Associate Application Owner – Payments

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Job Summary

The Application Owner –Payments is accountable for the end-to-end ownership, stability, and evolution of card and payment applications. This role ensures that payment platforms (credit/debit cards, issuing, acquiring and digital payments) are secure, compliant, resilient, and aligned with business and regulatory requirements.
The Application Owner will collaborate with cross-functional teams, including business, product development, and customer service, to optimize the functionality, usability, and security of banking applications.
This role is integral to the successful execution of a financial institution’s digital transformation strategy, ensuring that our banking solutions remain competitive, secure, and user-friendly.

Job Description

Application Management & Ownership:

• Own the Cards & Payments application portfolio across its full lifecycle (strategy, roadmap, development, operations, and retirement).
• Define and maintain the application roadmap in alignment with business, payments strategy, and regulatory requirements.
• Act as the single point of accountability for application performance, availability, and reliability.
• Ensure applications are aligned with business goals, industry trends, and customer expectations.
• Support products such as credit cards, debit cards, prepaid cards, ATM/POS and real-time payments.
• Ensure alignment with payment network requirements (e.g., Visa, Mastercard, Visa Infinite, SWIFT, Faster Payments).
• Manage and prioritize the product backlog, ensuring timely delivery of features, enhancements, and bug fixes.

Collaboration & Stakeholder Engagement:

• Work closely with cross-functional teams to drive banking initiatives.
• Partner with Cards, Payments, Operations, Risk, and Finance teams to translate business needs into system capabilities.
• Ensure effective communication of application goals, progress, and outcomes with key stakeholders.
• Application Optimization & Support
• Monitor the performance and stability of banking applications, addressing any technical or operational issues promptly.
• Ensure high availability, resilience, and performance of payment platforms (24x7 systems).
•  Manage incident, problem, and change processes; lead root cause analysis.
• Monitor SLAs, KPIs, and system health metrics.
• Ensure high availability (in line with agreed service levels) with KPIs measured and monitored on an ongoing basis.

Vendor & Partner Management:

• Manage relationships with third-party vendors and external partners to ensure service level agreements (SLAs) are met and products are delivered on time.
• Evaluate and negotiate contracts with vendors to ensure the best solutions for the institution.
• Support business growth initiatives such as new card products & payments methods

Data Analytics & Reporting:

• Utilize data and analytics to monitor application performance and customer usage patterns.
• Generate reports and dashboards to track KPIs and make data-driven decisions.
• Analyze user trends and market demands to guide the evolution of digital banking products.

Projects and Initiatives:

• Drive and deliver projects and initiatives of the Digital Transformation and technology function, aligned to the strategy of the bank
• Understand and analyse business requirements and opportunities, scout for and assess solutions and technologies that would be appropriate and make recommendation for implementation
• Ensure the different stages of the project delivery process are followed, including ideation, design, approvals, implementation, testing and go live, in line with Absa’s policies and standards
• Own and be accountable for delivery of identified solutions, communicating progress to stakeholders on a regular basis

Customer Experience:

• Always have a “Customer” first attitude and ensure all customer queries / calls are attended to on priority.
• Drive enhancements to improve the user experience (UX) and ensure digital banking platforms are customer-centric, by working with the design and development teams to implement UX/UI improvements based on customer insights.
• Participate in internal brain-storming sessions for development of new products and services or amendment to existing services
• Facilitate a customer obsession culture within and across teams for the long term success of the brand and continuous business growth
• Provide insights, key learning’s and digital behavioural trends to relevant stakeholders on digital and technology projects

Test Management:Responsibility is to ensure that proper testing occurs for changes released into the production environments as assigned to you by Line Management.

• Work closely with Product owners and delivery partners.
• Review releases and testing deliverables, including backout planning
• Participate in functional, performance, and integration testing results
• Coordinate application in line with the Absa Technology Change Management Standards

Personal Development:

• Responsible for driving own Performance Development, collating relevant documentation, preparing for and arranging reviews.
• By utilizing skills matrix, identify training and development requirements, formulating own plan to be agreed with team leader. Responsible for ensuring own plan is completed within agreed timescales.
• Undertake all necessary training in order to perform the role to the required standards, including gaining accreditation where appropriate.
• Maintain an awareness of technology advancements and best practices that support digital banking applications.

Risk Management:

• Proactively identify and mitigate risks related to digital banking applications
• Build relationship with country IT Risk and Governance team and provide support wherever required.
• Work closely with risk, security, and audit teams to mitigate operational and cyber risks.
• Contribute and deliver to the improvement of the risk profile of the function by delivering improved governance, risk management, controls, and compliance requirements.
• Support audits and regulatory reviews related to cards and payments.

Mandatory Risk and Control objectiveEnsure that all activities and duties are carried out in full compliance with regulatory requirements, Enterprise-Wide Risk Management Framework and internal Absa Policies and Policy Standards. Understand and manage risks and risk events (incidents) relevant to the roleRole/Person SpecificationPreferred Education & Preferred Experience:Key Skills and Qualifications:

• Bachelor’s degree in IT, Computer Science, or equivalent of 7 years related experience.
• Minimum of 4 years of experience in IT application management, digital banking, or financial technology.
• Strong understanding of payment processing architectures.
• Experience with core banking, middleware, and payment gateways.

Technical Skills:

• Familiarity with banking software and platforms
• Knowledge of cloud platforms, application hosting, and security protocols for financial institutions.
• Knowledge of payment networks (Visa, Mastercard), APIs, real-time payments
• Experience with messaging standards such as ISO 20022 and/or ISO 8583
• Familiarity with payment clearing, settlement, and reconciliation processes.
• Understanding of APIs, integration technologies, and system architecture in the banking domain.
• Cloud Certification preferred

Soft Skills:

• Analytical Thinking: Ability to break down complex problems and develop practical solutions.
• Collaboration: A strong team player who thrives in cross-functional team settings.
• Adaptability: Comfortable working in a fast-paced and evolving environment.
• Innovation-Driven: Passionate about leveraging technology to improve the digital banking experience.
• Strong communication skills: Ability to influence and manage stakeholders at all levels.
• High attention to detail with a customer-first mindset.
• Ability to manage multiple priorities, projects, and deadlines simultaneously.

Education

Further Education and Training Certificate (FETC): Physical, Mathematical, Computer and Life Sciences (Required)