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.
Job Summary
The Head of CRES Digital & Data is responsible for driving business-led digital transformation across the Corporate Real Estate Services (CRES) function. This role ensures that digital capabilities, data assets, and technology-enabled processes translate into measurable business value, improved decision making, and enhanced colleague experiences across the real estate lifecycle.
The role will provide strategic oversight of technologies supporting facilities management, engineering, capital projects, workplace experience, physical security, portfolio management, sustainability, parking and mobility, smart buildings, access control, CCTV, BMS, IoT, ESG reporting and related real estate systems.
The role provides business ownership of digital outcomes - focusing on adoption, user experience, process modernisation, and data driven insights while partnering closely with the Head of Technology (CRES), who retains accountability for technology strategy, platforms, architecture, integrations, delivery, and risk control alignment
The Head: CRES Data and Technology Services acts as the key driver of digital product vision, >
Job Description
1. Business Digital Strategy & Value Realisation
- Develop and maintain the CRES Digital & Data Business Strategy, architecture and roadmap for the Corporate Real Estate Services portfolio across Africa, ensuring alignment with business strategy, operational requirements and enterprise technology standards
- Define digital capability needs across the CRES value chain (portfolio, workplace, operations, engineering, ESG).
- Translate process pain points and business objectives into digital product requirements and outcome‑based roadmaps.
- Drive benefits realisation or commercialisation, ensuring that digital investments deliver improvements in cost-to-serve, asset lifecycle, utilisation, sustainability, and vendor performance.
2. Digital Product Ownership (Business)
- Act as the business owner for digital products used across CRES (workplace tools, space analytics, asset insights, ESG reporting dashboards, portfolio visualisation).
- Shape the desired user experience, ensuring systems are intuitive and optimise colleague productivity and service quality.
- Prioritise features based on business value and partner with the Head of Technology for delivery sequencing and roadmap alignment.
3. Data-as-a-Product Ownership
- Own the business definition of data products for Portfolio, Asset, Space, Vendor, and ESG domains.
- Define business semantics, KPIs, success measures, and data quality expectations.
- Drive data governance across CRES, ensuring that vendor-generated data meets quality, completeness, and timeliness thresholds.
- Partner with the Technology team, who build and maintain the underlying pipelines, integrations, and data architecture.
4. Business Insights, Analytics & Decision Support
- Lead the development of executive insights, dashboards, and performance packs that enable strategic decision‑making.
- Build scenario models and analytics that support:
- footprint optimisation
- space utilisation intelligence
- cost-to-serve analysis
- asset lifecycle performance
- vendor performance and SLA adherence
- ESG sustainability insights
- Serve as the business owner for analytic requirements; Tech manages infrastructure and engineering.
5. Operating Model & Change Enablement
- Lead digital adoption and change enablement across CRES, ensuring new tools and processes are embedded effectively.
- Re-engineer business processes to maximise the value of technology investments.
- Strengthen vendor governance models by establishing clear data expectations, performance insights, and outcome-led reporting.
- Ensure that digital ways of working are institutionalised across the CRES value chain.
6. Stakeholder Collaboration & Alignment
Work closely with:
- Portfolio Strategy: to enable >
Education
Bachelor`s Degrees and Advanced Diplomas: Business, Commerce and Management Studies (Required)Absa Bank Limited is an equal opportunity, affirmative action employer. In compliance with the Employment Equity Act 55 of 1998, preference will be given to suitable candidates from designated groups whose appointments will contribute towards achievement of equitable demographic representation of our workforce profile and add to the diversity of the Bank.
Absa Bank Limited reserves the right not to make an appointment to the post as advertised