Lead Product Owner

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 Lead Product Owner, you will be responsible for translating business needs into specific technical requirements for intelligent /robotics process automation solutions. You will lead a team of business analysts whilst collaborating closely with cross-functional teams including process engineers, programme managers, scrum masters, solution designers, developers as well as business stakeholders, to ensure the successful delivery of high-impact Intelligent Process Automation (RPA) solutions. You will act as a bridge between business stakeholders and the technology team, contributing to the overall Intelligent Process Automation (RPA) vision and strategy within the organisation Job Description KEY RESPONSIBILITIES:

• Serve as the prime point of contact regarding overall pipeline, development and delivery of Intelligent Process Automation (RPA) solutions that deliver measurable value
• Define, refine, and manage the product backlog based on business objectives and user needs
• Lead the continuous exploration process to gather business needs and translate them into features, user stories including defining the benefit hypothesis and acceptance criteria for each epic/feature
• Interface with program managers as and when required for program budget management, and resources requirements purposes
• Manage program resources to deliver on the strategic goals of projects, squads, and business as usual initiatives, in accordance with the parameters of budget, quality and timelines
• Work closely with technology teams to guide the development process and ensure successful sprints
• Act as the voice of the customer throughout the product development life cycle to ensure alignment between business expectations and solutions delivered
• Play a leadership role in program meetings, including PI planning, and all team ceremonies, such as sprint planning, backlog refinement, daily stand ups, sprint reviews and sprint retrospective sessions to ensure continuous alignment and buy-in
• Plan and lead stakeholder engagement activities to develop effective project working relationships and to ensure that stakeholder needs and concerns are identified and met
• Analyse business processes for identification of automation opportunities or expansion of existing automations
• Explore and evaluate technological advances and innovations in Intelligent Process Automation (RPA) field that could benefit operations

REQUIREMENTS:

• Bachelor's degree in computer science, information technology, business administration or a related field
• 8+ years Banking ⁄ Technology/ Financial Services environment experience
• Proven experience as a Product Owner or similar role in product management field
• Proven experience in agile methodologies i.e. Scrum, Kanban, Scaled Agile (SAFe), etc.
• Technical RPA background or experience working closely with technology teams
• Excellent communication, organisation, and stakeholder management skills
• Familiarity with agile tools such as Jira, Confluence, or similar project management platforms
• Strong analytical and problem-solving skills

WHAT’S ON OFFER:

• Hybrid working environment
• Work in a multi–disciplinary and great team environment
• Autonomy to produce excellent results and delight colleagues and customers
• Excellent Employee Benefits
• Professional development and career advancement opportunities

Education Bachelor`s Degrees and Advanced Diplomas: Physical, Mathematical, Computer and Life Sciences (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