Design Director - Digital

Absa Group; Johannesburg; On-site; ZAR 900 000 - 1 200 000; Full time

Job summary

A leading African bank in Johannesburg is seeking a Design Director to drive customer experience and design thinking across projects. This role involves overseeing complex design projects, collaborating with senior leaders, and inspiring design teams to deliver innovative experiences. Ideal candidates will have a Bachelor's Degree in a relevant field, extensive experience in design, and the ability to influence stakeholders. Join us in shaping the future of banking through exceptional design.

Qualifications

• At least 5 to 7 years’ experience directing design projects.
• Background in one or more design disciplines with an award-winning portfolio.
• Experience conducting audience and usability research.

Responsibilities

• Drive customer and design thinking in projects.
• Partner with business leaders on customer experience.
• Manage multiple design projects ensuring high-quality delivery.

Skills

Highly creative

Ability to communicate ideas

Inspiring others

Stakeholder influence

Education

Bachelor’s Degree in Arts/Social Science or equivalent

Degree in a Design discipline

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

Design Director is responsible for driving Absa’s customer and design thinking across a business unit or a channel. She/he supports senior business leaders in embedding the customer thinking in the strategy and decision‑making, and provides insights and input to the process. Design Director manages multiple design projects in her/his business area and ensures they deliver coherent, world‑class customer experience aligned to the business strategy and needs. Reporting directly into the Head of Design, as a leader he/she will combine first‑class design expertise, creativity, thought leadership, commercial acumen with leadership gravitas to work with executives and to direct, inspire, lead all levels of design and creative talent. Design Directors operate across project, team and business dimensions.

Job Description

Education and experience required

• Bachelor’s Degree in Arts/Social Science/ or equivalent (NQF Level 7) and/or Degree in a Design discipline such as product, industrial, service, interaction, digital or visual design.
• Has at least 5 to 7 years’ experience directing complex, commercial, design projects at a leading agency or within internal design function at a major brand involving senior stakeholders and interdisciplinary creative teams.
• A design practitioner background and foundation within one or more disciplines. Ideally with a portfolio of award‑winning work in the financial services industry.
• Strong track record of delivering high quality design projects with strong customer impact and proven value‑add to the business.
• Experience conducting audience and usability research, utilising this data and other data sources to drive design decision making and measure impact.
• Familiar with designing product, services and experiences across multiple touch points.
• Has worked with large budgets and major brands.
• Other commercial or operational business experience advantageous.
• Banking &/or Financial services experience advantageous.

Knowledge and skills

• You may be specialised in a particular field e.g. digital, service or product design.
• Highly creative with the ability to generate ideas and practically contribute to design details.
• Ability to communicate ideas through drawing, digital tools, prototyping, model‑making etc.
• Ability to inspire others.
• Ability to influence stakeholders at all levels, including outside the design team. Senior level written and verbal communication including public speaking.
• Ability to create project briefs and not just deliver them.

Competencies

• Strategic Capability
• Customer Focus
• Business Acumen
• Results Orientation
• Innovation Leadership
• Problem Solving Leadership
• Inspirational People Leadership
• Collaboration and Influencing

Key Accountabilities

Business alignment and strategy

• Partner with business and product leadership to give advice on customer experience and to align with business strategy and needs. Identify opportunities, and provides guidance on the vision and objective of the project.
• Continually elevate the quality of experiences, products and services we design to enable the business to deliver on its customer experience, brand promise and GoTo strategic agenda.
• Work with customer metrics and measurements to both monitor and manage the quality of design delivery and to create tangible customer insights needed for the decision making.
• Stay abreast of industry trends and role players and ensure that RBB is well positioned to provide competitive and industry leading Design.

Project management

• Define objectives, scope and deliverables of each project and align with the business to ensure clear project plans and delivery model.
• Allocate and monitor design resources to ensure that quality work will be completed on time and budget. Involve external design agencies when appropriate.
• Closely direct designers who are driving day‑to‑day design detail. Engage and inspire entire design project teams.
• Take ownership of the customer experience within the project and constructively challenge business and technical decisions to ensure the best possible experience for the customer.
• Sign‑off designs at various milestones, ensuring high quality, consistency and adherence to design standards.
• Ensure the projects remain on course and reach the highest standards of design that create innovation and user value.
• Develop and nurture relationships across teams and disciplines to promote collaboration and efficiency.
• Actively seek ways to measure impact of the design to the customer and business, reporting the insights to the senior management and business stakeholders.
• Provide updates and present final designs to senior Absa leadership.

World class design

• Participate on shaping overall wider vision and strategy for experiences, products and services, particularly in areas of specific expertise. For example, a DD with a strong grounding in UX design would be expected to make a significant contribution to the ABSA overall digital strategy.
• Deliver projects, which lead to the creation of an industry leading customer experience, which is notably different, far exceeds expectations and is at the global forefront of simplicity and usability while still maintaining the depth and richness in functionality of the Absa product set.
• Leverage insight and data to ensure that products/services/solutions are truly designed around the customer/client/colleague.
• Ensure the teams embrace design thinking and best practice standards in developing design options and narrowing down the final solution.
• Determine and set the optimal design approach for projects from ideation to final design implementation, providing and documenting personas and journey maps, site‑mapping, wire‑framing, prototyping, user‑testing, visual assets, front‑end code etc.
• Evangelise the benefits of design to the wider business and being an ambassador/champion of design for the Innovation and Transformation team.

People Leadership

• Actively manage the people in the teams, supporting them in prioritisation, problem solving and technical development.
• Create a design office and team environment in which designers will thrive, be motivated by and develop as professionals.
• Promote professional development of the individual designers through one‑on‑one mentoring, training and providing the right opportunities for development.
• Actively contribute the overall knowledge management, providing insights and direction; and by bringing people together to share knowledge.

Education

Bachelor`s Degrees and Advanced Diplomas: Physical, Mathematical, Computer and Life Sciences (Required)

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.