Head, IT Retail Banking at NCBA Group

Job Purpose Statement 

The Head IT, Retail role has complete ownership and accountability of the establishment and execution of the IT strategy of the business unit. Ensuring its integration with the overall enterprise IT strategy and the delivery of all information and technology capabilities required to achieve business capability. The role supports Retail Banking strategic programmes and ensures execution is done as per Group standards and aligned to the strategic vision. The role holder works closely with the Group Director Retail Banking, Enterprise Projects Management team and the IT leadership team to fulfil internal customer requirements related to strategic projects that leverage technology. 

Key Accountabilities (Duties and Responsibilities) Perspective % Weighting (to add up to 100%) Output 

Financial (20%)

• Monitors the Commercial and IT budget related to strategic IT projects and drives decisions that ensure the IT department meets or exceeds financial efficiencies. 

IT strategic project leadership (50%)

• Act as both a technology sounding board to internal customers and a technical lead for strategic projects for the department. 
• Own the engineering software delivery aspects; work with product management to help set direction; define an engineering plan to meet product goals; execute on the plan. 
• Execute IT projects to ensure the business creates strategic value through the utilization of technology assets and analytics. 
• Work with the Enterprise Project Management team to shape and plan the critical stages before the delivery starts in earnest; and prioritize and sequence the key phases of project work to iteratively deliver benefits. 
• Lead the team in consistently managing risks associated with successful go-live to IT strategic projects.  
• Pro-actively look for opportunities to match organizational issues to technology solutions, proposing practical solutions to both our IT team and the organization as a whole, in line with Digital Strategy 

Internal business processes (10%) 

• 100% adherence to policies, procedures and statutory guidelines. 
• Audit, Compliance and Risk Rating = Satisfactory. 
• Audit issues closed within the quarter of identification, or within the agreed time frames, whichever is shorter. 
• Nil repeat findings. 
• Policy and procedure knowledge –rating of Reading 100%; Test 90%. These are the minimum scores required to confirm (1) All assigned policies are ‘Read’; (2) Assigned policy or procedures tests are undertaken and the lowest acceptable score is 90%. 

Strategic 

Roadmap (15%)       

• Develop, implement, and execute technology road maps, including non-functional aspects 
• Evaluating the business mid and long-term technology needs, developing, and implementing an overall technology strategy.
• Partner with departments to become recognized as a trusted advisor, developing a deep understanding of each department’s business and technology requirements. 

Learning and growth (5%) 

• Provide overall leadership of unit and define a framework for developing it into a high performing and engaged team, through managing their performance, motivating, coaching and training them accordingly. 
• Up-to-date and actioned competency assessments and development plans for the team. 
• Nil disruption to business / loss of business due to lack of appropriate numbers of qualified, available staff within the team. 
• Maintain a consistently high own competency score and development plan maintenance. 
• Maintain the desired Leadership - 360-degree feedback score. 

Job Dimensions 

Ideal Job Specifications 

Academic: 

• Bachelors’ degree in Computer Science or any other related technology field 

Professional: 

• IT and Projects certification from recognized institutions 

Desired work experience:  

• At least 12 years of working experience in IT, 6 of which are in senior management more so leading teams and project success 
• Have a proven and successful track record of leading IT teams, leading through the successful performance of IT initiatives that positively impact business performance.  

NCBA Values 

• Driven - We are passionate, make bold decisions and learn from our failures. We seek new challenges and appreciate different views constantly raising the bar. We explore our full potential. 
• Open - Our interactions are candid, honest and transparent. We listen to each other and our clients. We are inclusive and always respect each other. 
• Responsive – We put our customer’s interests at the heart of all that we do. We are proactive, act quickly and resolutely to deliver results. We keep it simple and seek new ways to improve. 
• Trusted - As a trusted partner we do what is morally right always. We keep our word. We are accountable and believe in each other. 

Ideal Job competencies

Technical Competencies 

• Has experience building trusted relationships across different business functions, including with senior leadership, in order to positively influence outcomes and facilitate change across all levels of the organization. 
• Has experience of working with customer-facing technical solutions to deliver improved business outcomes. 
• Has a successful track record for delivering technology-enabled projects and initiatives, including “hands-on” management of delivery work.
• Has portfolio management experience and is able to think strategically and align initiatives with business strategy. 
• Has a strong technology background with sufficient knowledge and experience in identifying technology solutions for business problems. Also, have the knowledge to identify when a technology fix may not be the best option.     

Behavioral Competencies

• Communication Skills: As a departmental leader he must be able to convey important messages and information down the line in order to ensure proper exception of duties by junior personnel. He/she should be able to draft various reports and presentations that will be used by senior management and executives for decision making and strategy development. 
• Interpersonal Skills: A suitable candidate for this position will be a teambuilder, be result-oriented, be proactive and self-driven requiring minimal supervision, be open and welcoming to change, be a creative and strategic thinker, have innovative problem-solving skills, be highly organized, have an ability to handle multiple simultaneous tasks prioritize and meet tight deadlines, and demonstrate calmness in times of uncertainty and stress. 
• People Skills: be a people person who is able to form strong, lasting, and meaningful bonds with other people.