Senior Manager Risk

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

As a Senior Risk Manager within the Finance Management (FM) COO Function, you will fulfill the duty of being a first line of defense (1LOD) champion for the function focusing on Technology, Information and Cyber risk. As a coordinator and value defender, you use your years of business experience, knowledge and insight from internal data sources and best practices to advise and solve complex problems while overseeing the development, implementation and delivery of optimal practice/framework designs. You mainly communicate
with technical specialist teams across the solution and delivery areas. You ask and respond to
questions on efficiency, effectiveness, compliance and risk in a proactive manner.

Job Description

The Finance Management (FM) COO team supports the Heads of FM Functions in managing the overall Finance business to enable delivery of the functions’ strategic objectives and fulfilling of business responsibilities. These responsibilities include: - Drive the Strategy for FM and its sub-functions
- Support the Heads of FM sub-functions in strategy execution - Drive the Colleague Agenda
- Cost and FTE management, including budget setting - Operational support to Functions and sub-functions
- Operational risk support and coordination of risk deliverables for the Function - Co-ordinate the above deliverables through a well-orchestrated COO community within the Functions The role of the Senior Manager Risk is therefore to
- Provide independent and objective end-to-end operational risk advice and support to drive the Risk practices for the FM COO function in line with the Enterprise Risk Management Framework and Operational and Resilience Risk Management Framework.
- Ensure that all activities and duties are carried out in full compliance with regulatory requirements, Enterprise Risk Management Framework and internal Absa Policies and Policy Standards.

Strategic Risk Framework Leadership
- Define and implement a comprehensive risk management framework tailored to infrastructure and cloud environments.
- Align risk strategies with organizational goals, regulatory requirements, and technological advancements.
- Review and evaluate technology, information and cyber policies and procedures, and tools to provide insight on how to reduce technology risk.
- Collaborate with infrastructure and architecture teams (Networks, Computer, Cloud, DBaaS, Mainframe and End User) to manage the specific infrastructure risk posture.
- Ensure governance processes adhere to the required standards (for example: ISO 27001 and GDPR), enhancing compliance and quality assurance.

Risk Culture & Awareness
- Foster a strong risk culture across Finance by promoting awareness and understanding of operational risk principles among senior finance leaders and teams.

Risk Oversight & Challenge
- Monitor and challenge the relevant operational risk profile of Finance, ensuring alignment with the bank’s risk appetite. - Identify emerging risks and provide independent oversight of risk-taking activities.
- Ensure that risk is effectively managed and monitored.
- Identify, assess, and mitigate risks across technology platforms, including operational, cyber security, and compliance risks. - Oversee incident response, disaster recovery, and business continuity efforts, ensuring resilience and rapid resolution.
- Monitor vulnerabilities such as system downtime, data breaches, and third-party dependencies, implementing controls to minimize impact.
- Coach users in risk identification and assessment.
- Provide appropriate and accurate risk reporting to the required stakeholders. - Review technology, information and cyber security risks, internal and external, to help inform the risk profile

Regulatory Compliance & Governance
- Ensure compliance with internal policies, regulatory requirements, and industry standards.
- Oversee the design and implementation of risk-aligned technology-related processes and controls.
- Implement and adhere to the provisions of the Combined Assurance Policy and Assurance Standard.
- This includes conducting assurance in line with the Combined Assurance Controls Testing Methodology.

Risk Reporting & Escalation
- Lead the evaluation and reporting of technology risk and compliance levels, including policy adherence, dispensations, and waivers.
- Ensure accurate and timely reporting of risk events and issue resolution.
- Design and implement regular risk reporting processes for FM management and governance bodies.
- Prepare monthly reports and jointly contribute to the Absa Technology Governance and Reporting function’s reporting requirements as it related to Finance M