Description

This role is responsible for the leadership, oversight and strategic direction of the Private Banking Payments and Authorisations function.
 
The role would include but not be limited to: 
•    Understand and communicate the purpose of the Payments and Authorisations function and its impact on client experience, operational risk and the Investec brand. 
•    Co-create and execute a Payments Operations strategy aligned to the broader Private Bank Operations strategy. 
•    Provide clear leadership and accountability across both Payments processing and Authorisations. 
•    Balance day-to-day operational delivery with risk management, people leadership and strategic execution. 
•    Maintain sufficient knowledge of the end-to-end operating environment to provide support, make informed decisions and manage escalations. 

Key Responsibilities

People Leadership:  
•    Embed Investec culture and values while building an engaged, inclusive and accountable team.
•    Lead workforce and succession planning, resourcing, onboarding and capability development.
•    Manage performance and development through PDR, coaching, mentoring and regular feedback.
Operational leadership and service delivery 
•    Drive consistent service delivery through capacity planning, workflow allocation and monitoring of SLAs, quality, backlogs and turnaround times.
•    Lead escalations and operational issue resolution with clear ownership and stakeholder communication.
•    Maintain operational resilience through current procedures, cross-skilling, succession and business continuity readiness.
Stakeholder Liaison & Communication 
•    Build strong partnerships across Private Bank, Technology, Group Payments, Risk and Operations.
•    Create effective information flows and communicate service issues, risks, changes and priorities clearly and timeously.
Risk, controls and governance: 
•    Own and strengthen the Payments and Authorisations control environment, including payment release and exception-report controls.
•    Monitor incidents, losses, errors, key risk indicators and control failures; ensure root causes, remediation and material escalations are addressed.
•    Ensure effective business continuity, incident, audit and assurance management, and embed controls, procedures and training before change implementation.
Strategy, change and continuous improvement 
•    Identify and deliver automation, process optimisation, integration and other strategic improvements.
•    Partner with the PB Payments Specialist, Technology, Group Payments and business stakeholders to define requirements and solutions.
•    Shape and lead the operational response to change initiatives, ensuring requirements, controls, testing, implementation and operational readiness are considered end to end.
Management information and decision support 
•    Use operational, capacity, productivity, quality and risk data to identify trends, risks and improvement opportunities.
•    Oversee dashboards and management information, providing concise reporting to support planning, prioritisation and leadership decisions.

Qualifications, Experience and Skills

•    BCom or related financial qualification advantageous
•    Three to four years' team leadership experience in operations or financial services preferred.
•    Strong knowledge of operational risk, controls, incidents, business continuity and payment operations.
•    Proven ability to translate strategy into delivery, lead change and process improvement, and maintain operational readiness.
•    Strong analytical, problem-solving and decision-making skills; advanced Excel and management-information capability.
•    Clear stakeholder communication, conflict management, prioritisation and organisation, with resilience, accountability and attention to detail.
•    Proficiency in using AI-enabled productivity tools, such as Copilot, to improve efficiency, generate insight and support decision-making. Applies critical thinking and sound judgement when interpreting outputs, remains accountable for the quality and accuracy of their work

What We Value

At Investec we seek creative, talented people with passion, energy and stamina, who collaborate unselfishly.

We are committed to diversity and inclusion when recruiting internally and externally.