Who we are?
Sanlam Investments Group is one of South Africa’s largest investment management companies. We have a performance history spanning over 100 years, and offer a range of investment and financial planning solutions to protect and grow the long-term wealth of our clients.
We take particular pride in:
•Sanlam’s longevity and innovation
•People, teamwork and values
•A culture of diversity and commitment to growing our own timber
•Our robust, tested and proven pragmatic investment process and philosophy
Our local and offshore investment products cover the full investment spectrum: active and passive; single and multi-manager – both locally and internationally. Our active funds range are managed according to our pragmatic value investing style.
What will you do?
SCI has recently embarked on a digital transformation journey with a strong intent on migrating into a paperless world, enabled through sophisticated technology.
Part of this transformation is to evolve our web and chat capabilities that will see the evolution of our client engagement channels into a scalable omnichannel ecosystem.
The candidate will need to familiarize themselves with the strategic intent of the organization and tailor roadmaps for the respective platforms, aligning to the overarching digital strategy.
Not only will they need to be dynamic in their approach, unorthodox in their thinking and influential in their vision but they will also need to manage product backlogs and the prioritization of requirements.
The product owner’s responsibility is to maximize the value of an application/product and bears business responsibility for the successful project implementation.
Key responsibilities will include:
Producing strategic roadmaps for the web and chat platforms.
Clearly expressing the product backlog items, which will combine business as usual and project requirements.
Identify the scope of requirements and define backlog items (epics and user stories).
Prioritizing items in the backlog to best achieve goals and objectives (optimizing the value of work delivered by the PMO and production support teams).
Ensuring the backlog is visible, transparent and clearly illustrates the roadmap of work to come to all relevant stakeholders.
Responsible for decision support and guidance to the project and support teams.
Communication link between the project manager and business sponsors/stakeholders.
Assist business sponsors in the documentation of project definitions and briefs.
Provides business sign off at various stages in the product lifecycle (project or sprint plans, business requirements/user stories, entry and exit criteria etc.)
Review and sing off on various project strategy documents, as required.
Documenting, presenting and tracking of project/product benefit realizations through BI dashboards.
Collaborate with key stakeholders during product ideation and design.
Accountability for the web and chat platforms both pre and post implementation of initiatives.
Collaborate with communication team to articulate product releases and features to the business.
Fulfill the role of the “champion” of the product by being the primary source of contact for any product related queries.
Continuous market related research to stay abreast of the latest trends, fears and features.
Continuous competitor analysis.
Providing guidance to project team on priorities during sprint planning.
Chairing and facilitating project steering committees along side the project manager to provide updates on strategy, projects and tabling decisions that need to be made.
Liaising with scrum master and project managers to oversee the various development stages to ensure alignment with end goal/product.
Anticipating next phases in the solutions that will maximize client benefit through statistical evidence (BI dashboards and cubes).
Building out dashboards and cubes that will continuously measure the benefit realization, user adoption and key focus areas.
Report directly into the digital transformation manager as part of the digital solutions and BI team.
Work closely with client journey team to build out the best user experience to drive adoption.
Attend multiple group forums to stay abreast, align or leverage off areas/functionality within the business.
What will make you successful in this role?
B Comm degree or an equivalent qualification.
Minimum of 3 years’ experience in Financial Services Industry.
Minimum of 3 years’ experience in an IT related role.
Technical background with knowledge of software development.
Excellent understanding of data warehouses and BI.
Strong SQL skills.
Knowledge of BI cubes and dashboards.
Strong knowledge of agile principles.
Experience in working on web and chat platforms is advantageous.
Experience working with web services and API’s.
Previous experience in a product owner role.
Experience in client journey designs.
Understanding of UX (user experience) and CX (client experience) and difference thereof.
Strong presentation abilities.
Behavioral Competencies:
Client focused.
Excellent written and verbal skills.
Ability to identify different audiences and engage accordingly.
Ability to convey strategies/visions and influence.
Inspire peers and stakeholders.
Dynamic, agile and adaptable.
Innovative, creative and unorthodox way of thinking.
Strong relationship building capabilities.
Ability to lead and drive teams.
Ability to work as part of a team.
Strong collaboration skills.
Ability to run with multiple initiatives and projects simultaneously.
Ability to perform well under pressure, prioritize and meet deadlines.
Accept accountability and take responsibility for products.
Excellent interpersonal skills.
Good planning, problem solving and analytical abilities.
Qualification and Experience
Degree or Diploma with at least 3 years related experience.Knowledge and Skills
Product DevelopmentCompetitor analysis and growth mind-setBusiness Architecture review and business process architecture implementationFeasibility studies and documentation of underlying business architectureDocumentation reviewsPersonal Attributes
Interpersonal savvy - Contributing through othersManages complexity - Contributing through othersPlans and aligns - Contributing through othersOptimises work processes - Contributing through othersBuild a successful career with us
We’re all about building strong, lasting relationships with our employees. We know that you have hopes for your future – your career, your personal development and of achieving great things. We pride ourselves in helping our employees to realise their worth. Through its four business clusters – Sanlam Life and Savings, Sanlam Investment the group provides many opportunities for growth and development.
Core Competencies
Being resilient - Contributing through othersCollaborates - Contributing through othersCultivates innovation - Contributing through othersCustomer focus - Contributing through othersDrives results - Contributing through othersTurnaround time
The shortlisting process will only start once the application due date has been reached. The time taken to complete this process will depend on how far you progress and the availability of managers.
Our commitment to transformation
The Sanlam Group is committed to achieving transformation and embraces diversity. This commitment is what drives us to achieve a diverse, inclusive and equitable workplace as we believe that these are key components to ensure a thriving and sustainable business in South Africa. The Group's Employment Equity plan and targets will be considered as part of the selection process.
