Group Head of Corporate Banking Technology at Equity Bank Kenya

Role Summary:

The Group Head of Corporate Banking Technology will be a key member of the ICT and Product team organization. The head will be responsible for the technical success of corporate payments products and technologies. The payments products in this role’s purview are those such as Internet Banking, Organization to Bank ERP integrations, corporate billers, government integrations for payments, and NGO funded initiatives among others. The head will be crucial in the formulation of corporate products strategy, product design, product development, and delivery of world-class digital products that resonate with how our customers live their lives and accomplish their commercial operations.

•  The role will report to the Payments Director ICT. The role will work closely, day to day with project managers, technical product managers, corporate payments product owners, QAs, product analysts and solution architects as well as the larger ICT team from the bank. The role will be the key bridge between the internal technical team and corporate banking technology provider. The role will be required to own payments systems procured by the bank. The role will manage external and internal technical communication and be the custodian of technical relationship management for the corporate customers.
• The role will be responsible for the stability of corporate baking technologies in the payments space. The role will lead resource planning for technology to accommodate business customers and system usage growth. They will be critical in cost benefits analysis of technological solutions; spearhead build or buy decisioning for corporate solutions. They will identify key performance indicators with which to gauge success and be required to identify deviations early and plan remedial actions.
• The head of corporate banking technology is a leadership role that requires extreme ownership and accountability, ability to lead and agility in decision making. The holder of the role is required to be a technical resource who is business survey.

Responsibilities:

• Ensure delivery of corporate banking products by working closely with the project manager, heads of software engineering and other project resources.
• Guarantee stability of corporate payments products by continuous engagement with service desk and production support resources.
• Build effective relationships with internal business team, operations, ICT, product and design team, and external partner. 
• Participate in stakeholder management: strategize, execute, and communicate. ensure alignment of business goals with the incremental delivery of solutions. 
• Work collaboratively with C-level executives, Product owners and other key stakeholders in the organization. 
• Lead the definition of product requirements using input from various sources including external sources such as market trends, technology innovations, industry standards, bold intelligence, and customer research, as well as internal sources such as analytics, marketing, operations, and customer feedback. 
• Lead the design and conceptualization of the customer experience including the look & feel of the customer journeys, development of functional designs and wireframes, creation of product collateral, and user interfaces.
• Ensure delivery of scalable, reliable, and maintainable platforms and solutions 
• Assess the business impact of different solutions and the trade-offs between customer needs, technology requirements and costs. 
• Lead and work closely with product managers across all products and channels capabilities to prioritize initiatives, share insights on customer demands, identify opportunities for teamwork, and coordinate product development and delivery. 
•  Ensure Knowledge Transfer and hand off to Support teams and users.

Qualifications

Required Skills:

• Demonstrated leadership, maturity, and organizational abilities. 
• Strong written & verbal communication skills 
• Superior interpersonal & collaboration skills with demonstrated ability to use diplomacy & communication skills to influence outcomes and influence others. 
• Experience and expertise in project planning, product definition, feature prioritization, and roadmap creation. 
• Strong analytical skills with hands on experience in conducting technological analyses of business problems developing technical roadmaps, story outlines, writing user stories, refining product backlogs, and coordinating/prioritizing conflicting requirements in a fast-paced, demanding environment. 
• Proven record of cross functional leadership in a global, multi-cultural organization 
• Ability to work across geographies, understand the diverse cultures and manage people and partners cross culturally is a must. 
• Demonstrated ability manage multiple products delivery. 
• Ability to set expectations and hold individuals and team members accountable to their commitments. 
• Experience with Design Thinking or similar empathy-driven customer-focused design methodologies. 
• Customer-centric mindset with a passion for discovering consumer behavior, trends, and opportunities for innovation. 
• Business Analysis experience in a high-tech company or a reputable fintech is a plus. 
• Basic understanding of programming languages, software architecture, data analytics, MI reporting etc. 
• Ability to Keeps up with industry trends. 

Qualifications:

• Bachelor’s degree in information technology, engineering, or related field required. MBA in addition is preferred.
• 7+ years’ experience as a product owner or similar role related to product creation and management, in payments, financial services, retail banking or related field.
• Experience with traditional payments methods and technologies such as cheques, payments cards, international money transfer systems, and clearing houses.
• Must have worked in a banking environment and be able to have a 360 perspective of banking and payments interfaces.
• Demonstrate understanding of the end-to-end payments process from origination to fulfilment and the underlying system components.