Engineering Lead - Standard Bank

Standard Bank is a firm believer in technical innovation, to help us guarantee exceptional client service and leading edge financial solutions. Our growing global success reflects our commitment to the latest solutions, the best people, and a uniquely flexible and vibrant working culture. To help us drive our success into the future, we are looking for an experienced Engineering Lead to join our PBB IT team at our Johannesburg offices. Standard Bank is a leading African banking group focused on emerging markets globally. It has been a mainstay of South Africa's financial system for 150 years, and now spans 16 countries across the African continent.

Job Purpose

Key member of the combined business and IT program team, synthesizing across all Engineering Practices (Software -; Quality -; Change & Release; DEVOPS), owning, leading, and driving the engineering practices across all delivery teams (5 to 12 teams) within the program. The Engineering Lead plans and oversees delivery, ensuring that the appropriate number and required skills of resources are available for the demand across the program and solutions are correctly developed and maintained within Group IT standards and practices, acting as Technical Lead within the Program. Oversee and maintain engineering quality and performance standards, directing the system capabilities and priorities. Lead and manage the engineering resources: software engineers, quality engineers and technical system team members within the program (50 – 80 resources), building the required capacity, capability and competencies in the Engineering team. Support platform owners within the Program or Portfolio with the management and maintenance operations of the Technical Platform for audit and stability purposes.

Key Responsibilities/Accountabilities

Provide expert engineering skill, mature the Software Engineering practices and shape delivery on a Program level

• Facilitate the successful delivery and management of business solutions and features, supporting the Chief Information Officer (CIO) with expert engineering skill as Technical Engineering lead on the Program Level
• Mature the Software Engineering practices within Program by driving System Team capabilities (Change, Automation, Integration) and priorities on the program backlog
• Works with key stakeholders (e.g., Product managers, CIOs) to ensure that work required to instantiate practice goals and objectives is properly prioritised and inserted into Portfolio/Program/Team backlogs
• Has extreme focus on building capability that produces predictable, reliable and sustainable solutions. “Everything under version control” & “Automate all things”.
• Drive a culture of relentless improvement
• Provide, or make available, expert knowledge of prototype creation, module and solution design and development using agile methodologies, and continuous testing to enable target business capabilities / client/employee journeys
• This role is also expected to lead the System Team capabilities and prioritisation, spending 30-50% of the time on engineering practice activities to mature the implementation across all release trains within the program
• Is aware, and helps drives the implementation, of new and relevant technical capabilities and innovations
• Ensure a common sense of purpose by establishing the vision, intent and desired outcomes of the engineering practices within the Program

Oversee technical solutions delivery and management in line with Group IT Centre of Excellence quality and engineering standards and practices

• Support the CIO, Release Train Engineers (RTE) and Feature Teams by overseeing / ensuring the quality of the technical solution being delivered and managing solution quality related escalations that may impact delivery
• Accountable for the end-to-end delivery of all engineering in the identified programs in the portfolio
• Support the IT COE with communication (in the Program) of clear expectations for the achievement of quality goals and objectives, providing explicit guidance about technical standards and practices
• Listen and support teams in problem identification, root cause analysis, and decision-making by participating in planning, various workshops and system demonstrations during iterations of delivery by being “in the work” and participating in labs, reviews and showcases
• Work with the System Architect/ Engineer, Product Managers, and Product Owners to establish clear content authority, continuously assist in aligning teams to the system mission and vision i.e. system Future State Architecture strategies, roadmaps as well as System Service Ownership requirements e.g. system dependencies, required service levels etc.
• Provide technical direction to the teams by leading and guiding their output in line with the delivery and business objectives in conjunction with the CIO
• Drive continual engineering delivery improvement across all teams in the program

Contribute to and maintain the technical capability by implementing Software Engineering standards to maintain required stability, resilience and performance levels

• Implement and mature the set of methods, practices, standards, guidelines and frameworks that are required to continually improve the quality of technical solutions that are delivered within the Program
• Continually improve his/her own technical acumen and remain closely connected to changes in industry practices, in conjunction with the IT COE practices
• Communicate the roadmaps for capability building & continuous improvement (e.g. Technical Debt refactoring, “Evergreen” technology stack, Platform roadmaps)
• Ensure appropriate prioritisation of roadmap features, and inclusion in appropriate backlogs (Portfolio/Program/Team) by engaging and influencing Product Managers, the CIO communities: Release Train Engineers and Feature Teams
• The voice for the technical backlog in the PI prioritisation i.e. % Supply for Feature backlog vs % Supply for Technical backlog
• Owner of Technical Backlog prioritisation
• Implement practices of Continuous Integration, Continuous Delivery and Infrastructure as Code on the platform. i.e. progress the platform’s capabilities, driving a focus on building capability that produces predictable, reliable and sustainable solutions
• Work with partners from Group Information Security to ensure that best practice security standards and requirements are embedded into all engineering practices

Responsible for constructing the Engineering Practice team within the Program

• Lead, manage, and mentor the Software Engineers, Quality Engineers and System Team resources within Program, ensuring the development and maintenance of highly skilled and motivated resources
• Responsible for recruiting, maintaining and growing appropriate engineering capacity and competencies to enable the target business outcomes within schedule and within budget on a Program level
• Manage the finances and sourcing for engineering on the Program level, working closely with the Program team (CIO, Architect) and IT COE Practices to define and plan future workforce growth and sourcing strategies, and budgeting accordingly
• Drive engineering capacity for the Program, building the supply, pipeline, recruiting and on-boarding of resources to meet the Program’s current and future needs, appointing staff within budget constraints, complying with IT COE standards and requirements
• Ensure availability and retention of critical skills to effectively deliver on demand, matching the most appropriate resources to the Feature Team requirement using appropriate tools and in collaboration with the IT COE guidelines
• Oversee the management of demand and resource capacity (planning/ effective utilisation); responsible for resource utilisation and cost management of the team
• Ensures an appropriate supply of technical experts to fill available positions in the delivery portfolios (SAFe Portfolio, Program and Team levels).
• Builds relationships with the team and partners
• Ensure appropriate structures are in place to manage resource administration (Compliance/ leave approval etc.) and staff cost budgets in relation to appointment, training and development

Maintain the competency of the Engineering team by coaching and growing the Practice Engineering Team members

• Lead the setting of clear expectations for the achievement of quality goals and objectives in conjunction with RTE and CIO, providing explicit guidance about individual performance expectations
• Oversee the provision of support in the form of training, mentoring, coaching, etc. for practice team members to allow them to attain mastery in their technical skills
• Collaborate and create opportunities for team members to acquire adjacent skills (“T-shaped employees”) and emergent skills as well as actively driving cross skilling as a strategic initiative in conjunction with other technology engineering practices
• Ensure resource delivery quality assessments and drive the improvement of quality of resources (responsible for performance improvement/re-assigning/or managing out); acting as the escalation point for the management of improvement of performance and development of functional resources
• Deals with technical escalations both for Change and Run the Bank
• Set-up appropriate structure to allow for the continual measurement of performance of Engineering team members (using feedback from a wide variety of sources) and the provision of honest and objective feedback to team members on a regular basis
• Collaborate, engage and drive IT COE capability initiatives, measures, standards of practice aimed at maintaining the practice
• Participate and contribute to the Guilds (“Communities of Practice”) to encourage in-and-across-practice collaboration, information sharing and growth of technical competency

Act as change agent, driving continuous improvement and Ways of Work

• Encourage the use of rituals and habits that help shape the effectiveness of the engineering practice and team
• Create Guilds (“communities of practice”) to encourage in-and-across-practice collaboration, information sharing, etc.
• Demonstrate buy-in to SBG’s ways of work and organisational practices by supporting the implementation of new frameworks and methods to increase the efficiency and effectiveness of the IT organisation
• Drive the Scaled Agile Framework (SAFe), Lean and automation initiatives within the IT organisation, consulting with the CTO (Group and Country), relevant CIO’s and other relevant technical stakeholders
• Create an environment in which learning and continuous development are emphasised and valued, whilst taking personal responsibility for coaching and mentoring others
• Encourages autonomy of decision making within clearly defined boundaries
• Create a culture that emphasizes learning through iteration, with experiments that are designed to yield measurable results
• Direct and lead a culture supportive of change, by engaging and employing activities that drive and supports this

Line manage the Engineering team specifically through Performance Management and career development

• Set measurable goals and objectives and provide explicit guidance regarding performance expectations, aligning to IT COE measures and KPI’s
• Sets clear expectations for the achievement of quality goals
• Provides support in the form of training, mentoring, coaching, etc. for the engineering team members to allow them to attain mastery in their craft.
• Ensures that team members are rewarded fairly within the context of experience, performance and personal contribution.
• Perform overall line management functions in accordance to the HC guidelines:
  • Develop a high performing team by embedding the bank's performance process, regular performance feedback and coaching. Address poor performance.
  • Motivate team members and ensure that they receive recognition for performance excellence by allocating the annual increase and bonuses
  • Determine development needs of the team and ensure that development opportunities (training, rotation, on-the-job learning) are budgeted for and executed
  • Maintain a succession plan for the team by reviewing the skills of the team at least twice a year and having career conversations with them
  • Participate in talent sourcing processes to recruit new members of the team, including Influencing determination of suitable remuneration practices for employees
  • Act as the escalation point for the management of improvement of performance and development of functional resources
  • Ensure that disciplinary action and grievances are addressed and aligned to the Standard Bank policies and procedures
  • Ensure professional development management (Skills matrix management / PDP). This is achieved through building organisational capabilities through evaluating likely future requirements and ensuring that individuals are provided with the best possible development opportunities in line with these.
• Create an environment in which learning and continuous development are emphasised and valued, whilst taking personal responsibility for coaching and mentoring others
• Establish a positive, healthy and safe working environment in accordance with all legislation and regulations

Contribute to management of Technical Platform(s) (where Technical Platforms are owned within the Program)

• Support the Platform Owners in ensuring that the platform is engineered to be secure, meet service level objectives in terms of availability, reliability and performance
• Participate in root cause of failures on the platform, putting in place remediation actions
• Ensure that technical debt levels are always kept under control and that re-factoring / remediation / simplification takes places on a regular basis
• Oversee the development and maintenance of run-books for all required platform services / functions
• Set-up appropriate processes to quality assure all code deployed onto the platform

Preferred Qualification and Experience

Qualifications:

• Degree: IT and Computer Sciences.
• Certifications in Agile Software development methodologies and associated practices such as Continuous Integration, Software Defined Infrastructure, Evolutionary Architecture, etc.

Experience:

• 5 - 7 years' Business Partnering & Service Management. Proven track record to a broad spectrum of stakeholders including senior executives. Knowledge of Agile and Lean frameworks, methods and practices and experience in being a catalyst for organisational change. Experience working with cross-functional teams fostering collaboration and team work. Exposure to broad business and financial management type experience, specifically within the banking sector. Good understanding of the Standard Bank IT environment.
• 7 - 10 years' Solutions Engineering.
• 5 - 7 years' Practice Management and Leadership experience. Proven ability to work effectively as both a team leader and as a member of a small team of technical staff working in an agile development environment. Track record in capability and competency building and coaching of staff is required. Minimum 3-5 years’ experience as a senior manager running a portfolio of 10+ technical experts.

Knowledge/Technical Skills/Expertise

• The identification of new and alternative approaches to performing business activities. The analysis of business processes, including recognition of the potential for automation of the processes, assessment of the costs and potential benefits of the new approaches considered and, where appropriate, management of change and assistance with implementation.
• Knowledge and ability to analyse business requirements to be met by IT solutions.
• Defining and managing the process of deploying and integrating IT capabilities into the business in a way that is sensitive to, and fully compatible with, business operations.
• The coordination of relationships with and between key stakeholders, during the design, management and implementation of business change.
• Ability to review and study relevant information from various sources to develop new information; Ability to identify primary and secondary authorities to validate the research.
• Knowledge and understanding of IT diagnostic tools including the replication of errors in test environments.
• Possesses a deep and broad knowledge base in fundamental IT technical skill sets. Stays informed on emerging trends.
• Monitoring for the emergence of anticipated benefits (typically specified as part of the business case for a change program or project). Action (typically by the program management team) to optimize the business impact of individual and combined benefits.