Job Summary

Lead sourcing and supply chain activity at a Country level for the development and execution of commercial solutions and 3rd party risk management targeted to realising significant value for the country.

Work with senior business and Regional Sourcing representatives to ensure that business objectives are understood and driving alignment of Strategic Sourcing objectives

To manage the dependencies between Sourcing and relevant business areas to ensure effective implementation of sourcing initiatives (category strategies, Risk & Controls Framework and Savings Delivery)

Creating and leading a team of highly motivated and capable professionals who have skill sets to work in-country within a defined market sector and category

Prioritize strategic sourcing activities in conjunction with regional sourcing teams and business stakeholders

Ensure that group strategies are delivered with appropriate levels of execution at the local level

Ensure that sourcing synergies are leveraged across the Region to the benefit of the country locally

Ensure that appropriate governance & risk management models are deployed locally in line with the Absa Sourcing Control & Risk Framework

Job Description

30% Commercial Accountabilities

• Represent Sourcing team at senior business level, working in conjunction with country leadership team to gain support for sourcing recommendations and more broadly act as a trusted commercial adviser.
• Embed processes and governance, which exploit commercial synergies and risk management including the need for collegiate working across Central Sourcing
• Provide senior level input to the negotiations with suppliers and chosen service providers, where required
• Co-ordinate and deliver the in-country cost saving Sourcing targets
• Oversee the application of sourcing and supplier management governance at all levels of the business
• Understanding of business objectives and strategies 
• Lead the development of robust benefits recording, cluster MI, and target market analysis to support the realization of significant value from Sourcing activity
• Lead the in-country sourcing team by developing objectives and coach through delivery

30% Leadership and Management Accountabilities

• Support Regional Category teams in establishing and deploying the category initiatives at a local level.
• Lead, manage and develop direct reports to achieve high performance.  Agree challenging performance and development objectives providing regular feedback and coaching to ensure performance is maximized and differentiated.
• Provide clarity of direction and focus to team members and demonstrate appropriate leadership and management disciplines and behaviors to achieve Business goals.
• Manage team performance, undertaking regular individual reviews to reflect achievements against targets/ behavior and agree the way forward including training and development.
• Ensure Personal Development Plans are complete, training plans executed, and that training effectiveness is monitored on an ongoing basis.
• Provide active leadership and support across wider commercial community within the Bank to enable effective team performance.
• Support and contribute to team building and team dynamics through personally demonstrating leadership and team attributes.
• Champion new ways of working with own team and wider community, ensuring new ways of working and cultural changes are embedded.
• Develop clear stakeholder maps and effective governance matrix (responsibility / accountability).
• Develop prioritized sourcing activity schedule with strategic sourcing.
• Develop clear understanding of cost: income ration dynamics across E2E value streams.
• Ensure cluster adherence to Group Sourcing Framework (SSMP).
• Consolidate cluster reporting on Compliance, Risk and Financial Performance.
• Own, communicate, cascade and follow-up of sourcing performance scorecard across cluster.
• Establish appropriate policies e.g. Demand Management, Travel etc.

25% Deliver service excellence to our clients

• All queries received are processed and any pending queries are escalated to the line manager with reason for not being able to accomplish.
• Ensure supplier complains are handled according to laid down procedures on complaint handling.
• Eliminate stakeholder’s complaint on slow responsiveness of sourcing
• Sensitize the business and functions on the sourcing process
• Emphasize and attend supplier performance review meetings scheduled on monthly and quarterly basis
• improvement of customer satisfaction survey by 10%
• 100 % projects completed on time
• Work closely with procurement hub in all the deals that has been assigned to hub
• Work closely with supplier managers to receive the Supplier management outputs, such as vendor’s performance, business requirements, and supplier meeting minutes.
• Support and work as team with supplier relationship managers and all other business stakeholders in carrying out the sourcing activity to close all gaps in suppliers’ documents files.
• Ensure all records for each engagement are recorded in supplier soft and hard copy files.

15% Staff Management

• Ensure implementation of PDs (including PD plans) for all team members
• Help team members to identify strengths and weaknesses in their own skills and attributes, through regular review and feedback
• Review employees’ self- development plans and ensure training and development needs are accommodated
• Facilitate career growth for employees within the teams and provide necessary exposure
• Pro-actively manage staff performance
• Assist staff to meet Absa Behaviors standards

Risk and Control Objective

• Ensure that all activities and duties are carried out in full compliance with regulatory requirements, Absa Operational Risk Framework and internal Absa Policies and Standards.
• Manage risk and control effectively by applying applicable risk frameworks and embedding a positive risk culture
• Understanding of own role in the end to end processes in which you play a part, including applicable risks and controls.
• Adhere to Absa’s policies and procedures applicable to own role, demonstrating sound judgment and responsible risk management.
• Report all risk events / incidents / issues using the defined process for your business area and help to understand why these happened and how to prevent them in future.
• Proactively look for ways to improve the control environment by considering what could go wrong in the processes you operate and how errors could be prevented.
• Continuous and proactive engagement with regulatory bodies, unions where applicable
• All mandatory training completed to deadline.

Technical skills / Competencies

• People and Capability
• Relationship/ Partnership Approach
• Vision and direction
• Communication/ Influence
• Customer/ Market Perspective
• Innovation and Change

Knowledge, Expertise and Experience

Essential

• Good knowledge of appropriate commercial models and approaches/techniques necessary to achieve best in class deals
• Good commercial contractual knowledge e.g., contract law, service level creation.
• Multi disciplinary team facilitation and leadership.
• Ability to develop innovative local sourcing strategies to maximize value and execute best in class deals.
• Analytical and financial understanding of service cost models and lifetime cost of acquisition.
• Supplier communications and management to achieve leading commercial solutions.
• Good contract negotiation skills to tackle escalated issues with key suppliers at Executive and Board level and develop win-win situations.
• Strong networking/stakeholder management skills at senior levels.
• Mentoring/team coaching and development skills.

• A sound understanding of the principles and application of risk management (in terms of sourced solutions) and commercial project management skills.
• Sound knowledge of Bank financial approval processes including business case preparation, case presentation to Governance committee and all relevant intermediary steering groups.
• Broad range of experience across non-technology categories.

Preferred

Blue Chip relevant global expertise

Absa Values

Absa’s Values and Behaviors represent the set of standards which governs the actions of all of us who work for the bank and against which the performance of every one of us in Absa are being assessed and rewarded:

• I drive high performance to achieve sustainable results
• I’m obsessed with customer
• I have an African heartbeat
• I believe our people are our strengths

Education

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