Product Manager - Group Data Platform

About

Sanlam Group Technology is responsible for the provision of a digitally enabled technology service as a group COE, drive business and transformation and provide group-wide digital and data architecture. We operate the various technology platforms and shared services, ensure Cyber and Information Security resilience, and act as technology governance and risk orchestrator for technology across Sanlam.

What You'll Do

We’re on a transformation journey to be an innovative company at the forefront of the financial services industry's digital transformation. By harnessing advanced technologies such as Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning (ML), we aim to redefine the financial landscape with intelligent, advice-led solutions. To do this, we aim to be a net producer of technology, rather than a net consumer, and Product Managers are a critical part of this mission.

This is an internal product leadership role focusing on empowering and accelerating autonomous value creation across the Sanlam Group. With your mastery of Product Management, your expertise in data ingestion, sharing, and processing technologies, and your experience leading high-performing, autonomous technology teams, you’ll ensure business teams across the group make data a source of competitive advantage for them in their markets.

What Will Make You Successful in This Role?

What You’ll Achieve in the Next 12 Months

• Achieve a free flow of information between internal users and your team(s): Identify and conduct internal user research to understand data consumers’ needs and willingness to pay, improving satisfaction and adoption metrics. Success measured by increased user satisfaction scores and adoption rates.
• Establish a compelling product vision: Ensure you and your team are always able to articulate how the world for your users will be different because of your products. Be clear about how they and Sanlam will benefit as a group, relating it to your user research. Success will be measured through internal surveys and formal approvals of the team’s OKRs by users and senior leadership.
• Establish, gain funding for, and deliver an ambitious transformative roadmap: Establish a comprehensive roadmap for your products and gain the buy-in of commercial and data science & analytics leaders across the business. Lead budgeting approval discussions to release investment in data to meet business needs, ensuring effective allocation of all approved engineering and financial resources. Success measured by roadmap approval and budget accuracy.
• Give your team the context and clarity they need to deliver the roadmap: Write detailed PRDs that clarify ‘the what’ for development teams effectively, ensuring timely and accurate product & feature delivery based on group needs. Provide any additional context the team needs around user stories, commercial objectives, and so on, so they’re also clear about ‘the why’. Success measured by on-time delivery and alignment with PRD specifications along with team engagement surveys.
• Define and measure team success openly: Define or refine success metrics and Service Level Objectives (SLOs) for your part of the platform to cover adoption, satisfaction, cost, as well as reliability Service Level Indicators (SLIs) such as accuracy, recency, latency, and so on. Inspire your entire team to take full ownership of their performance as measured through these metrics. Success is measured by continuous improvement in performance of the metrics as well as unanimous approval of their definitions.

Qualification

• Matric
• National Diploma in an Information Technology related discipline or a bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Statistics, Informatics, Information Systems, or a quantitative field will be recommended.

Experience

• 7+ years' experience in leading data platform teams with at least 2 in a modern context with cloud technologies and autonomous high-performing team organizational patterns
• Experience owning and managing a budget, including resource planning from storage and compute costs to cost of team development and retention
• A track record of high impact and investing in your own development

Skills & Thinking Preference

• Excellent leadership and communication skills
• Ability to collaborate effectively with various stakeholders across the organization
• You look for ways to do, instead of reasons not to. You are high agency, high ownership in everything you do. You know we own our future, only we can make it happen. If you find something that keeps us from our mission, you own it or work collaboratively with others until you find the right owner of it.
• Where some see impossible, you see a way: You have the strong conviction in our ability to innovate and bring financial services, and financial confidence to everyone across the continent.