Digital Architecture Lead

1001 Absa Bank; Sandton; On-site; ZAR 1,800,000 - 2,400,000; Full time

Job summary

Absa Bank Limited is seeking a Digital Architecture Lead to shape secure, scalable architecture for Pan-African growth. The role connects business strategy, governance and delivery outcomes across customer channels and shared digital capabilities.

The incumbent will own and evolve architectures across platforms, identity, data, cloud and AI, defining current and target states, and driving an effective transition roadmap with governance and measurable outcomes.

Qualifications

• Extensive architecture leadership in regulated enterprises.
• Strong cloud-native, API-led and event-driven expertise.
• Experience with identity and front-end architectures.

Responsibilities

• Owns and evolves the architecture of customer channels, shared digital capabilities, integration and enabling technology.
• Defines current-state, target-state and transition architectures across platforms, identity, data, cloud and AI enablement.
• Leads architecture decision forums and ensures decisions are documented and enforceable.
• Governs risk, governance and regulatory alignment in solution design.
• Promotes interoperability and reuse across Pan-African markets and enterprise platforms.

Skills

Architecture leadership

Cloud-native

API-led

Event-driven

Identity management

Front-end expertise

Education

Bachelor's Degree 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

The Digital Architecture Lead is a senior specialist role shaping secure, scalable digital architecture for Pan-African growth. The role connects business strategy, technology governance and delivery outcomes.

• It owns customer channels, shared capabilities, integration, cloud, data, identity and AI architecture, while setting target states and transition roadmaps.
• First-year priorities include establishing the baseline, publishing the target operating model, implementing governance and delivering high-value outcomes.

Job Description

Executive leadership role reporting to the Chief Information Officer: Digital & AI. Owns and evolves the architecture of customer channels, shared digital capabilities, integration and enabling technology. Ensures the digital estate is composable, secure, resilient, scalable, cost effective and aligned to Pan-African growth ambitions. Creates a coherent target architecture and sequenced transition roadmap for Digital Business Bank. Defines current-state, target-state and transition architectures across platforms, identity, data, cloud and AI enablement. Translates business strategy and customer-journey priorities into capabilities, investments and delivery roadmaps. Maintains architecture principles, heatmaps, technical-debt priorities and technology lifecycle plans. Advises the CIO on strategic technology choices, trade-offs, sequencing, risks and total cost of ownership. Leads architecture decision forums and ensures material decisions are documented, transparent and enforceable. Establishes reference standards for APIs, events, microservices, serverless, web, mobile, content, identity, observability and cloud. Provides practical architecture assurance from discovery through production, avoiding document-heavy compliance. Governs exceptions with explicit ownership, risk acceptance and remediation dates. Drives legacy decoupling, modularity and reusable platform capabilities to improve delivery speed. Embeds architecture requirements into pipelines, automated controls and engineering standards with Platform, QA, Security and Operations. Ensures resilience, availability, performance, accessibility, supportability and data-protection requirements are designed and tested. Promotes interoperability and appropriate reuse across Business Bank, enterprise platforms and Pan-African markets. Leads and develops domain and solution architects while building succession and critical capability. Measures success through roadmap progress, debt and duplication reduction, reuse, decision turnaround, compliance, platform outcomes and cost optimisation. Requires extensive architecture leadership in regulated enterprises and strong cloud-native, API-led, event-driven, identity and front-end expertise. First-year priorities include establishing the baseline, publishing the target operating model and roadmap, implementing governance and delivering visible high-value outcomes.

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

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

At Absa, our story is not a single narrative. It's thousands of individual journeys unfolding across Africa and beyond. From colleagues serving customers in local communities to teams shaping financial solutions across borders, Absa is built on people who bring their lived experiences, ambitions and perspectives into the workplace every day. Whether you're starting your career, a seasoned leader or somewhere in between, your contribution is seen, valued and connected to something bigger. Our presence across Africa – which spans personal and business banking, corporate and investment banking, wealth and investment management, and insurance – exists because of the people who show up in their roles with purpose. Across Botswana, Ghana, Kenya, Mauritius, Mozambique, Seychelles, South Africa, Tanzania, Uganda and Zambia, our colleagues are shaping what Absa becomes in each market. Beyond the continent, teams in global offices and a technology hub support and extend the stories that prove that African talent can lead, influence and innovate on the global stage.

At Absa, your story matters because progress is driven by human experience, not hierarchy. When people are enabled to bring their whole selves to work, they don’t just build careers. They help shape the future of Africa’s financial services landscape.