Executive: Digital Product

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

Lead the end-to-end product lifecycle management of digital solutions that deliver exceptional user experiences and drive customer engagement within established commercial frameworks. Champion agile delivery methodologies, user-centered design, and data-driven product optimization to ensure solution relevance and business impact

Job Description

KEY FOCUS AREAS

• Lead product lifecycle management from conception to retirement across digital platforms.
• Drive agile product development and delivery methodologies within defined commercial frameworks.
• Ensure digital products meet user experience standards and performance requirements.
• Collaborate with Strategy & Commercialisation to align product features with monetization goals.
• Use customer feedback and analytics to optimize product functionality and adoption.
• Manage product backlogs, sprint planning, and cross-functional delivery teams.
• Ensure products meet regulatory, security, and quality standards.
• Drive continuous improvement in product development velocity and quality.
• Represent product management in strategic planning forums.

ACCOUNTABILITIES

Strategy Formulation and Execution

• Execute product development strategies within commercial frameworks defined by Strategy & Commercialisation.
• Translate commercial requirements into product roadmaps and delivery plans.
• Define and implement agile product delivery methodologies that support business objectives.
• Collaborate with cross-functional teams to ensure product strategies are executable and measurable.
• 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.
• Develop effective partnerships to enable business performance and contribute to sector-wide influence aligned with strategic initiatives.
• Respond to emerging policy and regulatory trends by adapting operational strategy and ensuring compliance alignment.
• Coordinate business enablement efforts for Business Banking, ensuring delivery capability across systems, processes, and teams.
• Track execution progress against key strategic initiatives and intervene to correct course where needed.
• Support transformation initiatives through structured programme delivery and change management practices.
• Provide expert advice and support in operating model, strategy, and value chain formulation and delivery alignment.
• Identify practices and technologies that provide competitive advantage and enable knowledge sharing and integration of practice areas.
• Undertake analysis of management and specialist information and guide reporting tool implementation to improve decision-making quality.

Customer Primacy

• Champion customer-centric digital product development by embedding user feedback into design and delivery along with product business owners.
• Use data and insights to refine digital product features and enhance customer satisfaction.
• Ensure digital products deliver consistent, high-quality experiences across all touchpoints.
• Interpret market and customer insights to inform operational plans and prioritise capability investments.
• Utilise customer and product data to improve processes and propositions, ensuring measurable customer value delivery.
• Instill customer-centric decision-making in teams, balancing experience and efficiency targets.
• Implement initiatives that improve customer and product retention through operational enhancements.
• Coordinate cross-functional initiatives to deliver consistent customer journeys and service quality.

Client-Driven Innovation and Change

• Lead innovation in digital product design and delivery, leveraging emerging technologies and methodologies.
• Foster a culture of experimentation and continuous improvement within product teams.
• Translate client needs into actionable product enhancements that drive engagement and loyalty.
• Monitor competitive landscape and identify opportunities to improve products, services, or operations.
• Drive continuous improvement and innovation within the team to enhance customer outcomes.
• Shape client experience initiatives through project ownership and delivery responsibility.
• Lead operational change, ensuring readiness, engagement, and measured impact across delivery teams.
• Represent the voice of the customer within leadership forums to influence service delivery priorities.
• Plan and deliver services that create a culture which aims to exceed customer expectations in all aspects of the business whilst achieving product goals.
• Provide expertise in designing integrated frameworks to embed service excellence.

Sustainable Growth

• Establish a clear roadmap that prioritises products and features based on customer needs, business value and ROI.
• Ensure Governance of product performance including adoption, revenue, cost to serve, NPS scores and retention.
• Drive growth through the development and scaling of digital products that meet market demands.
• Identify opportunities for product expansion and diversification aligned with strategic priorities.
• Monitor product performance and adjust strategies to ensure long-term viability and impact.
• Develop business area growth plans aligned to segment and enterprise priorities.
• Work with business partners to define and execute on growth strategies and operational initiatives.
• Mobilise functional teams to deliver growth targets and embed performance accountability.
• Monitor growth delivery, resolving barriers and reinforcing strategic objectives at operational levels.
• Evaluate financial and customer returns on initiatives to ensure alignment with business viability.
• Formulate and develop multi-function operating frameworks that contribute to sustainable growth.
• Influence and communicate across all levels of the business to minimise resistance to change and ensure onboarding of target audiences.
• Scan the external environment to investigate alternative delivery models and offer innovative advice for competitive advantage.
• Drive change management activities across a single value chain for optimal adoption of change.

Leading Talent

• Build and mentor high-performing product teams with expertise in agile, UX, and digital delivery.
• Promote a collaborative and inclusive environment that supports innovation and growth.
• Develop future product leaders through targeted development and coaching.
• 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.
• Address escalated people issues and ensure application of performance and development processes.
• Develop future leaders through mentorship, stretch assignments, and tailored development experiences.
• Provide expertise and advice in the development and implementation of human capability and accountability frameworks across functions.
• Direct the development and implementation of human capability strategies to support people management priorities.

Operational Effectiveness

• Establish and or contribute to product governance frameworks to ensure delivery efficiency and quality.
• Use performance metrics to guide product decisions and operational improvements.
• Resolve delivery bottlenecks and ensure alignment between product teams and business units.
• 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.
• Set appropriate financial and other resourcing plans to enable business performance, tracking against budgets and investments for both current and long-term strategic goals
• Ensure integration across business units by resolving operational friction and dependencies.
• Represent the business area in operational forums and with delivery partners.
• Leverage data insights to improve operational effectiveness and customer outcomes.
• Continuously improve processes for agility, quality, and alignment with customer needs and digital tools.
• Identify problems and formulate alternate solutions to resolve value chain conflicts.
• Provide expert advice on operating model, strategy, value chain formulation, and business controls/governance frameworks.

Digital Adoption

• Accelerate the adoption of digital products across customer segments and internal teams.
• Promote self-service and automation features that enhance user experience and operational efficiency.
• Ensure digital products are integrated with enterprise platforms and aligned with business outcomes.
• Execute digital initiatives and promote adoption of technologies that improve efficiency and user experience.
• Monitor digital platform performance and ensure integration with business processes and outcomes.
• Deliberately identify opportunities to digitise, automate, and implement solutions for customer primacy, innovation, and operational effectiveness.

Governance, Risk and Compliance

• Embed compliance and governance into product development and lifecycle management.
• Monitor product-related risks and ensure mitigation strategies are in place.
• Support audit readiness and regulatory alignment across product portfolios.
• Implement governance, risk, and compliance frameworks in business processes and team routines.
• Promote risk awareness and lead the response to regulatory changes and emerging issues.
• Support audit readiness and ensure operational teams adhere to compliance requirements.
• Define and consolidate the risk profile for the business unit, manage critical risks, and ensure resolution feedback to stakeholders.
• Enable the development and implementation of integrated corporate governance frameworks in areas of specialisation.
• Influence the implementation of effective internal controls systems and corporate governance practices.

Data Monetisation

• Leverage product usage data to uncover insights and inform strategic decisions.
• Develop mechanisms to capture and analyse customer interactions for continuous improvement.
• Use data to identify new product opportunities and enhance existing offerings.
• Apply data insights to support business planning and decision-making in the business area.
• Develop mechanisms to ensure data is collected, validated, and used to drive performance improvement.
• Oversee the explicit use of data and its inherent value to explore opportunities and guide decisions.

Stakeholder Management

• Manage relationships with key stakeholders to support aligned delivery and issue resolution.
• Ensure stakeholder expectations are managed and engagement is consistent with transformation priorities.

QUALIFICATIONS AND EXPERIENCE

Education/ Qualification:

• Post Graduate Degree: Honours Degree, Post Graduate Diploma and Professional Qualifications [NQF8]

Field of Study:

• Business Information Systems, Computer Science, Digital Product Design, or related fields.

Work Experience:

• years experience in a specific capability of importance to the bank, including a track record of 5 years in a people management position in a large enterprise.
• Experience must include developing integrated customer-centric product or service solutions or corporate practice development while working with and managing stakeholders across business and/or functional areas and budget management.
• Exposure to digital transformation and data-driven decision-making is preferred.
• Demonstrated success in leading digital product innovation, managing product lifecycles, and delivering customer-centric solutions that drive measurable business outcomes.
• Experience in engaging executive stakeholders in strategic product planning, prioritization of digital initiatives, and alignment of product delivery with enterprise transformation goals.

COMPETENCIES

Leadership Competencies:

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

Knowledge and Skills:

• Strategic Thinking and Commercial Acumen: proven ability to define and execute strategies to measurable commercial value.
• Analytical and data driven ability to use data and insights to inform decisions, optimise performance and create grounded business cases
• Customer Obsession: deep understanding of customer behaviour, needs and how to design digital solutions that are fit for purpose.
• Innovation and Growth Mindset: passion for exploring emerging technologies, new business models and disruptive opportunities
• Influence and Collaboration: String stakeholder management and ability to influence and executive level
• Execution Excellence: Track record of taking ideas from concept to commercial success
• Digital product lifecycle management
• Agile and lean product development
• Customer experience and UX design
• Data-driven decision-making
• Product performance analytics
• Strategic planning and execution
• Stakeholder engagement and communication
• Regulatory and compliance awareness
• Innovation and change leadership
• Digital platform integration

Education

Bachelor's Degree: Information Technology

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