Careers

Position: IT Executive: Enterprise Architecture (5A)          

Closing Date: 17 July 2020

Department: IT

Reporting Line: Group Chief Information Officer

Location: Johannesburg, Parktown

Purpose of the Job:

A Senior role, reporting into the Group Chief Information Officer, this role is accountable for owning the overall end-to-end IT architectural roadmap and overall IT strategic plan for the PPS Group. The successful incumbent will lead and manage a team of IT Architects to leverage models, methodologies and architectural frameworks, identifying key relationships and gaps between business objectives, processes and IT systems. This role is accountable for linking the Business Architecture of all PPS Business Units to the IT Enterprise Architectures to be defined and deployed for PPS. This includes all aspects of Solution/Data/Infrastructure/Applications/Information/Digital & Technical Architectures.

Main duties and responsibilities:

Enterprise Architecture

• Assuming overall responsibility for the development of technical roadmaps and enterprise landscapes
• Acting as the custodian of the IT Strategic and Enterprise Architectural plans
• Accountable for the solutions architecture and end-to-end solutions design for all projects
• Producing Technical Design Roadmaps for all IT Components in PPS
• Owning the overall IT architecture disciplines and frameworks which encompass: Solution Design, Data Architecture, Applications Architecture, Information Architecture and Digital Architecture and end-to-end solutions design; that enable adaptability, scalability, availability, and re-use
• Providing compelling insights and identifying opportunities for technology innovations encompassing Digital, Artificial Intelligence, Data Analytics, Web, Mobile services and Best Practice Infrastructural capabilities
• Keeping up-to-date with emerging technologies and architectural approaches, promoting alignment between technology and business strategy
• Providing leadership by addressing the gap between enterprise architecture strategy and the IT organisation’s readiness to adapt
• From time to time researching best practice technologies and advising PPS on the best technologies to use and adopt for deployment of solutions required by PPS

Transform and grow the environment

• Optimising and standardising the technology environment (embedding the Cloud Strategy)
• Ensuring that the enterprise architectural capabilities are leading edge, cost effective and aligned to PPS’s strategic objectives
• Partnering with business and IT leaders to ensure that architecture roadmaps continually align with business objectives and that the interfaces adopted across PPS are aligned with best practice
• Promoting innovation through new technologies, leveraging best practice to gain competitive advantage
• Innovating with respect to service quality and ways in which it can be improved within the bounds of the organisation’s limits (resource, budgetary, legal, etc)
• Ensuring the deployment of technology, software, hardware solutions and standards to measure the cost of ownership of IT infrastructure, improving the manageability and optimal utilisation of assets
• Identifying legacy applications for decommissioning over time to be replaced by more modern solutions and technologies across PPS 

IT Process management

• Accountable for IT process management, overseeing the delivery of process engineering/process improvement and relevant business systems architecture development (including systems and technical architecture) required for all products, processes and systems
• Responsible for integration management, POC’s and RFI/RFP execution
• Ensuring that necessary IT tools to support the desired customer experience and performance requirements are in place
• Creating key performance measures with a strong focus on customer service and quality
• Monitoring performance profiling tools and procedures and recommending their adoption
• Identifying opportunities and implementing appropriate initiatives to improve quality and/or business performance 

Commercial Management

• Preparing/Aligning group objectives and budgets to facilitate the orderly and efficient capturing, storage, processing, and dissemination of information
• Collaborating with key stakeholders across the business to achieve the desired customer and commercial outcomes
• Managing vendor costs and the entire strategic investment budget and spend for IT
• Making financial provision for IT architectural research and analysis
• Providing financial management reporting on a monthly basis
• Maintaining a full understanding of all PPS’ technological implementations and integration with external service providers

People Leadership and Culture 

• Developing a PPS IT Employee Value Proposition; to create PPS as an IT Employer-of-choice characterised by a pipeline of talent joining the Group as young technicians and developing their careers over extended periods within the Group
• Managing and mentoring a highly technical team responsible for the creation, implementation and maintenance of architectural strategies
• Providing team leadership, ensuring the effective implementation of the strategy through leadership of the management team (setting individual objectives, managing performance, developing and motivating staff, providing formal and informal feedback and appraisals) in order to ensure that the highest level of performance is achieved
• Driving delivery of work through multidisciplinary and cross-functional teams.
• Accountable for the tactical plans and initiatives aligned to the wider PPS Group strategic requirements
• Accountable for strategic workforce planning; ensuring that the team is sufficiently resourced to meet demand, compliance and the required customer experience
• Creating a healthy and enabling organisational culture and climate so that all employees are able to perform to their full potential and overall business performance is maximised
• Creating a stimulating and safe environment that inspires innovation and new initiatives
• Enabling the upskilling of the Architecture team in understanding, adapting and adopting new methods, standards and solution design approaches to support agility and time-to-market requirements

IT Governance

• Owning the Enterprise Architecture governance framework to mitigate risk and abide by legislative requirements; ensuring that all necessary Enterprise Architecture documentation and templates are updated and in place for reference and adoption when needed
• Establishing and chairing an Architecture Governance Board; responsible for ensuring effective and efficient use of IT resources and assets and architecture and portfolio decisions that enable the long-term business strategy
• Ensuring that the solution architecture takes current architectural trends and developments of the market into account focusing on Insurance platforms, AI, Data Management, Security and Customer Service imperatives
• Delivering solution designs and impact assessments to support the delivery of business goals, and help teams irrespective of delivery approach e.g. (squads) to bring these products to life
• Communicating key facts, risks and assumptions to enable executives within PPS to understand and make decisions for the products and services that PPS represents
• Identifying architectural risks and propose alternative solutions to avoid end-of-life challenges with solutions and software choices

Effective Communication and Stakeholder management

• Effectively communicates the IT strategic plans and narrative aligned to business requirements; uses varied communication vehicles and opportunities to promote dialogue, shared understanding and consensus
• Collaborating with key business stakeholders, marketing, production, and operations, sharing insights to improve multichannel experiences, product development, needs identification and personalization
• Managing the reputation and brand of the IT division so that the division is viewed favourably with clients (internal and external)
• Ensuring relevant internal and external stakeholders, resources, service providers and partners are appropriately contracted to deliver and maintain technology solutions and business continuity
• Communicating requirements of any future infrastructure needs, in collaboration with the other IT capabilities (in-house, partners and vendors)
• Representing architecture for the technology function and communicate with the wider organisation
• Collaborating with other teams at PPS to promote the interoperability of data collected across products and technology teams ensuring that data architecture design principles and adopted and data frameworks embedded as part of the design

Formal Qualifications:

• Honours or Masters University Degree in Computer Science, Mathematics, Engineering, or related field
• Masters qualification in Business Administration or Business Leadership will be an advantage
• ITIL / PMBOK Certification would be an advantage

Experience:

• At least 15 -20 years’ IT experience and leadership roles in IT strategy, integration management and IT development
• At least 10 years’ experience in the IT/OSS/BSS layers
• 10 years’ experience in a current Head IT Architecture position in a sizable organisation; preferably in banking or financial services industry would be preferred
• Experience in developing Enterprise Architecture strategy and roadmaps, track record of developing business cases for IT investments
• Leading IT transformation and other large change initiatives successfully
• Establishing and chairing an Architecture Review Board
• Experience with implementation of IT integration solutions in a large division / company. 
• Commercial, legal and regulatory exposure and awareness at a senior level
• Experience in leading a team of architects, coaching and developing multi-disciplinary teams
• Experience in working closely with Gartner /Meta/ Forrester would be an advantage

Knowledge and Skills:

• Excellent knowledge and understanding of local and global ICT market dynamics
• Strong working knowledge of regulatory and competition environments across the industry
• Strong conflict management skills
• Technical knowledge and experience with technology relative to industry; .Net, C#, SQL Server, MongoDB, Solr, jQuery, Angular, AWS, IIS, GitHub, Grunt/Gulp, Node.JS, Java/C , PostGress ect
• Demonstrates the ability to understand and interpret key technology platforms relative to PPS
• Knowledge of the technology elements that contribute to maturing the 4th Industrial Revolution objectives; robotics, automation, digitalisation, artificial intelligence, etc

Competencies:

• Excellent communication (verbal and written) in English
• Excellent analytical, logical reasoning and strategic thinking ability and business acumen
• Excellent leadership change management and problem-solving skills
• Excellent planning, organising and execution skill
• Complex problem-solving and analytics
• Adapting and responding to change
• Innovation and forward thinking
• Business acumen and excellent presentation skill capability
• Persuading and influencing
• Deciding and initiating action
• Strategic vision and agility
• Leading cross-functional and multi-disciplinary teams

Preference will be given to Employment Equity candidates

Please send your applications to recruitment@pps.co.za

Position: Solutions Architect (4S1)                   

Closing Date: 17 July 2020

Department: IT

Reporting Line: IT Executive: Enterprise Architecture

Location: Johannesburg, Parktown

Purpose of the Job:

A technical specialist role, reporting into the IT Executive: Enterprise Architecture, this role is responsible for the solutions architecture and end-to-end solutions design, balancing requirements against resource utilisation and architectural factors. The successful incumbent will be responsible for enabling and driving the vision that underlies the solution and the execution of that vision for those solutions. This role will ensure that application software is effectively and efficiently designed, produced and tested to meet business objectives. 

Areas covered include: data, work flow, integration, encompassing applications, hardware platforms, interfaces with peripheral systems, internal and external checks and controls and the evaluation of 3rd party vendor solutions.

Main duties and responsibilities:

Solutions Architecture

• Reviewing, interpreting and responding to detailed business requirements specifications (BRS) to ensure alignment between customer expectations and current or future ICT capability
• Defining the roadmap to reach target architecture, driving implementation of the technical architecture roadmap
• Using appropriate tools, including logical models of components and interfaces, to contribute to the development of systems architectures in specific business or functional areas
• Supporting the IT Executive: Enterprise Architecture in driving the solutions architecture and end-to-end solutions design
• Co-creating IT architecture disciplines and frameworks for adaptability, scalability, availability, and re-use
• Keeping up to date with emerging technologies and architectural approaches, promoting alignment between technology and business strategy
• Defining and designing technology solutions to assist the business in meeting their business objectives within the agreed enterprise architecture
• Managing and maintaining technology solutions and business continuity
• Working closely with the Development team to organise the development efforts

Solutions Design

• Producing detailed component specifications, translating these into detailed designs for implementation using selected products
• Assisting in the preparation of technical plans within a business change programme,  cooperating with business assurance and project staff to ensure that appropriate technical resources are made available
• Providing advice on technical aspects of system development and integration (including requests for changes, deviations from specifications, etc), ensuring that relevant technical strategies, policies, standards and practices are applied correctly
• Specifying and designing large or complex systems using appropriate design standards, methods and tools
• Reviewing other systems designs to ensure selection of appropriate technology
• Assessing new requirements and making design recommendations
• Evaluating and undertaking impact analysis on major design options, assessing and managing associated risks
• Ensuring that the system design balances functional, service quality and systems management requirements

Technical Support

• Providing solutions in areas of disaster recovery, data integrity and security.
• Evaluating and recommending software technologies in these areas, evaluating alternatives and analysing problems
• Supporting the creation and communication of programme architecture guiding principles, strategic technology standards, frameworks and roadmaps
• Hands-on design for a secure, efficient, and adaptable connected services model
• Working closely with Applications Architects and development groups to meet programme functional and non-functional requirements
• Supporting design reviews, gap analysis and assessments
• Supporting failure mode and performance management analysis processes

IT Environment

• Influencing and enabling the technology environment with best practice solutions
• Ensuring that the solutions architectural capabilities are up to date and cost effective
• Engaging with business and IT leaders to ensure that architecture roadmaps continually align with business objectives
• Collaborating with IT management to suggest and guide innovation of new solutions software and technologies aligned to best practices

IT Governance

• Adhering to the architectural governance framework in order to mitigate risk and abide by requirements protocols
• Delivering software programmes, applications, and third-party solutions to support the delivery of business goals within the set IT standards
• Reporting architectural risks and suggesting alternative and solutions
• Participating in the governance process for reviewing specific solutions to assure they are properly leveraging programme frameworks and standards

Effective Communication and Stakeholder management

• Collaborating with key business stakeholders; Marketing, Production and Operations, sharing insights to improve multichannel experiences, product development and needs identification
• Communicating requirements of any future infrastructure solutions, in collaboration with the other IT capabilities
• Anticipates and responds appropriately to the needs, reactions and feedback of stakeholders
• Ensures that key business inhibiting capabilities are highlighted with a solution orientation approach
• Regular communication with stakeholders in a thorough manner using appropriate and effective communication tools
• Harnessing business improvements and optimisation to the IT business objectives
• Expresses opinions, information and key points of view clearly and assertively
• Confident in conceptualising, building and presenting concepts and plans
• Creating and sustaining networks for best practice and insights across the architecture environment so that multi-disciplinary approaches are leveraged
• Providing regular information and insights to improve the architect design and software applications principles

Formal Qualifications:

• Bachelor’s degree in either Information Systems, Informatics or Computer Science or Engineering (or equivalent work experience)
• Honours or Master’s degree in Information Systems, Informatics, Computer Science or Engineering is preferred
• TOGAF Framework or equivalent certification

Experience:

• At least 5 -7 years’ experience in an IT technical specialist role
• 5 - 7 years’ experience in a current solutions architect position in a sizable organisation; Banking or Financial Services industry preferred
• Experience creation and operations of IT solutions architecture roadmaps in a medium to large division/company
• Proven experience in adopting architecture and governance frameworks e.g. TOGAF or Zachman
• Advanced experience in the design and implementation of complex computer systems
• Experience in code refactoring, design patterns, design-driven development, continuous deployment, highly scalable applications, application security.
• Experience in pair programming, continuous integration, test-driven development & incremental design.
• Project management experience
• Ability to test RSpec, JUnit or Selenium frameworks. Clear understanding and application of relational and NoSQL data stores

Knowledge and Skills:

• Sound analytical, logical reasoning and business acumen
• Sound planning, organising and execution skills
• Sound knowledge of software development, with knowledge of Agile software development process
• Able to write architectural design documents or review design documents provided by others
• Good understanding of Node.js, Go, Ruby on Rails, Java, PHP, Perl, SQL, HTML, .Net, JavaScript or CSS
• In depth infrastructure knowledge including RESTful APIs, Single Sign On, LDAP, LAMP, Search Technologies
• Proficiency in implementing reliable, complex, secure, high performance and scalable solutions from creation to production
• Able to draft accurate documentation that supports the project management effort and software development
• Demonstrates the ability to understand and interpret key technology platforms relative to PPS
• Knowledge of the technology elements that contribute to maturing the 4th Industrial Revolution objectives; robotics, automation, digitalisation, artificial intelligence, etc.

Competencies (maximum of 8):

• Sound communication (verbal and written) in English
• Excellent customer relations skills and ability to work with demanding customers
• Sound problem-solving and analytics skills
• Innovation orientation
• Business acumen
• Persuading and influencing
• Change navigation and adaptability

Preference will be given to Employment Equity candidates

Please send your applications to recruitment@pps.co.za

Position: IT Infrastructure Architect (4S1)                  

Closing Date: 17 July 2020

Department: IT

Reporting Line: IT Executive: Enterprise Architecture

Location: Johannesburg, Parktown

Purpose of the Job:

A technical specialist role, reporting into the IT Executive: Enterprise Architecture, this role is responsible

for developing and maintaining the overall design plan for the logical and technical infrastructure and networks, as well as offering infrastructure services. The role will gain overall commitment for all high-level infrastructure and network plans, initiating and participating in projects to evaluate technologies and methods for implementing these plans. The role will guide the execution of Incident, Change, Release, Problem, Performance, and Availability Management within Infrastructure and Networks. This specialist function will advise on any issues related to IT security and performance as well as drive the software and hardware installations, specification, testing and service transition.

Main duties and responsibilities:

Infrastructure architecture

• Defining short and long-term plans to make certain the infrastructure and networks meet the business needs
• Identifying the business requirements and incorporating new hardware, operating systems or connectivity solutions for both on premise and cloud-based solutions
• Conducting research on emerging technologies and architectural approaches in support of infrastructure and network development efforts, recommending technologies that will increase cost effectiveness and flexibility, engaging with IT Management on these issues
• Analysing new and existing systems to ensure that these systems provide the necessary security
• Analysing overall system performance and expectations
• Analysing infrastructure and networks along with defining a roadmap to reach target architecture, driving implementation of the technical architecture roadmap
• Reviewing infrastructure and network footprints to identify consolidation and cost reduction opportunities
• Introducing alternative technologies to improve or enhance information systems, supporting organisational goals
• Identifying architectural risks, proposing alternative and solutions
• Promoting alignment between technology and business strategy

Technical Support

• Developing, implementing, and maintaining policies, procedures, and associated training plans for infrastructure and network resource administration
• Developing and deploying methodologies for testing infrastructure and network performance for infrastructure and network resource administration
• Providing solutions in areas of disaster recovery, data integrity and security. Evaluating and recommending software technologies in these areas, evaluating alternatives and analysing problems
• Supporting the creation and communication of programme architecture guiding principles, strategic technology standards, frameworks, and roadmaps
• Hands-on design for a secure, efficient, and adaptable connected services model
• Supporting design reviews, gap analysis and assessments
• Supporting failure mode and performance management analysis processes
• Hands-on creation of context, sequence and interaction diagrams and other program integration architecture artefacts using standard best practices

IT Environment

• Participating in proof of concepts to assist with defining the technology direction, enabling business strategy
• Formulating detailed plans to add new systems to the existing core infrastructure
• Creating logistic plans for conducting physical integration of hardware
• Setting the technical direction, providing support throughout the infrastructure process
• Influencing and enabling the technology environment with best practice solutions
• Co-creating and supporting the innovative solutions and the integration of new infrastructure
• Engaging with business and IT leaders to ensure that architecture roadmaps continually align with business objectives
• Collaborating with IT management to suggest and guide innovation of new software and technologies aligned to best practices

IT Governance

• Adhering to the architectural governance framework in order to mitigate risk and abide by requirements protocols
• Delivering the integration of software hardware, applications, and third-party solutions to support the delivery of business goals within the set IT standards
• Reporting architectural risks, suggesting alternative and solutions
• Participating in the governance process for reviewing specific solutions to assure they are properly leveraging program frameworks and standards

Effective Communication and Stakeholder management

• Collaborating with key business stakeholders; Marketing, Production and Operations, sharing insights to improve multichannel experiences, product development and needs identification
• Communicating requirements of any future infrastructure needs in collaboration with the other IT capabilities
• Anticipating and responding appropriately to the needs, reactions and feedback of stakeholders
• Excellent customer relations skills and ability to work with demanding customers
• Ensuring that key business-inhibiting capabilities are highlighted with a solution-orientated approach to problem resolution
• Regular communication with stakeholders in a thorough manner using appropriate and effective communication tools
• Harnessing business improvements and optimisation in line with the IT business objectives
• Expresses opinions, information and key points of view clearly and assertively
• Confident in conceptualising, building and presenting concepts and plans
• Creating and sustaining networks for best practice and insights across the architecture environment so that multi-disciplinary approaches are leveraged
• Providing regular information and insights to improve the architect design and software applications principles

Formal Qualifications:

• Matric
• Bachelor’s degree in either Information Systems, Informatics or Computer Science or Engineering (or equivalent work experience)
• Honours or Masters in Information Systems, Informatics, Computer Science or Engineering is preferred
• Cisco Certified Network Associate (CCNA) certification advantageous
• Cisco Certified Internetwork Expert (CCIE) certification advantageous
• Microsoft Certified System Engineer (MCSE) certification advantageous

Experience:

• At least 5 -7 years’ experience in an IT technical specialist role
• 5 - 7 years’ experience in a current infrastructure architect position in a sizable organisation; Banking or Financial Services industry preferred
• 5 - 7 years’ experience in an IT production environment working with enterprise IT infrastructure, hardware, cloud services, web technologies and network areas
• Advanced experience in the design and implementation of complex computer systems
• Proven experience in adopting architecture and governance frameworks e.g. TOGAF or Zachman

Knowledge and Skills:

• Sound analytical, logical reasoning and business acumen
• Sound planning, organising and execution skills
• Sound communication (verbal and written) in English
• Extensive knowledge of designing, integrating and managing complex infrastructure solutions
• Sound knowledge of the Windows, Linux, Domains, Active Directory and its concepts, and the interaction between hardware, operating systems, network, Cloud and application software
• Demonstrated competency in the documentation of architectural design or review design documents
• Technical working knowledge of VMware
• Able to draft accurate documentation that supports the architectural designs
• Demonstrates the ability to understand and interpret key technology platforms relative to PPS
• Knowledge of the technology elements that contribute to maturing the 4th Industrial Revolution objectives; robotics, automation, digitalisation, artificial intelligence, etc.

Competencies:

• Sound problem-solving and analytics skills
• Innovation orientation
• Business Acumen
• Persuading and Influencing
• Change navigation and adaptable

Preference will be given to Employment Equity candidates

Please send your applications to recruitment@pps.co.za

Position: IT Executive: Dev Ops (5A)                  

Closing Date: 17 July 2020

Department: IT

Reporting Line: Group Chief Information Officer

Location: Johannesburg, Parktown

Purpose of the Job:

A senior leadership role reporting to the Chief Information Officer (CIO). The IT Executive Dev Ops is accountable for the mission-critical applications used by PPS and includes all PPS Applications i.e. (Financials, Supply Chain, HCM and CRM pillars) and the Business Intelligence / Analytics / Data Warehouse, B2B EDI system and other applications. The successful incumbent will be esponsible for the long-term strategy of these applications (including upgrades as needed); execution of the committed portfolio of IT projects through functional and technical design, configuration, development, testing and implementation. The IT Executive Dev Ops ensures a formal set of application development methodologies, principles, standards and processes are in place and adhered to with a focus on more agile ways of work.

Main duties and responsibilities:

Strategic Planning

• Leading, planning, directing and controlling all activities related to functional analysts and developers’ competencies; resource management; change and release management, quality and test management
• Supporting the CIO by delivering the committed portfolio of IT projects on time, to scope and within budget and within agreed constraints
• Supporting the organisation by ensuring that all relevant applications are available per Service Level Agreement (SLA)
• Leading a team of functional analysts, developers and reporting specialists to support PPS’s Arena, Websites, HCM, BI, CRM, Profit etc and other application needs
• Responsible for daily application support activities, ensuring that the organisation can effectively use the pool of applications to delivery on strategic and operational targets
• Ensuring application development methodologies, principles, standards and processes are defined; ensuring compliance across the IT portfolio with a future focus on agile methods of work
• Ensuring a long-term strategy of the ERP applications is maintained and agreed to by the CIO and IT Executives

Portfolio management (Centre of Excellence)

• Serving as the Centre of Excellence for applications under the control of the Dev Ops team, providing expertise on application functionality, roadmaps (understanding vendor future plans)
• Supporting the CIO and Enterprise Architecture Executive in critical review of Application Roadmaps (created by Enterprise Architecture Executive)
• Quorum member of Architecture Review Board that approves/rejects solution designs
• Serving as the point of escalation for the Programme Manager, assisting in mitigating delays and removing obstacles that are delaying projects
• Establishing, communicating, managing and enforcing appropriate change and release management as well as test and quality mechanisms
• Proactively plan future IT resource requirements with third-party suppliers for both projects and application support in conjunction with Portfolio Management Executive
• Reviewing business cases (business and IT) to assess all application impacts
• Owning all the business cases and RFI/RFP/RFQ related for any applications-related work
• Working closely with the Project Delivery Head to deliver projects on time, scope and budget
• Working closely with the Service Delivery Head to support applications to meet business objectives

Management of the Run environment 

• Accountable for the stability of IT systems, performance, build management, monitoring of applications, SLA management, incident management, capacity management and IT integration
• Ensuring that daily operations run seamlessly to support the desired customer experience and performance requirements
• Driving the setting of measurement that elevates organisational performance and return on investment
• Maintaining network security and standards with the IT team
• Creating key performance measures with a strong focus on customer service and quality
• Monitoring the performance profiling tools and procedures
• Monitoring web analytics, making recommendations that align to business goals
• Supervising the quality assurance processes, integration, and system tests
• Identifying opportunities and implementing appropriate initiatives to improve quality and/or business performance

People Leadership and Culture 

• Developing a PPS IT Employee Value Proposition; creating PPS as an IT Employer-of-choice characterised by a pipeline of talent joining the Group as young technicians and developing their careers over extended periods within the Group
• Providing team leadership, ensuring the effective implementation of strategy through leadership of the management team (setting individual objectives, managing performance, developing and motivating staff, providing formal and informal feedback and appraisals) in order to ensure that the highest level of performance is achieved
• Creating a healthy and enabling organisational culture and climate so that all employees are able to perform to their full potential and overall business performance is maximised
• Accountable for strategic workforce planning; ensuring that the team is sufficiently resourced to meet demand, compliance and the required customer experience
• Accountable for the tactical plans and initiatives aligned to the wider PPS Group strategic requirements
• Creating a stimulating and safe environment that inspires innovation and new initiatives
• Driving the delivery of work through multidisciplinary and cross-functional teams.

Formal Qualifications:

• Bachelor’s or Honours degree in Information Technology, Computer Science, or related field is required
• Master’s degree in Information Technology or a technology-related discipline is preferred

Experience:

• 8-10 years of application management experience
• 8-10 years’ experience in managing suppliers and large contracts
• Experience in Architecture an advantage
• Experience in Project Management an advantage

Knowledge and Skills:

• Excellent strategic and tactical planning capabilities - proven experience in application delivery in support of PPS’s Executive Sponsors of projects
• Designing, managing and actively promoting the ‘Build’ and Deploy capabilities - expertise in methodologies and processes, e.g. Agile and Waterfall delivery methodologies
• Technical knowledge and experience with technology relative to industry; .Net, C#, SQL Server, MongoDB, Solr, jQuery, Angular, AWS, IIS, GitHub, Grunt/Gulp, Node.JS, Java/C
• Able to understand and interpret key technology platforms relative to PPS
• Knowledge of the technology elements that contribute to maturing the 4th Industrial Revolution objectives; robotics, automation, digitalisation, artificial intelligence, etc
• Excellent understanding of current and emerging technological trends

Competencies:

• Leading cross functional and multi-disciplinary teams
• Strategic vision and agility
• Business acumen
• Relationship-Builder - able to manage and work effectively with multiple third-party vendors
• Complex problem-solving
• Innovation and forward thinking
• Persuading and influencing
• Adapting and responding to change
• Deciding and initiating action

Preference will be given to Employment Equity candidates

Please send your applications to recruitment@pps.co.za

Position: Assistant Company Secretary X2 (4S2)      

Closing Date: 17 July 2020

Department: Company Secretary

Reporting Line: Group Company Secretary

Location: Johannesburg, Parktown

Purpose of the Job:

The incumbent will assist the Group Company Secretary by providing an efficient and effective company secretarial service to the PPS Group Boards, sub-committees and other governance structures of the PPS Group. This includes ensuring compliance with governance, regulatory and statutory requirements.

Main duties and responsibilities:

• Providing company secretarial services to the PPS Group Boards and Committees; preparing and controlling of agendas, attending meetings and taking high quality minutes under the guidance of the Group Company Secretary
• Controlling and assisting with the compilation of Board and meeting packs, ensuring timely distribution of the packs;
• Assisting with the compilation of the Annual Work Plan and the Board Development Plan; arranging board inductions, training and evaluations; reviewing of Board policies, charters, terms of reference and the governance framework
• Ensuring compliance with applicable legislation and the governance standards within the organisation
• Monitoring and keeping abreast of the legislative developments and all applicable governance standards, providing advice to all governance structures
• Assisting with the compilation of the departmental business plan and monitoring the departmental budget;
• Maintaining minute books and other statutory documents in accordance with the legislative requirements and governance best practices, including the maintenance of electronic registers on a company secretarial software system. This includes the submission of statutory returns to the Companies and Intellectual Property Commission, the Master of the High Court, the Financial Sector Conduct Authority and the Prudential Authority
• Collating reports, ensuring that any other documentation prepared is of good quality and in line with the departmental quality standards
• Conducting research regarding issues of governance, legislation and best corporate practice

Formal Qualifications:

• Matric
• Preferably a law degree, or CA(SA)
• CIS qualification, or equivalent

Experience and Knowledge:

• Minimum 3 years, corporate group company secretarial experience, preferably in the Financial Services industry, with a particular focus on meeting administration, high quality minute taking and the practical aspects of company secretarial practice
• Practical knowledge and understanding of the requirements of Companies Act and any other applicable legislation and regulation, including the Long- and Short-Term Insurance Acts and the Trust Property Control Act
• Knowledge of Corporate Governance standards, including King IV
• High competency level of minute taking and compilation of agendas

Computer Literacy:

• Proficient in all aspects of using a computer, i.e. MS Office package etc.
• Company secretarial software, e.g. Greatsoft

Interpersonal and Intrapersonal Skills:

• Excellent command of written and spoken English
• High levels of integrity, honesty and reliability with the ability to maintain confidentiality
• Strong interpersonal skills and the ability to interact at Board and Executive levels
• Leadership, negotiation and facilitation
• Maintenance of a professional image at all times
• Able to work independently, as well as in a team, deadline-driven and ability to work under pressure
• Attention to detail, planning, organising, information management and monitoring
• Proactive, client service and quality orientation

Preference will be given to Employment Equity candidates

Please send your applications to recruitment@pps.co.za

Position: Personal Assistant (3A)                         

Closing Date: 17 July 2020

Department: Actuarial Services

Reporting Line: Executive: Actuarial Services

Location: Johannesburg, Parktown

Purpose of the Job:

To provide support to the Executive: Actuarial Services on day-to-day deliverables. Investigate, research business issues, strategic initiatives and developments. Assist with variety of administrative duties, planning tasks and executing projects.

The role requires the candidate to build and maintain trusting relationships to gain credibility with all ExCo, senior management and other key stakeholders, both within and outside the Actuarial Services Team.

Main duties and responsibilities:

• Performing administrative duties for Executive, including diary management, preparing presentations, minutes and other tasks
• Establishing and maintaining high quality levels of service delivery for internal and external stakeholders
• Communicating and escalating important issues appropriately within the business
• Preparing presentations with little input from the Executive
• Compiling Executive reports for ExCo, the Board and other key forums
• Ensuring that relevant matters are included on ExCo agendas
• Coordinating resources to gather information, preparing the first draft of various reports as required
• Checking the accuracy of analysis and reporting, suggesting appropriate corrective action
• Analysing and interpreting relevant report findings to translate the report data into understandable management information
• Budget administration
• Tracking and following up on all requirements for the various committees, ensuring compliance and submission of the pack in good time
• Responding timeously and professionally to a variety of ad hoc projects, business issues, client requests and stakeholder requests that impact across the area of responsibilities
• Attending to ad-hoc requests and providing relevant solutions to the Executive and the management team
• Representing the Executive on certain ad-hoc projects, meetings and events as required
• Contributing to intellectual development within the department.
• Contributing to making the department a great place to work
• Assuming responsibility for self-development

Formal Qualifications:

• Matric
• Diploma in Administration would be advantageous

Experience and Knowledge:

• 5+ years’ experience in Financial Services/Consulting with sound business knowledge plus experience in liaising at a Senior Management level
• Demonstrable track record of implementing projects.

Strategic Orientation:

• Knowledge and understanding of the PPS Industry

Communication:

• Must have excellent communication skills
• Articulate and communicates in a logical way and structures information to meet the needs and understanding of intended audiences
• Expresses opinions, information and key points of view clearly and assertively
• Confident in conceptualising, building and presenting plans related presentations
• Anticipates and responds appropriately to the needs, reactions and feedback of an audience

Commercial Acumen:

• Demonstrates awareness of market trends and opportunities and keeps up to date with competitor developments impacting area of responsibility

Computer Literacy:

• Latest MS Office package, particularly Excel, Word and PowerPoint

Interpersonal and Intrapersonal Skills:

• Managing stakeholder relationships
• Improving processes and culture
• Managing financial and business results
• Managing processes and results
• Managing self

Preference will be given to Employment Equity candidates

Please send your applications to recruitment@pps.co.za

Position: Senior Manager: Facilities (4D)                   

Closing Date: 17 July 2020

Department: Facilities

Reporting Line: Group HR Executive

Location: Johannesburg, Parktown

Purpose of the Job:

This is a senior role, reporting into the Group HR Executive in the Group Chief Operating Office. This role is accountable for owning the overall end-to-end facilities management strategic plan for the PPS Group. The successful incumbent will lead and manage a team of Facilities Management staff, identifying key relationships and gaps between business requirements, processes and systems. This role will be accountable for supplier and contract management relating to facilities management and maintenance.

Main duties and responsibilities:

Facilities and Maintenance

• Assuming responsibility for translating the strategic plan into tactics for PPS Facilities management 
• Responsibility for developing and proactively driving the execution of the tactical plan in the business (this includes but is not limited to Health and Safety, Workplace Plan, Pandemic Plan etc) 
• Maximising efficiency and productivity through overseeing services, i.e. reception, meeting rooms and kitchens; cleaning, pest control and refreshments services at head office and some leased premises; events and liaison with various departments executing events; logistic services i.e. drivers; managing procurement administration
• Maintaining PPS buildings, including leased premises, at A grade level. This includes all aspects of repairs and maintenance
• Overseeing property developments and liaison with external service providers
• Overseeing floor plans and tenant installation for all leased premises
• Inspecting buildings’ structures to determine the need for repairs or renovation
• Ensuring effective space utilisation across the PPS Group and liaison with the appointed service suppliers and providers
• Allocating office space according to business needs
• Overseeing the canteen contract and relationship with staff and canteen personnel
• Managing the upkeep of equipment and supplies to meet health and safety standards
• Planning and coordinating all installations (telecommunications, heat, electricity, etc) and refurbishments
• Reviewing utilities consumption, striving to minimise costs

Commercial management (supplier/contract management)

• Negotiating leases and ensuring effective spending of resources ensuring alignment with the allocated budget
• Managing internal facility services i.e. drivers, postage, gardens, security, etc, ensuring that they deliver their services as per the agreed Service Level Agreement (SLA) contracts
• Maintaining and controlling all facilities procurement, negotiating contracts in line with the PPS procurement policies
• Managing relationships with external contractors, ensuring proper SLA requirements are adhered to
• Handling insurance plans and service contracts

Stakeholder management

• Ensuring that the relevant internal and external stakeholders, resources, service providers and partners are appropriately contracted to deliver and maintain service level agreements, including external contractors
• Collaborating with key business stakeholders to ensure understanding of the PPS facilities environment
• Implementing and maintaining service level agreements and managing all services provided by the Facilities department
• Management of facilities vendors as per the agreed SLA’s standards and deliverables
• Controlling activities like parking space allocation, waste disposal, building security, etc

People and Culture

• Providing team leadership and ensuring the effective implementation of strategy through leadership of the management team (setting individual objectives, managing performance, developing and motivating staff and the provision of formal and informal feedback and appraisal) in order to ensure that the highest level of performance is achieved
• Responsible for hiring and retaining staff, career coaching, personal development for direct reports and accountable for the performance of employees
• Cultivating a performance-driven team collaborating with support and other maintenance teams, managing the performance of the team effectively
• Creating an environment where people are encouraged to take ownership and use their initiative to find the best way of implementing plans
• Creating a healthy and enabling organisational culture and climate so that all employees are able to perform to their full potential and overall performance is maximised
• Creating a stimulating and safe environment that inspires innovation and new initiatives
• Mentoring team members as needed or required; conducting peer reviews of key deliverables
• Ensuring that staff have the training, knowledge and skills to execute their deliverables and high-quality service and support. Validate that training programmes are adequate to provide the maintenance staff with solid required knowledge and skills
• Responsible for Maintenance staff, Receptionist, Cleaners, Drivers and Tea Janitors
• Deliver high standards of service to customers by making the most effective and efficient use of staff

Risk and Compliance

• Maintaining and continuously improving policies, standards and procedures to ensure demonstrable regulatory and legal control for all information and risk for the organisation from a maintenance and facilities perspective
• Ensuring that all business have a developed and imbedded Health and Safety plan, ensuring that processes and procedures are available for all health and safety situations
• Accountable for the development and embedding of the health and safety plan
• Taking full responsibility for the financial resources within area of accountability
• Performing analysis and forecasting
• Preparing and compiling the annual budget for the Facilities department, managing expenses accordingly
• Contributing to the annual budget planning process
• Managing, monitoring and controlling the budget for the Facilities department, ensuring proper governance requirements are adhered to, taking corrective action as appropriate
• Scheduling risk and compliance audits, reviewing the outcomes audit process; allocating appropriate resources for investigation and resolution of direct compliance issues
• Keeping financial and non-financial records
• Maintenance of the Business Continuity Plan

Formal Qualifications:

• Matric
• Bachelor’s degree; or equivalent training, education, and applicable experience

Experience:

• At least 10 years’ experience in the facilities/logistics environment
• 5 years’ experience at a Senior Manager level

Knowledge and Skills:

• Proven track record of success in the hospitality/facilities/logistics space
• Sound knowledge of the facilities government regulations, environmental and health and security standards
• Able to lead and manage teams and projects
• Able to supervise multi-disciplinary teams of staff including cleaning, maintenance and security personnel
• Proven record of managing budgets, ensuring cost-effectiveness
• Excellent negotiation skills
• Superior people skills with the ability to communicate at all levels
• Strong communication and influencing skills, in person and in writing
• Able to draft reports and make good written recommendations
• Organisation, multi-tasking and time management, prioritising and handling a complex, varied workload
• Attention to detail with the ability to see the implications on the bigger picture
• Teamwork, leadership and motivational skills
• Able to handle pressure situations

Interpersonal and Intrapersonal Skills: 

• Strong leadership qualities
• Excellent Management/Team leader skills
• Goal-driven with good decision making and problem resolution capabilities
• Good planning and execution capability
• Solution driven, taking accountability and responsibility for their own work
• Able to work within a team environment
• Stress tolerance and resilience

Competencies:

• Procurement and negotiation
• Leadership
• Problem-solving
• Proactive thinking
• Innovation
• Business acumen
• Deciding and Initiating action
• Persuading and influencing
• Relationship-building
• Customer Service
• Planning and organising

Preference will be given to Employment Equity candidates

Please send your applications to recruitment@pps.co.za

Position: Operations Team Manager: PPS Mutual X2 (4A)        

Closing Date: 17 July 2020

Department: PPS Mutual

Reporting Line: Senior Operations Manager: PPS Mutual

Location: Johannesburg, Parktown

Purpose of the Job:

A leadership role reporting to the Head of Operations and Systems in the PPS Mutual area. The main focus of the Operations Team Manager role is driving and maintaining the team’s performance by leading from the front and managing performance in line with published business processes, quality standards, staff development and ensuring the business targets and KPI’s are reached with a key focus in delivering exceptional customer service.

This role requires an individual who is highly focused, energetic, responsible and willing to work non-standard business hours, which will entail shift work, and required to have own transport.

Main duties and responsibilities:

• Working with cross-functional teams to deliver exceptional service to all customers according to the published service levels and quality standards
• Act as a frontline brand manager for customer interactions and proactively influencing customer perception and experience
• Cultivate a performance driven team collaborating with support- and other operational teams
• Implement and manage effective systems and practices to ensure the achievement of operational productivity and monthly / annual targets
• Continuously analyse and interpret data to identify optimisation opportunities, gaps and risks
• Ensure compliance to all policy, procedure, regulatory and legal elements of the organisation
• Ensuring the team has the knowledge and skills to answer customers’ queries quickly and effectively
• Ensuring that the team is adequately skilled and trained to execute on published processes
• Responsible for active resource balancing using resources efficiently and cost-effectively based on demand

Formal Qualifications:

• Matric
• Post Matric qualification in business related studies or equivalent
• Bachelor’s Degree in business related studies or equivalent an advantage

Experience and Knowledge:

• 3 – 4 years’ service and administration experience
• 1 - 3 years team leader experience will be an advantage
• 3+ years industry experience will be an advantage
• Coaching skills
• Ability to manage multiple activities, meet deadlines and adapt quickly to changing priorities.
• Ability to work in a self-directed, fast-paced environment.
• Proven track record in establishment new networks and collaborative relationships

Strategic Orientation:

• Knowledge and understanding of the PPS vision, strategy and products.
• Ability to organise activities/ functions to form a bigger picture

Communication:

• Articulate and communicates in a logical way and structures information to meet the needs and understanding of intended stakeholders
• Expresses opinions, information and key points of view clearly and assertively
• Anticipates and responds appropriately to the needs, reactions and feedback of team members
• Transparency in ensuring that key business capabilities are highlighted with a solution orientation approach

Computer Literacy:

• Adaptable in the use of the latest MS Office Package (e.g. MS Excel, PowerPoint, Word, etc.)

Interpersonal and Intrapersonal Skills: 

• Ability to coach, lead and influence.
• Sense of urgency and highly accountable
• Problem solving - The Team Manager solves customer issues, sometimes without seeing the actual problem first hand.
• Conflict resolution skills
• Excellent relationship building skills
• Attention to detail and high levels of accuracy
• Highly organised
• Energetic and enthusiastic
• Self-motivated
• Good communicator
• Team player
• Ability to work under pressure

Preference will be given to Employment Equity candidates

Please send your applications to recruitment@pps.co.za