Lead: Organisation Design

1001 Absa Bank; South Africa; On-site; ZAR 900,000 - 1,500,000; Full time

Job summary

Absa Bank Limited is seeking a senior organisation design consultant to lead large-scale reviews and shape enterprise structures. You will implement frameworks that clarify roles, levels of work, and accountabilities, using data and workforce analysis to inform design decisions and support leaders through change.

Partner with HC Services and business stakeholders to ensure alignment with strategy, governance and KPI-driven insights, delivering sustainable organisation design across the

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

Provide consulting expertise and best practice support to large-scale organisation design reviews that shape and mature enterprise organisation designs.

Define and implement enterprise frameworks, standards, and toolkits into practical business-specific solutions that enable organisation design and clarify roles, levels of work (LOW), and accountabilities.

Use data, insights, and workforce analysis to inform design decisions, support leaders through change, and enable workforce planning, while partnering with business stakeholders to implement sustainable organisation design solutions that improve efficiency, agility, and alignment to strategy.

Job Description

KEY FOCUS AREAS: Provide consulting expertise and best practice support to large-scale organisation design reviews that shape and mature enterprise organisation designs.

Define and implement enterprise frameworks, standards, and toolkits into practical business-specific solutions that enable organisation design and clarify roles, levels of work (LOW), and accountabilities.

Use data, insights, and workforce analysis to inform design decisions, support leaders through change, and enable workforce planning.

Partner with business stakeholders to implement sustainable organisation design solutions that improve efficiency, agility, and alignment to strategy.

Prepare documentation and facilitate workshops for operating model discussions and design decisions.

Partner with HC Services to ensure accurate job authoring and position management aligned to standards.

Monitor organisational health through KPIs and dashboards, providing insights to senior stakeholders.

Contribute to enterprise transformation initiatives by embedding organisation design principles and frameworks.

Key Accountabilities

Strategy Formulation and Execution: Lead and coordinate organisation design reviews in collaboration with CPOs and business leaders, ensuring alignment with strategic priorities.

Develop and maintain organisation design frameworks, standards, and methodologies to support consistent practice across the enterprise.

Translate long-term strategic objectives into aligned business plans, execution roadmaps and key milestone measurements for the business area.

Cascade strategic goals and ensure alignment between business unit vision and functional implementation priorities, setting clear short, medium and long-term milestones.

Provide expert advice and support in operating model, strategy, and value chain formulation and delivery alignment.

Support transformation initiatives through structured programme delivery and change management practices.

Customer Primacy: Ensure organisation design solutions enable seamless customer journeys and operational agility.

Embed structural practices that support customer‑centricity and improved service delivery.

Interpret market and customer insights to inform operational plans and prioritise capability investments.

Utilise customer data to improve processes and propositions, ensuring measurable customer value delivery.

Coordinate cross‑functional initiatives to deliver consistent customer journeys and service quality.

Sustainable Growth: Apply organisation design principles to support sustainable growth and operational resilience.

Partner with business leaders to align structural decisions with long‑term growth objectives.

Develop business area growth plans aligned to segment and enterprise priorities.

Mobilise functional teams to deliver growth targets and embed performance accountability.

Evaluate financial and customer returns on initiatives to ensure alignment with business viability.

Client‑Driven Innovation and Change: Facilitate workshops and forums to embed organisation design standards and decision right frameworks.

Support adoption of new ways of work and structural changes through effective change management practices.

Monitor competitive landscape and identify opportunities to improve products, services, or operations.

Drive continuous improvement and innovation within the team to enhance customer outcomes.

Lead operational change, ensuring readiness, engagement, and measured impact across delivery teams.

Leading Talent: Provide specialist guidance to HC Partners and business leaders on organisation design principles and frameworks.

Build capability within the organisation design team through mentoring and knowledge sharing.

Embed people processes and values into business routines, reinforcing a strong leadership culture.

Develop workforce capabilities to meet business plan execution requirements and future readiness.

Create inclusive team environments that support performance, wellbeing, and growth.

Operational Excellence: Maintain and apply structural integrity standards including organisation layering, managerial thresholds, spans of control, and structural diagnostics to ensure consistency across the enterprise.

Monitor organisational health through KPIs, dashboards, and diagnostics, providing insights for decision‑making.

Ensure application of organisation design standards in job authoring and position management.

Operationalise strategic goals into functional plans with clear deliverables, timelines, scorecards with team and individual KPIs to enable effective tracking of business and individual performance.

Leverage data insights to improve operational efficiency and customer outcomes.

Continuously improve processes for agility, quality, and alignment with customer needs and digital tools.

Digital Adoption: Champion digital tools for job authoring, organisation design analytics, and workforce planning.

Enable integration of technology solutions to support dynamic workforce design and organisational agility.

Execute digital initiatives and promote adoption of technologies that improve efficiency and user experience.

Good Governance, Risk and Compliance: Ensure compliance with organisation design standards and governance frameworks across all structural changes.

Embed risk‑aware decision‑making in organisation design and transformation initiatives.

Implement governance, risk, and compliance frameworks in business processes and team routines.

Support audit readiness and ensure operational teams adhere to compliance requirements.

Data Monetisation: Apply workforce analytics and organisational diagnostics to inform structural decisions and workforce planning.

Apply organisational efficiency diagnostics, including spans and layers, structural health checks, and manager‑of‑managers analysis, to generate insights that support organisational improvement.

Use data insights to monitor organisational health and enable predictive modelling for future workforce needs.

Apply data insights to support business planning and decision‑making in the business area.

Stakeholder Management: Engage senior stakeholders through governance forums and transparent communication to secure buy‑in for structural changes.

Identify and map key stakeholders, analysing their priorities and influence to support targeted engagement, alignment, and effective decision‑making during organisation design reviews.

Collaborate with HC Services and business leaders to ensure alignment of organisation design decisions with strategic priorities.

Manage relationships with key stakeholders to support aligned delivery and issue resolution.

Qualifications and Experience

Education/ Qualification: Post Graduate Degree: Honours Degree, Post Graduate Diploma and Professional Qualifications [NQF8] Field of Study: Industrial Psychology, Strategic Management, or other relevant qualification

Work Experience: 12-15 years’ experience in organisation design or related capability, including a track record of 5 years in a people management or specialist advisory role in a large enterprise.

Experience must include developing integrated organisation design frameworks, operating models, and structural governance while managing stakeholders across business and functional areas.

Exposure to digital transformation and data‑driven decision‑making is preferred.

Competencies

Leadership Competencies:

• Strategic Thinking
• Business Acumen
• Communication
• Influence
• Leadership
• Creativity and Innovation
• Delivering Results
• Adaptability
• Collaboration

Knowledge and Skills:

• Organisation design frameworks and methodologies
• Operating model design and implementation
• Workforce analytics and organisational diagnostics
• Governance and structural standards
• Change management and adoption strategies
• Digital tools and platform integration
• Stakeholder engagement and advisory
• Talent development and capability building

Education:

• Postgraduate Degrees and Professional Qualifications: Industrial and Organisational Psychology
• Postgraduate Degrees and Professional Qualifications: Strategic Management

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

Our Story

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.