Transformation Portfolio Head At Equity Bank Kenya

Role Objective:
This role serves to oversee and manage the entire portfolio of transformation initiatives, ensuring that projects are aligned with EGH strategic objectives and are delivering the expected business value. This role involves high-level planning, prioritization, governance, risk management, and ensuring that the portfolio is balanced and optimized in terms of resources, timelines, and business outcomes. The Transformation Portfolio Lead ensures that EGH is investing in the right initiatives and that these initiatives are being executed efficiently and effectively.
The Transformation Portfolio Lead ensures that the portfolio delivers measurable benefits, supports continuous improvement, and provides clear visibility to senior leadership on the performance and health of the portfolio. Their role is essential in ensuring that the transformation is executed efficiently, strategically, and with a focus on long-term success.
Key Functions:
Manages the portfolio of transformation programs to ensure alignment with the EGH strategic goals.
Prioritizes projects based on business value, resource availability, and risk.
Ensures that transformation programs are delivered within scope, on time, and within budget.
Provides governance and oversight to ensure transparency, accountability, and adherence to standards across all transformation programs.

Responsibilities:
Portfolio Strategy and Alignment
Portfolio Strategy Development: Develop the transformation portfolio strategy to ensure that all initiatives are aligned with EGH strategic objectives.
Strategic Alignment: Work closely with senior leadership to ensure that the portfolio reflects EGH priorities and addresses key business drivers, such as growth, operational efficiency, digital transformation, and customer experience.
Transformation Roadmap: Create and maintain a transformation roadmap that provides a clear timeline and sequencing of initiatives, ensuring coherence and integration across the portfolio.

Prioritization and Decision-Making
Project Prioritization: Develop a prioritization framework to evaluate and rank projects based on factors such as business impact, strategic alignment, risk, and resource availability.
Portfolio Balancing: Ensure that the portfolio is balanced in terms of short-term and long-term initiatives, risk versus reward, and resource allocation. Adjust priorities based on evolving business needs and emerging opportunities.
Decision Support: Provide data-driven insights and recommendations to the Transformation Steering Committee and executive leadership to support decision-making regarding project approvals, postponements, or cancellations.

Portfolio Governance and Oversight
Governance Framework: Establish and enforce a robust governance framework to ensure that transformation projects are executed with transparency, accountability, and in alignment with corporate policies and standards.
Oversight of Program Management: Provide oversight and direction to the Program Management Office (PMO) to ensure that project managers are adhering to best practices in project execution, risk management, and reporting.
Portfolio Reviews: Lead regular portfolio review sessions with key stakeholders to assess progress, address challenges, and make necessary adjustments to the portfolio.

Risk Management and Issue Resolution
Portfolio Risk Management: Identify and manage risks across the entire transformation portfolio, develop mitigation strategies for high-risk initiatives and ensuring contingency plans are in place.
Issue Escalation: Serve as the primary escalation point for major issues or roadblocks that may threaten the success of the transformation portfolio. Collaborating with senior leadership and program leads to resolve critical issues.
Dependencies Management: Monitor interdependencies between transformation projects to ensure that timing, resources, and deliverables are managed in a way that minimizes conflicts and optimizes outcomes.

Resource Management and Allocation
Resource Allocation Strategy: Develop and implement a resource allocation strategy that ensures optimal use of human, financial, and technological resources across the portfolio. Work closely with HR and finance teams to determine and secure the necessary resources for each initiative.
Capacity Planning: Monitor resource capacity and availability across the portfolio, ensuring that programs are adequately staffed and that workloads are distributed effectively.
Vendor and Partner Coordination: Oversee relationships with external vendors and partners, ensuring that their contributions are aligned with portfolio objectives and deliverables.

Financial Management
Portfolio Budgeting: Develop and manage the overall transformation portfolio budget, ensuring that resources are allocated efficiently and that projects are delivering maximum return on investment (ROI).
Cost Control: Monitor the financial performance of the portfolio, ensuring that projects remain within budget and that any cost overruns are addressed promptly.
Value Realization: Work closely with the Transformation Analytics, Insights, and Benefits Realization Lead to track the financial and operational benefits of transformation initiatives, ensuring that the portfolio is delivering expected value.

Performance Monitoring and Reporting
Portfolio Performance Metrics: Define key performance indicators (KPIs) and success metrics for the portfolio, such as on-time delivery, budget adherence, risk status, and business value delivered.
Dashboard Reporting: Implement and maintain portfolio dashboards that provide real-time visibility into the performance of the portfolio. Share these insights with senior leadership and the Transformation Steering Committee to support informed decision-making.
Continuous Monitoring: Monitor the health of the portfolio continuously, identifying underperforming projects early and taking corrective actions as necessary to bring them back on track.

Benefits Realization and Business Value
Value Delivery: Ensure that the transformation portfolio delivers measurable business value by focusing on key outcomes such as operational efficiency, cost savings, revenue growth, or enhanced customer experience.
Benefits Tracking: Work closely with program and business leads to define, track, and report on the benefits of each initiative. Ensure that benefits are realized and sustained beyond the completion of the programs.
Post-Implementation Reviews: Lead post-implementation reviews to assess whether programs have met their objectives and delivered the expected business benefits. Capture lessons learned and best practices to inform future initiatives.

Stakeholder Engagement and Communication
Stakeholder Management: Engage with key stakeholders across EGH, including business unit leaders, transformation leads, and senior executives, to ensure alignment and buy-in to the portfolio's objectives and progress.
Regular Updates: Provide regular updates on the status of the transformation portfolio to the Transformation Steering Committee and executive leadership, ensuring transparency and proactive communication.
Cross-Functional Collaboration: Facilitate collaboration between different teams and functions to ensure alignment and a shared understanding of portfolio priorities.

Continuous Improvement and Optimization
Portfolio Optimization: Continuously evaluate the performance of the portfolio and adjust as needed to improve efficiency, manage risks, and maximize business value.
Process Improvement: Implement continuous improvement practices within the portfolio management function, leveraging lessons learned from previous projects to improve future project execution.
Adaptability: Stay agile and responsive to changes in the business environment, adjusting the portfolio as needed to respond to new opportunities or challenges.

Qualifications
Requirements:
Bachelor's or Master's in BBIT, Program Management or related field
At least 15 years of experience in a similar role in a transformative set up.
Experience in business transformation and change incorporating significantly sized projects
Experience in developing and implanting business reform and optimization
Demonstrated ability to engage stakeholders at all levels, preferably in a multi country context.
Strategic in mindset
Good facilitation skills