Overview
Head IT Operations Jobs in City of Cape Town, Western Cape, South Africa at Woolworths Financial Services
Title: Head IT Operations
Company: Woolworths Financial Services
Location: City of Cape Town, Western Cape, South Africa
Woolworths Financial Services, or WFS as it is better known, is a Joint Venture with Absa Bank, that supports the Woolworths retail business by providing in-store credit in the form of the Woolworths Store Card and offering value-added services including credit cards, personal loans and short-term insurance as well as life insurance linked to other products.
MAIN PURPOSE
The Head: IT Operations is responsible for the active management of the IT portfolio of managed third-party suppliers who provide high-value, high-risk, complex, and regulated services to WFS. The managed supplier portfolio could be delivering a range of IT products (hardware or software) or IT services (consulting, application development, infrastructure, etc) across multiple business units and requires proficiency in IT technical skills.
A critical component of the role is to create and maintain strong relationships with both internal stakeholders and suppliers, ensuring seamless collaboration across the supply lifecycle. This includes mitigating risk by keeping all supplier assurance and due diligence activities current. The role also entails facilitating regular supplier service review meetings and tracking supplier performance against key performance indicators (KPIs) and service level agreements (SLAs). As the first point of contact for any escalations, this position ensures that timely and effective resolutions to supplier issues are addressed, fostering continuous improvement and alignment with business objectives.
As a highly visible commercial leader, the Head: IT Operations will –
- Understand IT vendor spending by category and supplier profile.
- Conduct the market research, benchmarks, and analysis required to extract or increase value.
- Build strong and trusted relationships with senior stakeholders within and outside the organisation.
- Leverage suitable tools and platforms, including Coupa and the Supplier Management SharePoint, to increase IT supplier portfolio visibility, improve cross-functional collaboration and sharing of best practices.
- Monitor markets and strategic suppliers through a variety of sources, to gather insights and intelligence into potential risks and opportunities; to escalate issues and make recommendations to the Accountable Executive and Heads of function.
- Ensure ongoing management and review of contractual terms and conditions to preserve and optimise commercial value.
- Champion innovation and continuous improvement that will help drive the delivery of key strategic priorities.
The Head: IT Operations owns and must understand the end-to-end contractual, commercial, and operational working relationships with IT suppliers to ensure that contractual commitments are delivered across the business unit and, where applicable across the Absa Group. They may also hold an internal management role (where applicable) tasked with the leadership and development of junior resources.
The incumbent will be required to work in collaboration with the Sourcing supplier risk management team to focus on the uniform embedment of supplier management controls, assist in the development and execution of commercial solutions targeted to realise significant value for the business unit and the organisation, whilst creating alignment with the service, market, supplier and procurement strategies.
KEY RESPONSIBILITIES
Supplier Strategies
- Implement individual suppliers and IT supplier portfolio strategies through a combination of demand planning, strategic alignment, sourcing alignment, risk mitigation, and ongoing supplier management.
Commercial Delivery
- Lead the post-contract development of the managed third-party suppliers’ contract and commercial strategies.
Relationship Management
- Strategically plan and manage all interactions with managed IT third-party supplier organisations to maximize the value of those interactions
Risk Management and Compliance
- Deliver compliance with the third-party risk and sourcing-related policies and standards.
Contract Management
- Ensure that supplier contracts are drafted correctly in line with the third-party risk and sourcing-related policy and standards.
- Manage the contract for compliance with all obligations, including the supplier control obligations (SCOs)
Performance/Service Delivery Management
- Ensure that supplier contracts include a properly defined scope of services and measures of performance, such as service levels, commercial structures, and payment methodologies.
- Schedule and participate in formal Supplier Relationship Management Reviews across all business needs, including cost management, development, technology road-mapping, productivity, etc.
Analysis and Reporting
- Produce accurate daily/weekly/monthly supplier and business performance reports/ dashboards for submission to relevant stakeholders as per the business unit or supplier requirements.
- Participate in the Group supplier management community forums
KEY COMPETENCIES
MINIMUM QUALIFICATION
- Relevant bachelor's degree or equivalent NQF Level 6.
- Business Management or related post-graduate qualification.
EXPERIENCE REQUIRED
- Experience in the financial services industry (banking).
- At least 10 years of Supplier and Contract Management experience.
- 5-7 years IT experience.
- Knowledge of IT commodities.
- Financial services sector experience.
- Understanding of the end-to-end sourcing and post-contract management process.
- Understanding of the terms and conditions of supply contracts, including GFAs, SFAs, VAs and FOOs.
- Ability to draft stakeholder correspondence.
Woolworths Financial Services is a proud South African brand, who is committed to transformation. Meeting our employment equity goals will be taken into account in our recruitment decisions