Contract and Supplier Manager

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

As we settle into the new year, elevate your career by joining Absa's Relationship Banking as a Contract and Supplier Manager. In this role you will develop, implement and manage end-to-end organisation wide IT supply chain capabilities that deliver simplified, lean & optimised supply chain services & overall efficient, productive, cost effective IT operations. Supply Chain capabilities may include but are not limited to:

1. Demand Planning & Forecasting
2. Sourcing (hardware, software etc.)
3. Assembly / Production
4. Warehousing, Inventory Management & Logistics (inbound / outbound)
5. Demand Fulfilment
6. Supply Chain Efficiency & Effectiveness e.g. Process Design e.g. JIT, Working Capital Management
7. Supply Chain Technology (Automation, Digitisation)
8. Supply Chain & Asset Management Process Integration (e.g. new assets vs. asset transfers & re-allocations)
9. Supply Chain Governance, Risk & Compliance
10. Supply Chain Security

Job Description

Supply Chain Direction Setting, Operational planning and execution
• Take accountability for deeply understanding the organisation’s Technology direction, products and services and their evolution (Short, Medium / Long Term)
• Understand & map the IT product / componentry (Software & Hardware) to be delivered (current & future) by the IT supply chain & operations teams
• Understand & map the broader IT supply network and key metrics e.g. total cost & contribution to overall cost of tech, efficiency, etc. & identify opportunities
• Translate the SC & ITAM strategies, supply network assessment and broader technology strategies and roadmap’s implications for IT supply chain management & operations
• Develop and lead the implementation of a robust and transformational Supply Chain Vision, Strategy and associated operational plan
• Work collaboratively across the value chain to lead and facilitate demand & supply planning
• Leverage Supply Chain expertise & existing supply chain intelligence to determine current supply relative to demand
• Translate demand & supply planning insights into short, medium and long term forecasts & commercial options (end to end supply chain capabilities) for consideration by business
• Translate forecasts & supply information into detailed business cases and supply chain budgets to enable strategic commercial decision making
• Facilitate & appropriately influence the commercial decision making, budgeting and approval processes with multiple senior stakeholders in business & technology
• Create & model sourcing strategies and options to meet demand & approved budgets and forecasts. Sourcing strategies include e.g. mix of internal vs. external supply strategies, new vs. existing suppliers, supplier contract realignment to meet new / evolving business requirements etc.
• Create and model demand fulfilment plans, approaches and options for the range of products / services to be delivered and aligned to cost optimization & organizational productivity and efficiency e.g. order management, logistics and warehousing
• Define, design & implement robust inventory management plans, approaches & options – this includes asset purchasing, disposals, recovery, working capital management, inventory holding etc.
• Work collaboratively with Technology Security SMEs to secure the supply chain & the end to end supply chain network
• Implement advanced SC security practices and mechanisms to prevent serious events / incidents e.g. Cyber-attacks through the supply chain approach / process
• Facilitate the detailed scoping, prioritization, integration planning & resourcing of all SC operational plans & manage & monitor their implementation
• Define leading practice supply chain SLA’s, metrics and targets to be achieved aligned to strategic objectives (business, technology & operations)
• Strategically & operationally monitor the performance of the supply chain and continuously improve supply chain data driven insights & intelligence to influence commercial decision making across the business
• Facilitate regular performance and business reviews to enable continuous improvement, SC optimization and efficiency & effectiveness gains across the value chain (business & tech)
• Leverage monitoring and performance insights to ensure uninterrupted business operations, proactive issue identification and resolution
• Act as the escalation point for all SC issues / opportunities
• Leverage performance data to proactively identify & mitigate risk, taking full responsibility for proactively minimizing the risk to business operations (e.g. availability, scalability, resilience, etc.)
• Take full accountability for SC contribution to the total cost of tech & the management & improvement thereof

Accountability: Managed Services
• Implement processes & practices (e.g. research, networking etc.) to successfully evaluate the market for service providers
• Based on business strategic objectives, identify / source fit for purpose vendors & or identify sales opportunities
• Continuously assess competitiveness of MSP’s & or competitors & influence business decision making in this regard
• Create selection criteria and evaluate potential suppliers for the organization.
• Work collaboratively with procurement & sourcing partners to lead requests for proposals
• Work collaboratively across the technology value chain (Tech SMEs, Vendors etc.) to benchmark pricing & pricing strategies
• Define pricing strategies and ensure technology & business team alignment to these prior to contract conclusion
• Lead the commercial negotiation & contracting processes in collaboration with procurement/sourcing
• Act as the single point of contact for MSP’s (strategy & requirements alignment, changes, challenges, and or issue resolution etc.)
• Ensure the implementation of effective relationship & communication management routines that enable successful service provision to the organization
• Lead the on-boarding process for MSPs & ensure the environment is conducive to partnership service provision (everything is in place in the physical / other environment)
• Set up the partnership e.g. alignment of internal / external teams, ways of working etc. for the successful delivery of products & services
• Ensure partnership delivery on all parameters – ensuring we obtain value from the partnership

Accountability: Supply Chain Transformation
• Stay ahead of the curve on Technology Supply Chain Leading practices & emerging technologies
• Lead the process engineering team & facilitate a detailed mapping, review and ongoing assessment of existing IS Operations & supply chain processes & identify opportunities (supported by data driven insights)
• Leverage design thinking expertise to facilitate the development of an innovative, connected, transformed, intelligent, & intuitive digitized / automated supply chain & IS Operations
• Lead the assessment of our existing supply chain capabilities (people, process, systems) and include an assessment of asset management / IS Operations capabilities where it influences the SC & makes sense to do so (e.g. demand planning, DevOps, asset disposal, re-allocations etc.)
• Lead the design and implementation of a robust capability development & change plan to effect supply chain transformation across the organization.
• The capability development plan should include, but is not limited to:

• Operating model, organization design
• Supply Network & associated roles and responsibilities
• New Ways of Working
• People Development – includes e.g. reskilling towards a changing future
• Process redesign and associated policies, procedures etc.
• Systems and technology design & implementation (ensure a ‘connected supply chain’)
• Detailed measures of success (Future focused)

• Lead the detailed scoping, prioritization & integration planning of the Supply Chain capability journey with an emphasis on technical enablement / automation & manage its implementation & adoption
• Drive the alignment of internal and external teams, ways of working, etc. for the successful delivery of SC services (current & future)
• Ensure that ultimate user fulfilment can be provisioned and addressed with the minimum of user friction in the most automated and cost effective manner possible
• On the whole, take accountability for leveraging connected devices along with intelligent digital capabilities and an optimized SC Management platform to evolve a more intuitive and intelligent supply chain

Accountability: Governance, Risk, Compliance
• Apply the group risk, governance, compliance, regulatory frameworks and standards
• Hold one stop shop accountability for all risk related to SC & ITAM delivery and related business decision making / impacts
• Lead the input & reporting requirements / processes for all internal / external risk, regulatory, compliance and governance related process for managed services provision across the estate
• Implement knowledge management & data management processes for the successful governance of SC & ITAM activity

Accountability: People
• Set & Cascade SC vision, direction & strategy across the team
• Design, implement and lead cross functional collaboration processes across technology teams and set cross-team commitments and achieve scale by enabling the work of others
• Proactively attract, recruit, develop, retain, reward & deploy a diverse resource base aligned to an ever evolving tech environment (ahead of demand)
• Build a high performance team environment through self-directed teams by driving performance management & measurement that is aligned with agile working practices (including daily, weekly, etc. sprint routines, regular & honest feedback etc.)
• Accountable for the right people in the right teams to deliver on our tech strategy (always!)
• Leverage coaching techniques to drive a higher quality design and deployment of SC capabilities

Education

Bachelor's Degree: Information Technology

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