Head: Digital Technology, Applications & Infrastructure Services

Transnet Company; Pretoria; On-site; ZAR 1 200 000 - 1 600 000; Full time

Job summary

A prominent transportation company based in Pretoria is seeking a Head of Digital Technology, Applications & Infrastructure Services. This role involves leading ICT operations, managing infrastructure strategy, and driving digital transformation initiatives. Candidates should have extensive experience in IT operations and service management with strong leadership skills. The position offers a chance to influence high-level strategic planning and innovation within the organization.

Qualifications

• 10-12 years’ experience in Application and Operations.
• At least 5 years’ experience at Senior Management level.
• Must undergo Lifestyle audit.

Responsibilities

• Lead ICT Operations and Service Management activities.
• Ensure the development of ICT Strategies and Roadmaps.
• Foster and negotiate partnerships with key technology providers.

Skills

Strong knowledge of IT Operations

Experience in Application and Operations

Leadership skills

Strategic planning capabilities

Analytical Thinking

Education

Bachelor’s Degree in Information Technology or Computer Science

ITIL Foundation or ITIL Service Management Certification

Job description

Head: Digital Technology, Applications & Infrastructure Services

• Operating Division: Transnet Rail Infrastructure Manager (TRIM)
• Employee Group: Permanent
• Department: SP-ICT-Digital Technology, Applicati-PKT
• Location: Parktown
• Reporting To: General Manager: Information Technology
• Grade: C
• Reference: req3710

The closing date is on . It is the responsibility of the applicant to ensure that HR has received the application before the closing date of the advertisement.

Position Purpose

To lead, plan, direct and control all activities related to ICT Operations including Infrastructure and Service and Management by:
- Leading design, development and deployment of integrated digital and insight driven innovative platforms following standards, managing solution delivery, managing demand/optimising resource capacity, and ensuring that processes and procedures focused on delivery, availability and performance of infrastructure backbone required to support and enable operations are in place.

Position Outputs

Strategy

Translate ICT strategy into effective ICT operations tactical plans (including IT service management and IT infrastructure tactical plans) to ensure realization of the ICT Digital Strategy and Roadmap. Lead and manage the ICT Operations functions (including Service Management, Application Maintenance and Infrastructure); ownership of all IT services and maintenance of existing IT systems. Lead and direct the development of innovative and digital transformative solutions in support of business outcomes.

Enterprise Application Services

Lead, plan, direct and control all activities related to the day‑to‑day operations of Enterprise Applications (covering ERP, Workplace and Workforce Business and CRM solutions etc). Ensure a formal set of processes and controls are in place by which TRIM ICT can efficiently and effectively manage day‑to‑day operations of the Enterprise Applications. Ensure the general health (stability, integrity, performance, security and availability) of application services. Ensure configuration and design methodology supports Agile‑DevOps‑Scrum Methodology to enable delivery of Minimum Viable Products, Packages and Modules. Responsible for ensuring that processes designed to ensure maintenance of application architectures (functional / information architecture and entity relationships) are in place in collaboration with the EA Team.

Rail Application Services

Lead, plan, direct and control all activities related to Rail Application Systems across all Transnet Operations (covering Rolling Stock, Rail Network, Yards, Crew, ITP and entire Rail landscape). Accountable for Rail Systems operations strategy, performance, overall design and general health (stability and availability). Ensure effective ICT Rail system service integration frameworks, processes, policies and procedures are in place and aligned to the ICT Digital Strategy and Roadmap implementation. Research and stay updated on TRIM System industry trends and leading practices. Foster and negotiate partnerships with key industry technology providers to ensure that all technology and partnerships within Rail systems achieve value for money across all networks. Work closely with other critical ICT functions within TRIM (e.g. Quality, EA, Security, etc.) to drive stabilised services that are achieved through standardisation efforts across all Rail Operations systems. Create the blueprint for multi‑geography Rail application systems and technology that embraces integration opportunities and aligns with the ICT strategic roadmap and EA blueprint. Act as an escalation point for Rail application system problems required to be resolved through strategic changes to the systems landscape. Ensure effective policies, processes, procedures and control mechanisms are in place to maintain secure Rail application systems across geographies.

Big Data Science and Analytics Services

Lead the design and development of the Big Data Science and Analytics Strategy and execution roadmap to ensure that TRIM is well poised to leverage its strategic data and information assets through insight generation and improved decision making. Lead the design and development of the Big Data Science and Analytics Capability and Capacity through ensuring that best practice frameworks are adopted and adapted to TRIM Analytics and performance reporting needs. Ensure that there is adequate skill and expertise required to exploit data through the development of advanced analytics models and dashboards and enhance reporting capability across business. Lead the adoption of digital analytics technology trends and self‑service capabilities and tools to empower business users to make insight and fact‑based decisions and improve productivity and performance. Foster collaborative relationships with other functional areas including Group ICT to ensure alignment and improvement of the Big Data Science and Analytics function. Ensure that processes required to manage overall data management within TRIM are in place to make breakthroughs in deriving business value out of data. Drive the development and adoption of analytical techniques to create data solutions that can scale to volume, velocity and variety of data according to business needs. Provide rationale, business cases and Return On Investment (ROI) models to support BI investment. Provide thought leadership to stakeholders in determining which BI solutions will enable the enterprise to achieve defined business goals.

Innovation & Digital Platform Solutions Delivery

Lead the design and development of an Innovation and Digital Platform Strategy and execution roadmap to ensure that TRIM is well poised to deliver on the Digital Transformation Agenda and programme. Lead the design and development of the Innovation and Digital Platform Capability and Capacity through ensuring that best practice frameworks are adopted and adapted to deliver innovative solutions required to drive TRIM productivity and performance reporting needs. Ensure that there is adequate skill and expertise required to exploit Digital Capabilities that the organization continues to invest in in order to ensure ROI and competitive edge. Lead the adoption of digital technology trends and capabilities to ensure delivery of paper‑less environment and digital workplace and workforce through development of apps and mobile‑enabled solutions. Foster collaborative relationship with other functional areas including Group ICT to ensure alignment and improvement of the Innovative and Digital platform. Ensure that all IoT and Smart Devices are fully exploitable through collaboration with EA, Enterprise, Rail, Big Data Science and Analytics Team. Partner with senior leadership of the business community to identify and prioritize opportunities for utilizing digital initiatives to achieve the goals of the enterprise. Proactively seek opportunities to apply technologies to business processes. Work collaboratively with all the ICT functional areas to ensure that all solutions developed can be consumed through smart, modern and mobile apps. Responsible for ensuring security of all digital platform solutions and mobile applications developed by the team.

Infrastructure Network Services (Including Data Storage and Server Management)

Lead, plan, direct and control all activities related to TRIM’s ICT Infrastructure including technical operations (Data Centre & Storage, Networks, Workplace) in line with Group ICT strategy and roadmap. Ensure that activities related to planning, coordination, and direction of enterprise network client‑server operating systems and related components are in place to adequately provide network, security, standards management, documentation and disaster recovery services. Accountable for implementation of TRIM’s ICT Infrastructure’s roadmap, design, performance, security and general health (stability and availability). Recommend and provide corporate direction on technical and business strategic plans related to Network Operations and ensure alignment to the Group ICT strategy and roadmap. Ensure a formal set of processes and controls are in place to identify infrastructure integration/partnership opportunities, gaps and remedial actions. Ensure infrastructure supports the provisioning of safe, secure, stable and reliable ICT services. Ensure effective ICT Infrastructure frameworks, policies and procedures are in place and aligned to the ICT Strategic Roadmap implementation. Provide Management Information / Reports to the CITO on the status of Infrastructure and relevant information. Design infrastructure solutions that ensure infrastructure architectures represent current and future business requirements; articulate key aspects of infrastructure architecture and design through models, documentation, and code. Ensure development teams have a solid understanding of infrastructure designs and execute accordingly. Ensure control mechanisms are in place for emergency back‑up and power through active participation in service interruption incidents, performance of service problems and remedial activities, review service architecture and eliminate single points of failure. Ensure that processes designed to monitor Infrastructure lifecycle management capability— including establishing and improving current processes across all disciplines—are in place to ensure business continuity.

ICT Service Management

Lead, plan, direct and control all activities related to Service Management and Operations covering service quality and service catalogue management. Accountable for day‑to‑day ICT operational service levels required to monitor execution against operational plans and commitments to business and ensures improvements where necessary. Ensure a formal set of processes are in place by which TRIM can identify various service management opportunities, gaps and remedial actions to ensure the effective delivery of ICT service delivery and operations. Ensure effective ICT service management and operation frameworks, policies and procedures are in place and updated when necessary. Ensure provision and maintenance of a single source of consistent information on all ICT services delivered to the business and operations environment. Design and ensure implementation of processes required to monitor, measure, report and review current performance of ICT services and components in the enterprise ICT environment and ensure ICT capacity meets business needs. Create a culture of high performance, value‑for‑money, optimisation and innovation in Service Management & Operations and manage performance of the team effectively. Establish and manage effective mechanisms for resolving all Service Quality and Service Catalogue issues and challenges. Ensure effective management of business and ICT risks identified in the ICT operational environment as well as ensure compliance with laws and regulations.

IT Service Performance Monitoring

Lead the design and development of ICT service performance monitoring capability and ensure that tools required to have visibility of performance of our environment on a 24/7 basis are in place to ensure business continuity. Engage Group ICT on challenges experienced at an OD level and identify opportunities for improvement.

Stakeholder Engagement

Contribute to the design and development of Engagement Models required to manage and control all activities of Digital Technology, Application, Infrastructure and Service management to ensure provisioning of new and enhanced services to business. Build, support and maintain healthy, diverse internal and external relationships (government, authorities and agencies) to ensure achievement of organisational goals. Implement remedial actions where required.

People Management

Plan, organise, lead and control subordinate's activities to ensure sub‑functional objectives are met or exceeded. Manage people development initiatives, succession planning and talent management to meet functional performance standards. Coach team and create a pro‑learning environment. Assess team development needs and close gaps. Create a culture of high performance, value‑for‑money, optimisation and innovation through effective team performance management.

Dev‑Ops Culture

Facilitate the principle of Flow — make work visible, limit work in progress, reduce batch (deployment) sizes, reduce the number of handoffs, identify and elevate constraints, and eliminate hardships and waste in the value stream. Principle of Feedback — work safely within complex systems, see problems as they occur, swarm and resolve problems to build new knowledge, push quality closer to the source, and enable optimising for downstream work centers. Principle of continual learning and experimentation — enable organisational learning and a safety culture, institutionalise the improvement of daily work, transform local discoveries into global improvements, inject resilience patterns into daily work, and reinforce a learning culture.

Qualifications and Experience

Requirements

• Bachelor’s Degree or Equivalent in Information Technology and/or Computer Science.
• Relevant Post‑Graduate.
• Diploma/Degree an added advantage.
• The following Certification is required: ITIL Foundation or ITIL Service Management.
• Experience: 10‑12 years’ experience in Application and Operations, including Infrastructure and Service Management with at least 5 years’ experience at Senior Management level.
• Requirement of trust and honesty in handling finances as per the national credit act amendment 19.
• Must undergo Lifestyle audit.

Competencies

Knowledge: Strong knowledge of IT Operations (including Service Management, Application Maintenance and Infrastructure). Working knowledge of the Transport industries is an added advantage. Working knowledge of general business processes, organisational performance and governance bodies. Administration and Management - knowledge of business and management principles involved in strategic planning, resource allocation, human resources modelling, leadership technique, production methods, and coordination of people and resources. Personnel and Human Resources - knowledge of principles and procedures for personnel recruitment, selection, training, compensation and benefits, labour relations and negotiation, and personnel information systems. Customer and Personal Service - knowledge of principles and processes for providing customer and personal services. Law and Government - knowledge of laws, legal codes, and government regulations. Economics and Accounting - knowledge of economic and accounting principles and practices, and the analysis and reporting of financial data. Functional/Technical Competencies: Understanding of Digital Technology Trends and an appreciation of the dynamics of the public sector. Effective management of ICT Operations teams that deliver on multidisciplinary ICT solutions and services. Implementation of sufficient governance to manage risks and ensure compliance in line with the governance controls framework and regulatory universe. Strong strategic and tactical planning capabilities to ensure delivery of digital business solutions that are relevant, useful, usable helping improve productivity of TRIM business and operations. Proven leadership and ICT operations management skills. Behavioural Competencies: Analytical Thinking, Attention to Detail, Communication, Coping under pressure, Decision Making, Innovative, Networking, Planning and Organising, Problem Solving, Relationship Building, Results Orientation.

Equity Statement

Preference will be given to suitably qualified Applicants who are members of the designated groups in line with the Employment Equity Plan and Targets of the Organisation/Operating Division.