the future of digital banking in an innovative environment.

Qualifications

• 15+ years in large-scale technology leadership roles within Financial Services.
• At least 7 years in executive roles across technology and/or technology transformation.
• Experience in digital technologies and core banking systems.

Responsibilities

• Lead the Retail Digital Technology strategy.
• Drive transformation practices to enhance customer-centricity.
• Manage operational resilience of Retail Digital Technology platforms.

Skills

Leadership in technology

Digital technology strategy

Agile engineering

Risk management

Stakeholder management

Education

Postgraduate Degrees in Information Technology

Job description

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, steer and build Digital technology capabilities that support and enable Retail Digital Banking to a purpose of integrated channel with seamless and premium experiences to customers, defining and executing Digital technology strategy, architecture, infrastructure, operations and platform solutions.
Collaborate across all Technology portfolios to align and deliver cohesive competitive digital technology bringing together an orchestrated view of Retail technology to meet digital business priorities and future-bank aspirations, and in support of growth, scalability, and innovation goals.
Deliver secure and stable Retail Digital technology to support transformation, run, and grow mandates.

Job Description

KEY FOCUS AREAS

• Lead the Retail Digital Technology strategy and contribute to a future-fit architectural vision shaping the Retail digital infrastructure and capabilities
• Provide thought leadership for digital technologies across the Retail ecosystem
• Define and steer the long-term digital technology direction of the bank’s retail value chain to lead to increased competitiveness and support transformation, innovation and enterprise growth.
• The strategic window could vary between 5 and 15 years.
• Build and apply technology capabilities to enable and drive reimagined digital business models, improve customer experience and unlock new revenue streams.
• Promote and elevate data strategy as a core business enabler, ensuring it drives insights, value creation and informed decision-making at all levels.
• Anticipate future Digital Technology risks and collaborate to design Retail ecosystem-wide strategies to ensure cyber resilience, business continuity and operational security.
• Forge strategic technology partnerships and ecosystems to accelerate digital innovation and access to emerging capabilities.
• Embed Agile engineering and DevOps practices across digital squads and delivery teams to drive velocity, flexibility, and responsiveness to change.
• Act as a strategic partner to the business – collaborate and co-create on product solutions that enable growth ambitions, enhance customer value, and bring the Retail Bank’s vision to life.

ACCOUNTABILITIES

Strategy Formulation and Execution

• Lead the Retail Digital Technology strategy and contribute to a future-fit architectural vision that integrates core banking modernisation, cloud adoption, platform engineering, and cross-portfolio interoperability.
• Influence the Retail Bank’s technology investment decisions to improve operational efficiency and competitive advantage.
• Set and articulate a long-term strategy with defined objectives, success metrics, and alignment to Group direction and shareholder value creation
• Strengthen the bank’s competitiveness through strategic partnerships and industry influence.
• Drive the disciplined execution of strategic priorities, ensuring business enablement and operational readiness across the business unit.
• Develop and communicate a clear strategic vision for the business area, ensuring alignment with organisational goals, fostering a culture of innovation, and influencing industry discourse.
• Drive and monitor performance, ensuring timely delivery against strategic goals, and provide transparent reporting on progress, risks, and outcomes.
• Lead transformation as a deeply committed journey, positioning the bank as a customer-centric organisation underpinned by robust journey management and market-leading technology systems and practices.

Customer Primacy

• Ensure digital technology platforms directly enable superior customer experience.
• Support customer value propositions by delivering secure, scalable, and personalised digital technology capabilities.
• Apply deep customer understanding to guide capability development, prioritisation, and value creation across the business.
• Champion a culture of customer-centricity that balances exceptional experience with sustainable financial performance.
• Prioritise customer-centric initiatives that use data and insights to elevate customer experience, satisfaction, and loyalty—driving both growth and profitability.
• Promote collaboration across business units and product areas to harmonise capabilities, ensuring seamless and differentiated customer journeys.
• Advocate for the segment agenda at executive level, ensuring alignment and integration with Group priorities and cross-functional stakeholders.

Sustainable Growth

• Drive the delivery of the segment growth agenda in alignment with Group strategic priorities and shareholder expectations.
• Collaborate across the Executive team and with key stakeholders to translate strategic intent into executable growth plans.
• Mobilise the business area to deliver on strategic objectives, securing ownership, accountability, and cross-functional commitment.
• Accelerate the segment and the business area’s contribution to sustainable, enterprise-wide performance and long-term value creation.
• Ensure investment decisions reflect both customer and product P&L considerations, and that they align to strategic imperatives and financial sustainability.

Client-Driven Innovation and Change

• Drive the scalability of digital technologies and platforms to support business growth across customer, product, and digital portfolios.
• Deliver fit-for-purpose systems that support high-volume transaction environments and future expansion models.
• Collaborate across the Executive team and with key stakeholders to translate strategic intent into executable growth plans.
• Mobilise the business unit to deliver on strategic objectives, securing ownership, accountability, and cross-functional commitment.
• Accelerate the segment and the business unit’s contribution to sustainable, enterprise-wide performance and long-term value creation.
• Stay informed of industry and competitor trends to ensure business decisions support market relevance and client value.
• Actively shape the client experience agenda through strategic input, cross-functional collaboration, and delivery accountability.
• Lead and manage change initiatives with discipline and empathy, driving transformation practices

Leading Talent

• Accountable for building deep specialist leadership across engineering, architecture, platform operations, and technology risk.
• Drive upskilling and future-proofing of technology teams aligned with cloud, digital, and platform innovation roadmaps.
• Adopt and apply enterprise-wide human capital processes in ways that reinforce the organisation’s brand, values, and strategic priorities.
• Ensure leadership and workforce capabilities are developed to meet current and future business needs.
• Foster a high-performance, inclusive culture that supports employee engagement and delivers on the employee value proposition.
• Provide executive oversight on people matters, including performance management, talent recognition, and resolution of escalated issues.
• Attract, develop, and retain top talent, creating pathways for diversified experiences and future-ready skills development.
• Empower leaders to act as culture shapers and catalysts for transformation.

Operational Effectiveness

• Manage and monitor the operational resilience, performance, and security of all Retail Digital Technology platforms.
• Ensure availability, stability and optimisation of architecture and engineering platforms and associated systems.
• Translate strategic priorities into clear implementable operational plans and performance measures, ensuring disciplined execution and timely course correction where required.
• Ensure alignment with other business units to ensure coherent delivery, operational integration, and resource optimisation.
• Represent the business with regulators and in key industry forums, reinforcing strategic positioning and operational credibility.
• Leverage business intelligence, performance insights, and external trends to inform decision-making and shape operational direction.
• Drive operational excellence through comprehensive process reviews aimed at harmonising with customer journeys and enabling faster execution through digital adoption and modernised technologies.

Digital Adoption

• Lead platform enablement and integration to support seamless digital journeys.
• Accountable for alignment and integration between digital technology squads and coordination with other technology squads to deliver business value through reusable, scalable solutions.
• Identify and lead opportunities to digitise, automate, and innovate in ways that enhance customer experience, operational efficiency, and strategic agility.
• Drive the adoption and optimisation of digital platforms and technologies to unlock business value, scalability, and performance excellence.

Good Governance, Risk and Compliance

• Accountable for the Retail Digital Technology risk posture, ensuring consistent standards, remediation and risk management across product technology portfolios.
• Anticipate future Digital Technology risks and collaborate to design Retail ecosystem-wide strategies to ensure cyber resilience, business continuity and operational security.
• Partner with Group Tech and Architecture teams to manage compliance, control frameworks, and risk assurance.
• Lead the implementation of integrated governance, compliance, and internal control frameworks that uphold the organisation’s integrity and licence to operate.
• Embed a culture of risk-aware decision-making and proactively address complex regulatory and business risks to safeguard long-term sustainability.
• Ensure a robust risk management framework is operational at all levels, integrated into day-to-day decision-making and strategic planning.

Data Monetisation

• Accountable to promote and elevate data strategy as a core business enabler in the Product Technology stack, ensuring it drives insights, value creation and informed decision-making at all levels.
• Harness data as a strategic asset to inform decision-making, optimise performance, and unlock new sources of economic value.
• Leverage internal and external data ecosystems to drive actionable insights and deliver measurable business outcomes at scale.

Stakeholder Management

• Collaborate across Retail ecosystem including, Product, Digital, Data & Analytics, and Group Tech to align architecture, engineering, and delivery objectives.
• Lead and drive cross-portfolio engagements to ensure common tooling, design standards, and architectural frameworks.
• Build and maintain strong, trust-based relationships with customers, employees, regulators, and strategic partners to enable collaborative execution of the transformation agenda.
• Ensure stakeholder alignment around key priorities, promoting shared ownership of the Bank’s vision and value creation goals.

Work Experience:

• 15+ years in large-scale technology leadership roles within Financial Services, including at least 7 years in executive roles across technology and/or technology transformation in large, complex enterprises.

• Demonstrated success in enterprise architecture, platform engineering, systems integration, and operational technology management
• Deep experience leading multidisciplinary technology teams and working across business–technology interlocks and ecosystems.
• Experience in digital technologies, core banking systems, cloud transformation, agile delivery models, and risk-managed platform operations

Education

Postgraduate Degrees and Professional Qualifications: 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