Senior Manager: Project Management at Absa Bank Limited

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

To provide strategic end-to-end programme and project management leadership across complex, high-value, cross-functional Channel initiatives, ensuring the successful delivery of transformation outcomes aligned to business strategy.

The role is accountable for programme shaping, execution oversight, governance, stakeholder alignment, and value realisation across multiple workstreams. It also plays a key role in enabling Lean Portfolio Management outcomes through prioritisation, sequencing, capacity alignment, investment optimisation, and benefits realisation in support of agreed strategic priorities.

Job Description

Job Description

• Project and Programme Leadership: Lead and direct large, complex programmes and projects across multiple delivery streams, ensuring clear alignment between strategy, execution, and business value. Provide oversight across the full delivery lifecycle, manage critical interdependencies, and ensure programmes deliver against agreed objectives, milestones, outcomes, and benefits in line with approved portfolio priorities, value streams, and strategic themes.

• Lean Portfolio Management and Strategic Prioritisation: Drive and influence Lean Portfolio Management outcomes by contributing to portfolio shaping, prioritisation, sequencing, and investment decision-making aligned to strategic objectives, funding guardrails, value realisation, and delivery capacity. Ensure initiatives are positioned against endorsed priorities and strategic intent, while providing leadership visibility on trade-offs, risks, progress, and benefits to support informed portfolio decisions.

• Governance, Risk and Assurance: Provide strong governance and assurance leadership across all programmes by embedding delivery discipline, quality standards, compliance requirements, and audit-ready practices throughout the lifecycle. Ensure robust controls, decisioning forums, and governance frameworks are applied consistently to maintain delivery integrity, manage exposure, and support strong audit outcomes.

• Delivery Execution and Performance Management: Drive disciplined programme execution to ensure milestones, EPIC deliverables, and strategic outcomes are delivered on time, within scope, and to the required quality standard. Monitor performance across workstreams, proactively identify risks, issues, and delivery constraints, and implement timely mitigation and recovery actions to sustain momentum and execution confidence.

• Stakeholder and Executive Relationship Management: Build and manage trusted relationships with senior stakeholders across Business, Change, Technology, Operations, Finance, Risk, and Executive governance structures. Facilitate alignment, influence decision-making, remove delivery bottlenecks, and ensure effective collaboration across complex and often competing priorities in the portfolio environment.

• Risk, Dependency and Issue Management: Lead proactive risk, issue, and dependency management across programmes by anticipating potential challenges early, assessing impact, and driving appropriate mitigation and escalation. Strengthen programme resilience through forward-looking planning, integrated dependency management, and disciplined control practices.

• Strategic Enablement and Leadership: Provide visible and credible leadership across programmes by bridging business and technology domains to shape practical, scalable, and customer-centric solutions. Guide teams through complexity, ambiguity, and change while fostering accountability, collaboration, and delivery excellence in line with approved delivery methodologies such as Agile, SAFe, Waterfall, and Hybrid.

• Benefits Realisation and Value Management: Ensure that programmes are structured and governed to realise measurable business value and strategic benefits. Track benefit delivery, challenge assumptions where required, and work with business owners and stakeholders to maintain focus on outcomes, sustainability, and return on investment

Skills & Experience

Qualifications

• Minimum NQF Level 7 qualification or equivalent in Business, Commerce, Management Studies, Project Management, or a related field.

• A postgraduate qualification will be advantageous.

• Project or programme management certification such as PMP, PRINCE2, Agile, SAFe, or equivalent will be advantageous.

Experience

• 5-8 years experience in project and programme delivery, with significant experience leading complex cross-functional initiatives in a financial services, Channel, or similar environment.

• Proven experience managing large-scale programmes across the full delivery lifecycle, from initiation and planning through to execution, governance, implementation, and benefits tracking.

• Strong experience delivering strategic transformation initiatives and EPICs across Channel, Operations, Technology, or related business areas.

• Demonstrated exposure to executive and portfolio governance forums such as SteerCo, Change Council, Exco, ART, or equivalent delivery forums.

• Experience in portfolio prioritisation, investment planning, capacity alignment, and benefits realisation within a Lean Portfolio Management or similar environment.

• Strong proficiency in Microsoft Office, programme reporting, and project delivery tools such as MS Project, Agile tools, and portfolio management platforms.

• Proven track record in senior stakeholder engagement, influencing, and managing delivery across multiple teams and business areas.

Competency

• Strategic Project and Programme Leadership

• Portfolio Prioritisation and Value Management

• Stakeholder and Executive Management

• Governance, Risk and Control Management

• Delivery and Outcomes Focus

• Financial and Commercial Acumen

• Quality Orientation

• Problem Solving and Decision-Making

• Change Leadership

• Collaboration and Influencing Skills

Education

Bachelor`s Degrees and Advanced Diplomas: Business, Commerce and Management Studies (Required)