Key Accountabilities
Head of Applications is responsible for the management, strategy and execution for Applications and data management practice at the bank. The incumbent will play the role of building strategy and executing them as a part of banks focus on Customer, Resilience and Service Excellence. The role is focused on 5 key areas
Strategic focus
The bank has embarked on a multi-year transformation project with a roadmap for Technology. The IT department is already working on a strategy based on maturity model. We target an annual improvement for services, discover and enhance based on the model that is best for overall strategy. You will be required to lead and evaluate the IT department’s maturity against the strategy, effectively resulting in positive improvements.
You will contribute to development of policies and procedures to guide the activities for IT department and enhance compliance to regulation and standardization of services, with focus on business continuity and resilience. We are growing, we need the Head of Applications to work on Applications enhancement and performance management, build and manage an effective service roadmap which provides multi-year and resilience coverage.
Operational Focus
You are required to keep lights on for the bank. We operate in a 24×7 digital environment, our focus has been to maintain available and performant services. The objective requires planning and delivery for Applications, Software, Licenses and Security. This will require Software Acquisition and Licensing management as well. Your primary responsibility will be Core Banking Ecosystem which is composed of the Core Banking Application, Data Management Practice, Integrations, API’s and application ecosystems. We have multiple applications that support various banking channels which are a part of the bank’s customer service offering. We also have a gamut of Internal applications which are used to support the organization, they will come under your objective for management and support. Functional usage and support will also be a part of the responsibility, which will require you to have extensive engagement with the business teams to understand their requirements and support with their strategy. This requires you to manage the data management practice and support individuals and teams that are specialized in business analysis.
You will be required to develop cadence for software release and patching, maintenance of services, software infrastructure and work with datacenter managers for capacity planning and minimal disruption to business. You will be required to maintain adherence to the Information Security policies and procedures to enhance integrity and security of systems and data. You will coordinate all technology Audits and Monitor compliance with the IT policies and procedures to ensure gaps are identified and addressed in a timely manner;
You will manage relationships with vendors to ensure they comply with the Service Level Agreement and provide quality and timely service, Coordinate for Applications and Infrastructure services across the bank to ensure Customers are provided quality services. User experience and feedback for applications will be one of the primary metrics for measuring performance. Our key strategic focus is on resilience. You will be required to Develop and Implement effective Disaster Recovery Plans and ensure alignment with overall Business Continuity Management strategy.
Changes and incidents are an integral part of service improvement and operations management. You will be required to manage these critical areas of authorizing changes and managing incident recovery process. Risk management is a continuous ask for the role.
People focus
Head of Applications is a leadership role that requires you to lead multiple teams which are both aligned to functional areas and technical areas. Manage the performance evaluation, competency development, capability and capacity management. Apart from setting goals and targets, service levels and performance targets, the individual will be required to support individuals and teams to balance priorities. The role demands you to work closely with the management, external vendors and advisors.
Financial focus
The role requires significant engagement and financial management to support both internal and external stakeholders and direct the investments strategically, including preparing supporting and presenting proposals for projects to executives. The role requires Planning, forecasting and spend management of annual budgets. The planning exercise for developing the annual budget requires engagement and review with business teams to review requirements for growth and change for their department.
As a part of the financial management practice for the IT department you will be required to manage relationship with service providers, vendors, suppliers and subscriptions. This will include and not limited to manage the procurement, contract negotiations and invoice payment process for technology spend.
Innovation Focus
Key success for a leader is the ability to Acquire, Mentor and Coach talent. From developing young talent to acquiring and retaining experienced technology and development resources. The role also requires you to play a critical role in developing key aspects of Delivery with experience in Project Management and support the development of Agile practices. For future proofing the business and technology within the bank, we make investments in research related to Platforms, Engineering practices, capacity enhancements and product discoveries. The role requires you to challenge the norms and reduce the risk of technology debt.
Experience
A minimum of ten (10) years’ experience in Leading an IT department or organization similar and complex, four (4) of which must be at a senior management level;
A demonstrated ability to lead a large and complex technology team with 24×7 operations
Experience with complex application deployments
Experience of managing a T24 core banking environment
Experience of data management platforms like Hadoop will be added advantage
Experience of ERP, preferably Oracle
Experience in managing API’s and related ecosystem
Experience with software development, knowledge of Java or C# will be an added plus
Experience with RDBMS and writing SQL and performance tuning
Career exposure to engineering capability is essential
Exposure to deploying applications, designing Architecture for Windows and Linux environments
Experience of leading technology teams through business transformation is an added advantage
Qualifications
Bachelor’s Degree in Computer Science, computer engineering, information systems or any other relevant degree
Project Management Certification or Agile Scrum Master Certification will be an added advantage
Knowledge
IT security
IT risk management
Project management
Change management
Data management
Leadership skills
Stakeholder management
Interpersonal Skills
Ability to work under pressure
Innovation ability
Budgeting Knowledge
Banking operations
Communication skills
Programming
Database administration skills
Expression of Interest
Submit your CV to recruitment@bk.rw by 15th March 2021
