Senior Manager: Portfolio Growth & Optimisation
absa
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Job summary
Absa Bank Limited in Johannesburg is seeking an experienced portfolio growth and optimisation leader to translate new card, payments and digital product initiatives into market adoption and measurable value. You will own the post-implementation growth agenda, shaping go-to-market plans with Marketing and ECM, tracking performance, and crafting dashboards to guide executive decisions.
This role demands a commercially minded leader who analyses data to define adoption strategies and drive revenue
Qualifications
- Bachelor’s degree or equivalent in Business, Commerce, Informatics or a related field.
- Proven ability to commercialise new product capabilities and drive adoption.
- Experience working with Marketing, ECM, MI, Digital, Sales and Risk teams.
Responsibilities
- Shape growth and commercialisation strategy for card, payments and digital initiatives.
- Translate capabilities into portfolio growth plans, adoption objectives and KPIs.
- Lead campaign design with Marketing and ECM; measure and optimise outcomes.
- Ensure integrated channel enablement across Digital, Branch and Call Centre.
- Create dashboards and MI packs; provide insights to senior stakeholders.
- Maintain governance, risk and compliance throughout growth initiatives.
Skills
Education
Job description
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.
We are seeking an experienced portfolio growth and optimisation leader to take newly implemented card, payments and digital product initiatives from delivery into market adoption, commercialisation and measurable value realisation.
The successful candidate will own the post-implementation growth agenda: shaping go-to-market plans, partnering with Marketing on above-the-line campaigns and ECM on below-the-line campaigns, tracking performance, creating actionable insights and working with the MI team to craft dashboards that inform business decisions.
This role requires a commercially minded product leader who is comfortable analysing complex data to draw insights, define customer adoption strategies, drive customer uptake and optimise value across the credit card portfolio. The candidate must be able to connect portfolio performance, customer behaviour, campaign results and channel readiness into practical actions that increase adoption and commercial impact.
Own the commercialisation agenda for newly implemented product, payments and digital card initiatives after implementation and stabilisation.
Translate delivered capabilities into clear portfolio growth plans, adoption objectives, campaign priorities, sales targets, customer value propositions and measurable business outcomes.
Identify growth opportunities across acquisition, activation, usage, retention, spend, balance growth, revenue optimisation and customer engagement.
Develop business cases, opportunity sizing and initiative roadmaps that support sustainable credit card portfolio growth and value creation.
Craft customer adoption strategies that define target segments, adoption journeys, channel roles, activation levers and measurable take-up targets.
Drive customer adoption after launch by coordinating clear propositions, customer education, sales enablement, adoption campaigns and ongoing optimisation actions.
Partner with Marketing to shape above-the-line campaign briefs, propositions, messaging priorities and launch narratives for strategic product initiatives.
Partner with ECM to design below-the-line campaign journeys, segmentation approaches, trigger-based interventions and personalised customer communications.
Ensure campaign activity is linked to measurable portfolio outcomes, including acquisition, activation, spend behaviour, digital engagement, usage frequency, revenue and customer value.
Monitor campaign effectiveness and recommend optimisation actions based on response rates, conversion, customer behaviour, channel performance and commercial impact.
Ensure integrated channels, including Digital, Branch and Call Centre, understand the product proposition, target customers, value drivers and commercial objectives.
Work with channel teams to ensure products are positioned, explained and commercialised consistently across customer touchpoints.
Develop or support channel enablement material, sales narratives, FAQs, adoption playbooks and performance routines that help frontline and digital channels drive uptake.
Monitor channel performance and identify adoption barriers, customer friction points and opportunities to improve conversion across Digital, Branch and Call Centre channels.
Work with the MI team to craft dashboards that provide a clear view of product uptake, portfolio performance, campaign performance and growth opportunities.
Define key performance indicators, dashboard requirements, reporting cadences and insight packs for senior stakeholders.
Analyse complex data to draw actionable insights that explain performance trends, highlight risks and opportunities, and inform customer adoption and growth initiatives across the card portfolio.
Convert data into clear executive narratives, decision papers and recommendations that support prioritisation and investment decisions.
Continuously assess product performance, profitability, customer behaviour and market share opportunities to identify areas for optimisation.
Create a structured optimisation pipeline of enhancements, campaign actions, pricing or proposition changes, customer experience improvements and operational interventions.
Track whether implemented initiatives are delivering expected business value and recommend corrective actions where benefits are not being realised.
Coordinate with Product, Digital, Sales, Operations, Risk, Finance, Marketing, ECM and MI teams to ensure growth initiatives are practical, governed and executable.
Build alignment across senior stakeholders on portfolio growth priorities, campaign plans, performance insights, risks and decision requirements.
Manage cross-functional forums, working sessions and governance updates related to commercialisation, portfolio growth and optimisation.
Ensure initiatives operate within applicable risk, compliance, legal, conduct and data governance requirements.
Represent portfolio growth priorities in business planning, product forums, campaign reviews and executive updates.
- Minimum 7 years’ experience in product management, portfolio growth, product development, commercial management, campaign performance, analytics or related financial services roles.
- Strong credit card, payments, banking or financial services experience, with a clear understanding of customer lifecycle management and portfolio economics.
- Proven experience commercialising new product capabilities, crafting customer adoption strategies, launching growth initiatives and driving measurable customer or commercial outcomes.
- Experience working with Marketing, ECM, MI/analytics, Digital, Branch, Call Centre, sales, operations, finance, risk and technology stakeholders.
- Strong analytical capability, including the ability to interpret customer, portfolio, profitability, channel and campaign performance data and convert it into actionable business insight.
- Experience defining dashboards, management information requirements, KPIs and executive reporting packs.
- Strong stakeholder management, communication and executive storytelling skills.
- Bachelor’s degree or equivalent relevant qualification in Business Science, Business Management, Commerce, Informatics, Information Systems, Engineering, Marketing, Data Analytics or a related field.
- Experience in credit card portfolio management, digital payments, digital banking, fintech partnerships or customer value management.
- Experience with customer segmentation, lifecycle campaigns, customer adoption journeys, propensity models, next-best-action strategies or data-led value management.
- Understanding of Visa and/or Mastercard ecosystem, card scheme economics, rewards, loyalty, interchange, merchant-funded offers or digital wallet propositions.
- Agile, Scrum, SAFe, PASA or payments-related certification would be advantageous.
- Postgraduate qualification or MBA would be advantageous.
Commercial growth mindset
Able to convert implemented capabilities into adoption, usage, revenue and customer value.
Customer adoption strategy
Able to craft and drive customer adoption strategies across segments, journeys, campaigns and channels.
Analytical expertise
Comfortable analysing complex customer, product, portfolio, channel and campaign data to draw insights and identify growth opportunities.
Campaign and channel understanding
Understands above-the-line, below-the-line, lifecycle, digital, branch, call centre and segmented customer engagement approaches.
Product and portfolio management
Able to manage optimisation backlogs, value tracking, customer propositions and portfolio performance routines.
Executive communication
Able to simplify complex performance data into clear narratives, recommendations and decisions.
Stakeholder influence
Able to align Marketing, ECM, MI, Product, Digital, Sales, Risk, Finance and Operations around common outcomes.
Governance and risk discipline
Able to operate within a regulated banking environment with control, compliance and data governance discipline.
Commercially astute, growth-oriented and outcome-focused.
Comfortable moving between strategy, analytics, campaign execution and operational delivery.
Can simplify data and complexity into practical recommendations that drive action, customer adoption and commercial value.
Strong collaborator who can influence cross-functional teams without direct line authority.
Curious, customer-led and comfortable challenging performance trends with evidence.
Able to operate with senior stakeholder exposure and VP-grade accountability.
Comfortable working with integrated channels to ensure products are understood, positioned and commercialised consistently.
Growth initiatives are commercialised with clear value propositions, customer adoption strategies, campaign plans and measurable targets.
Dashboards and MI packs provide reliable, decision-useful insight into initiative uptake, portfolio performance and campaign outcomes.
Above-the-line and below-the-line campaigns are better aligned to portfolio growth priorities and customer lifecycle opportunities.
Implemented capabilities deliver measurable business value after launch, with active tracking of customer adoption, usage, revenue, retention, channel performance and customer engagement.
Senior stakeholders receive clear recommendations, not only descriptive reporting.
Digital, Branch and Call Centre channels are enabled to understand, position and commercialise new products effectively.
This role ensures that strategic card, payments and digital initiatives do not stop at implementation. It creates the commercial bridge between delivery and value realisation by turning launched capabilities into customer adoption, integrated channel commercialisation, portfolio growth, stronger business insight and sustained commercial performance.
By combining product growth, campaign optimisation, MI partnership and executive insight, the role strengthens Absa’s ability to scale innovation, improve customer engagement and maximise the value of its credit card portfolio.
Bachelor`s Degrees and Advanced Diplomas: Business, Commerce and Management Studies (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
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