Manager GL Technical Support

Job description

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 Work as part of an integrated (run & build) tribe to provide enterprise wide application support across multiple stakeholder groups (in high complexity environments) by maintaining & optimizing enterprise-grade applications (tech products & services) & building capability in others to do the same. Job Description Technical Support Manager: GL Balancing Job Profile Summary Lead the operational support, stability, performance, and continuous improvement of the General Ledger (GL) Balancing technology platforms and services. Accountable for the end-to-end support management capability, incident resolution, problem management, operational excellence, technical governance, and service optimization. Drive a high-performing support engineering and operations team through strong technical leadership, people management, stakeholder engagement, risk management, and continuous improvement. Ensure the stability, integrity, and supportability of GL Balancing processes and applications while maintaining alignment to financial controls, regulatory requirements, and business service commitments. Production Stability, Service Availability & Support Leadership Assume end-to-end accountability for the stability, availability, resilience, and supportability of GL Balancing applications and services. Lead operational support activities to ensure business-critical balancing and reconciliation processes meet agreed service levels and business commitments. Act as the primary escalation point for critical production incidents, service disruptions, and operational risks affecting balancing operations. Drive proactive monitoring and early identification of system, process, and reconciliation issues. Lead incident response activities and coordinate technical and business teams during service interruptions. Ensure service restoration and issue resolution are achieved within agreed service targets. Lead root cause analysis activities and ensure corrective actions are implemented and tracked to completion. Drive problem management disciplines to eliminate recurring incidents and operational inefficiencies. Maintain ownership of operational readiness and support acceptance for all changes and enhancements entering production. Ensure supportability, recoverability, monitoring, and operational control requirements are embedded within solution delivery. Support Engineering & Technical Leadership Provide technical leadership across the GL Balancing support function and associated technology domains. Maintain a strong understanding of balancing systems, reconciliation processes, integrations, databases, batch processing frameworks, middleware, and operational tooling. Act as the technical authority for support practices, operational standards, and governance within the GL Balancing environment. Lead troubleshooting activities relating to complex incidents, application failures, reconciliation exceptions, and performance-related issues. Drive operational automation and efficiencies to reduce manual intervention and improve support effectiveness. Identify and implement opportunities to improve monitoring, alerting, reporting, and operational visibility. Ensure technical documentation, support procedures, knowledge articles, process flows, and operational runbooks remain accurate and current. Drive continuous improvement initiatives that enhance service reliability, operational efficiency, and customer experience. Collaborate with engineering and delivery teams to improve application supportability and operational resilience. Service Management & Operational Excellence Lead the execution of Incident, Problem, Change, Request, Event, and Knowledge Management processes. Ensure adherence to enterprise service management standards, operational procedures, and governance controls. Manage and monitor service level agreements (SLAs), operational level agreements (OLAs), and key performance indicators (KPIs). Analyze support trends, recurring issues, operational risks, and service performance metrics to drive improvements. Facilitate operational governance forums and service review meetings. Ensure effective management of performance, capacity, availability, recovery, and resilience requirements. Drive continuous service improvement initiatives through data-driven decision making. Coordinate disaster recovery testing, business continuity activities, and production readiness assessments. Ensure balancing processes and reporting operate within agreed controls and compliance standards. Delivery Enablement & Change Support Partner with Product Owners, Business Analysts, Technology Leads, Architects, Engineers, Finance Operations, Risk, and Service Management teams. Ensure support and operational requirements are incorporated into solution design and delivery activities. Support deployment planning, implementation activities, and post-deployment stabilization periods. Ensure all technology changes are assessed for operational impact, tested appropriately, documented, and supported. Contribute to release planning and implementation governance to minimise service disruption and operational risk. Ensure technology changes align with financial control and reconciliation requirements. Stakeholder and Vendor Management Act as the primary operational relationship manager for stakeholders supporting GL Balancing services. Build strong relationships with Finance, Operations, Technology, Risk, Audit, and Support teams. Provide clear communication and reporting regarding incidents, service performance, risks, and improvement initiatives. Manage third-party service providers and vendors supporting GL Balancing platforms and services. Ensure vendor performance aligns to contracted service levels and operational expectations. Escalate and actively manage vendor-related service and delivery risks. Support audit and regulatory engagements through effective relationship management and reporting. People Leadership Lead, mentor, and develop a high-performing team of support engineers, analysts, and technical specialists. Create a culture of accountability, ownership, collaboration, and continuous improvement. Manage team performance, development planning, succession planning, and talent retention. Build technical and functional capability through coaching, mentoring, and knowledge-sharing initiatives. Ensure adequate resource planning and skills coverage to support operational requirements. Drive employee engagement and a customer-focused support culture. Foster cross-skilling across balancing processes, support tools, and supporting technologies. Risk, Compliance & Governance Carry end-to-end accountability for operational, technical, and service-related risks across the GL Balancing environment. Ensure compliance with Enterprise Risk Frameworks, Technology Standards, Audit Requirements, Financial Controls, and Regulatory Requirements. Drive remediation of audit findings, control weaknesses, risk actions, and compliance obligations. Ensure appropriate security, access management, monitoring, and governance controls are maintained. Manage operational risks through effective governance, reporting, and control frameworks. Participate in risk reviews, audit engagements, and governance forums. Ensure balancing and reconciliation processes operate within approved control frameworks and financial governance requirements. Financial Management Manage support-related operational budgets, forecasting, and resource utilisation. Ensure cost-effective management of technology services, tooling, vendor contracts, and support operations. Drive efficiency and optimization initiatives while maintaining service quality and operational effectiveness. Monitor operational expenditure and ensure value realization from technology investments. Support business cases and investment decisions relating to support tooling and service improvements. Key Accountabilities Service Stability & Operational Excellence Production service availability. Stability of GL Balancing applications and services. Incident reduction and trend improvement. Service restoration performance. Operational process effectiveness. Reconciliation and balancing platform resilience. Support Engineering Technical leadership. Incident and problem management. Root cause elimination. Operational automation. Continuous service improvement. Technical governance and support standards. People Leadership Resource management. Capability development. Performance management. Succession planning. Coaching and mentoring. Team engagement and retention. Stakeholder Management Business and Finance engagement. Technology partnership. Vendor management. Service reporting and governance. Audit and risk stakeholder management. 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