Infrastructure 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.

My Career Development Portal: Wherever you are in your career, we are here for you. Design your future. Discover leading-edge guidance, tools and support to unlock your potential. You are Absa. You are possibility.

Job SummaryThe Infrastructure Owner is responsible for the end-to-end management, stability, and evolution of the Bank’s technology infrastructure, ensuring secure, resilient, and high-performing environments that enable business operations.

The role drives the delivery of infrastructure-related projects aligned to the Bank’s transformation strategy, while maintaining strong governance, risk management, and compliance with regulatory and Absa standards.

Job Description

Maintain and Manage the Technology Infrastructure of the Bank:

End-User and Server Infrastructure Management: Manage and maintain the Bank’s end-user computing environment (desktops, laptops, and peripherals) and server estate, ensuring colleagues are adequately equipped to perform their roles while maintaining a secure, stable, and compliant technology environment.

Server and Cloud Environment Management: Oversee the management of on-premise and cloud-hosted infrastructure environments, ensuring high availability, resilience, performance, and security in accordance with Absa Group standards and regulatory expectations.

Proactive Monitoring and Health Management: Perform daily infrastructure health checks and implement continuous monitoring to proactively identify, escalate, and resolve issues, minimizing business disruption and ensuring optimal system performance.

Patch and Vulnerability Management: Ensure timely and compliant execution of patching and vulnerability remediation activities across all infrastructure components, in alignment with Group patching standards and defined remediation timelines.

Backup and Recovery Management: Define, implement, and maintain robust backup and recovery strategies across all environments, ensuring alignment with Absa standards and demonstrating control effectiveness through regular restore testing and reporting.

Windows and Linux Environment Administration: Administer and support Windows and Linux server environments, including deployment, configuration, maintenance, and operational support, ensuring stability, security, and performance across platforms.

Access and File System Management: Manage file systems, shared services, and access controls across platforms, enforcing least-privilege principles and compliance with information security standards.

Virtualisation and Platform Support: Manage and support virtualisation platforms and associated infrastructure services, ensuring optimal utilisation, performance, and resilience.

Capacity and Demand Management: Monitor and manage infrastructure capacity, ensuring sufficient resources to meet current and future business demand, with proactive planning to maintain performance and service reliability.

Configuration and Asset Management (CMDB): Maintain accurate and up-to-date infrastructure configuration and asset records in the CMDB, ensuring completeness and accuracy.

Hardware Lifecycle and Obsolescence Management: Manage hardware lifecycle and obsolescence through structured refresh planning, budgeting, and timely replacement, ensuring continued supportability and alignment with technology standards.

Resilience and Control Assurance: Ensure infrastructure resilience through alignment to disaster recovery, high availability, and control assurance requirements, including participation in audits, risk assessments, and remediation activities.

Manage technology suppliers ensuring contracts are in place, service level agreements are being adhered to and services provided are cost effective.

Deliver Projects and Initiatives

Strategic Project Delivery: Drive and deliver technology projects and initiatives within the Digital Transformation and Technology function, ensuring alignment with the Bank’s strategic objectives, transformation agenda, and value delivery priorities.

Business Analysis and Solution Identification: Engage with stakeholders to understand business requirements, identify opportunities for improvement, and assess appropriate technologies and solutions, providing well-informed recommendations aligned to enterprise architecture and operational needs.

End-to-End Delivery Governance: Ensure adherence to the full project delivery lifecycle, including ideation, solution design, approvals, implementation, testing, and go-live, in accordance with Absa governance frameworks, policies, and standards.

Ownership and Accountability for Outcomes: Take full accountability for the successful delivery of assigned initiatives, managing scope, timelines, risks, and quality to ensure delivery against agreed objectives.

Stakeholder Communication and Reporting: Maintain regular, structured communication with stakeholders, providing clear updates on progress, risks, dependencies, and key decisions to ensure transparency and alignment.

People Management:

Performance Management and Coaching: Build and sustain a high-performing team by embedding structured performance management practices, supported by regular coaching, mentoring, and continuous feedback.

Knowledge Sharing and Team Collaboration: Foster a culture of collaboration and continuous learning by encouraging regular knowledge sharing, skills transfer, and best practice adoption across the team.

Performance Improvement and Capability Development: Proactively address performance gaps through the implementation of targeted performance improvement and development plans, ensuring alignment to role expectations and business objectives.

Learning and Development Planning: Assess and analyse team capability requirements, ensuring training and development needs are identified, prioritised, and formalised in line with current and future technology and business demands.

Personal Development:

Performance Development Ownership: Take accountability for own performance development by preparing and maintaining relevant documentation, and proactively scheduling and participating in regular performance reviews and check-ins throughout the year.

Development Planning: Identify training and development needs through structured self-assessment (e.g., skills matrix), and develop a formal development plan aligned with role expectations, to be agreed with the reporting line. Ensure timely completion of all agreed development actions, maintaining progress in line with defined timelines and performance objectives.

Continuous Learning and Accreditation: Undertake all required training and certifications necessary to perform the role effectively and in accordance with defined standards and expectations

Technology Awareness and Industry Insight: Maintain up-to-date knowledge of emerging technologies, industry trends, and innovations within the banking and fintech landscape, ensuring continuous relevance and contribution to the Bank’s technology agenda

Risk Management:

Proactive Risk Identification and Mitigation: Proactively identify, assess, and mitigate risks associated with the Bank’s technology infrastructure, ensuring alignment with defined risk appetite and operational resilience requirements.

Control Environment and Risk Governance: Collaborate closely with Technology Risk, Compliance, and other control functions to ensure appropriate controls are designed, implemented, and operating effectively across all infrastructure domains

Issue Management and Remediation: Ensure that all risks, incidents, and control weaknesses within the infrastructure environment are formally identified, logged, tracked, and remediated through defined action plans, with appropriate governance oversight and timely closure.

Regulatory and Policy Compliance: Ensure all activities are conducted in full compliance with applicable regulatory requirements, the Enterprise Risk Management Framework, and all relevant Absa policies, standards, and procedures

Audit and Assurance Engagement: Support internal and external audit processes, ensuring timely resolution of findings and demonstrating the effectiveness of controls within the infrastructure environment

Role/Person Specification

Preferred Education:

Key Skills and Qualifications:

Bachelor’s degree in Information Technology, Computer Science, or related field

Minimum of 4-5 years of experience in IT infrastructure management

Experience of banking / financial services preferred

Familiarity with ITIL-style management procedures

Experience working with cross-functional teams to deliver complex technology solutions.

Familiarity with agile project management styles is a distinct advantage

Technical Skills:

Experience of management of end user environments

Experience of management of Windows and Linux environments, including virtualization platforms

Experience of Management of backup solutions preferred

Good understanding of ITIL processes and associated concepts

AWS / Cloud certifications preferred

Office 365, Windows & Linux certifications preferred

Familiarity with agile project management styles is a distinct advantage

Understanding of contact centre solutions is a distinct advantage

Education

Higher Diplomas: Business, Commerce and Management Studies (Required)

R-15987086