Digital Product Lead

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

Job summary

Absa is recruiting for a senior product leadership role responsible for strategy, performance and execution across a portfolio of digital channels. The position translates enterprise strategy into impactful product bets and drives delivery, adoption and measurable business value across diverse teams.

The role demands ownership mindset, cross-functional collaboration, and a focus on customer value, commercial impact and operational excellence to scale the digital channel ecosystem.

Qualifications

• Degree or Equivalent - Relevant Qualification
• Min 5 - 10 years experience in related filed
• Education Bachelor`s Degrees and Advanced Diplomas: Physical, Mathematical, Computer and Life Sciences (Required)

Responsibilities

• Own the strategy, performance and execution of a portfolio of digital channels as a connected product ecosystem.
• Translate enterprise strategy into a small number of high-impact product bets and drive them from problem definition through delivery, adoption, optimisation and measurable business value.
• Lead Product Managers and create a high-performance product culture built on ownership, pace, evidence and outcomes.
• Make prioritisation decisions across customer value, commercial impact, technical feasibility, risk and speed-to-market.
• Drive execution across Product, Design, Engineering, Data, Marketing, Operations, Risk and Commercial teams without relying on hierarchy.
• Create an experimentation engine: launch, measure, learn and scale - reducing time between insight and customer impact.
• Own the channel operating rhythm, including weekly performance reviews, roadmap decisions, release priorities and outcome tracking.
• Remove organisational blockers and elevate only decisions that genuinely require executive intervention.
• Hold teams accountable for shipped outcomes, not activity, project completion or feature volume.
• Ensure the channel remains secure, resilient, compliant, accessible and operationally fit for scale.
• Continuously benchmark the product experience against category leaders and translate relevant external practices into differentiated product choices.

Education

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

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. Belonging at Absa Absa is committed to creating an inclusive workplace where everyone can thrive. We are an equal opportunity employer and welcome applications from suitably qualified individuals from diverse backgrounds. In support of our Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and Belonging (DEIB) commitments and Employment Equity objectives, preference may be given to candidates from underrepresented designated groups, including persons with disabilities. We encourage applicants who may require reasonable accommodation during the recruitment process to let us know so that appropriate support can be provided.

Job Summary

Own the strategy, performance and execution of a portfolio of digital channels as a connected product ecosystem. Translate enterprise strategy into a small number of high-impact product bets and drive them from problem definition through delivery, adoption, optimisation and measurable business value. The role carries end-to-end accountability rather than responsibility for individual delivery components.

Job Description CORE ACCOUNTABILITIES

• Own the product vision, strategy, roadmap and operating plan for the digital channel portfolio.
• Carry clear accountability for revenue growth, digital sales, product penetration, active usage, customer conversion, retention and cost-to-serve outcomes.
• Set portfolio-level OKRs and product economics; establish leading indicators and intervene quickly when performance is off-track.
• Lead Product Managers and create a high-performance product culture built on ownership, pace, evidence and outcomes.
• Make prioritisation decisions across customer value, commercial impact, technical feasibility, risk and speed-to-market.
• Drive execution across Product, Design, Engineering, Data, Marketing, Operations, Risk and Commercial teams without relying on hierarchy.
• Create an experimentation engine: launch, measure, learn and scale - reducing time between insight and customer impact.
• Own the channel operating rhythm, including weekly performance reviews, roadmap decisions, release priorities and outcome tracking.
• Remove organisational blockers and elevate only decisions that genuinely require executive intervention.
• Hold teams accountable for shipped outcomes, not activity, project completion or feature volume.
• Ensure the channel remains secure, resilient, compliant, accessible and operationally fit for scale.
• Continuously benchmark the product experience against category leaders and translate relevant external practices into differentiated product choices.

COMMERCIAL & PERFORMANCE OWNERSHIP

• Define the channel's commercial model and identify opportunities to grow acquisition, cross-sell, usage, transaction value and customer lifetime value.
• Build and maintain a product P&L mindset: understand revenue, cost, unit economics, investment and return.
• Partner with Finance and Commercial teams to set targets and prove the financial impact of product investments.
• Own the performance narrative: what changed, why it changed, what will be done next and when the impact will be visible.
• Use data to kill low-value work quickly and redirect capacity toward the highest-return opportunities.

EXECUTION & SPEED

• Operate with short decision cycles and a bias toward shipping valuable increments rather than waiting for perfect solutions.
• Break large strategic outcomes into testable product bets with clear owners, measures and deadlines.
• Maintain a healthy delivery pipeline and actively manage dependencies that threaten speed.
• Expect rapid feedback from customers and production data to influence the roadmap continuously.
• Distinguish reversible decisions from irreversible ones and move fast on the former.

Experience and Qualification

• Degree or Equivalent - Relevant Qualification
• Min 5 - 10 years experience in related filed
• Education Bachelor`s Degrees and Advanced Diplomas: Physical, Mathematical, Computer and Life Sciences (Required)

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.