Manager: Digital Automation

REQUISISTION DETAILS

REQ: 148497 Thembi Mtshali

Location: Johannesburg Sandton

Closing Date: 6 November 2026

Job Family

Governance And Compliance

Career Stream

Internal Audit

Leadership Pipeline

Manage Self Professional

FAIS Affected

Job Purpose

This role provides strategic and technical leadership for Group Internal Audit’s data, management information, reporting, automation and generative AI agenda. The role translates audit and business priorities into governed, scalable data products, executive insights, intelligent workflows and AI-enabled solutions that improve audit execution, decision-making, risk visibility and operational efficiency. The role owns the end-to-end delivery lifecycle, from opportunity identification and solution design through development, deployment, adoption, performance monitoring and continuous improvement.

Job Responsibilities

• Lead the data enablement, management information, reporting and automation roadmap for GIA, ensuring alignment to the GIA Digital Strategy, audit priorities and measurable business outcomes.
• Own the design and delivery of executive, Audit Committee and operational reporting products, including dashboards, scorecards, trend analysis, forward-looking indicators and narrative insights that support timely management action.
• Establish reporting standards, data definitions, quality controls, reconciliation routines and governance processes to improve the accuracy, consistency, traceability and reliability of audit information.
• Identify, prioritise and deliver automation opportunities across the audit lifecycle, including planning, fieldwork, issue management, quality assurance, evidence handling, workflow orchestration and recurring management reporting.
• Design and implement scalable solutions using Microsoft Fabric, Power BI, Azure AI Foundry, Power Platform, Python, SQL and relevant integration services.
• Lead the development and orchestration of AI agents and GenAI solutions using Microsoft Agent Framework, Semantic Models or equivalent enterprise-approved frameworks.
• Design and develop retrieval-augmented generation pipelines, vector search solutions, prompt patterns and knowledge-grounding approaches for secure internal audit use cases.
• Define solution architecture, technical requirements, delivery standards, test approaches, release controls, documentation and support models for data, reporting, automation and AI products.
• Implement monitoring for data pipelines, dashboards, automated workflows and AI solutions, including usage, performance, reliability, exceptions, model quality and control effectiveness.
• Provide senior-level analysis and decision support by translating complex data into concise insights, root-cause analysis, risk themes and recommended management actions.
• Partner with audit executives, portfolio teams, data owners, IT, information security, privacy, model risk and architecture stakeholders to resolve dependencies and enable compliant delivery.
• Lead stakeholder engagement, backlog prioritisation, value tracking and adoption activities, ensuring delivered solutions are embedded in business processes and achieve intended benefits.
• Provide technical leadership, coaching and quality assurance to analysts, developers and citizen automators, and build capability in data literacy, self-service reporting, automation, prompt engineering and responsible AI.
• Monitor emerging technology and industry developments, assess their relevance to internal audit, and convert viable opportunities into controlled experiments and scalable solutions.

Preferred Qualifications

• Relevant Bachelor’s degree or equivalent qualification in Data Science, Computer Science, Information Systems, Software Engineering, Business Analytics or a related discipline.
• Relevant postgraduate qualifications in data, technology, business or risk is advantageous.
• Recognised certification in Microsoft Azure, Microsoft Fabric, Power BI, AI/ML, data engineering, solution architecture, automation or software development is advantageous.

Minimum Experience Level

• Five to eight years of relevant experience across data analytics, management information, business intelligence, data engineering, automation, AI/ML or digital product delivery.
• Demonstrated experience leading complex reporting, data or automation initiatives from requirements and design through implementation, adoption and support.
• Hands-on experience developing executive dashboards, automated reporting solutions, data pipelines or workflow automations in an enterprise environment.
• Practical exposure to GenAI, large language models, retrieval-augmented generation or AI-agent development.
• Experience engaging senior stakeholders, translating business needs into technical solutions and communicating complex insights in clear business language.
• Experience in internal audit, risk, compliance, financial services or another regulated environment is advantageous.
• Experience providing technical leadership, coaching team members or coordinating multidisciplinary delivery is preferred.

Technical / Professional Knowledge

• Microsoft Fabric, Power BI, Azure AI Foundry and Power Platform.
• Executive reporting, dashboard design, data storytelling, KPI frameworks and management information governance.
• Python, SQL, data modelling, data engineering, APIs, integration patterns and pipeline orchestration.
• Process automation, workflow design, exception handling, controls and operational monitoring.
• Generative AI, large language models, prompt engineering, AI-agent orchestration and evaluation.
• Retrieval-augmented generation, embeddings and vector databases such as Azure AI Search, FAISS or Pinecone.
• Machine learning, natural language processing and analytical methods.
• Data governance, metadata, lineage, quality management, privacy, information security and responsible AI.
• Agile delivery, product management, DevOps practices, testing, release management and technical documentation.
• Internal audit, risk management and regulatory concepts relevant to the organisation.
• Executive writing, presentation, facilitation and stakeholder management.

Behavioural Competencies

- Managing Work
- Monitoring Information
- Building Partnerships
- Quality Orientation
- Continuous Improvement
- Work Standards
- Courage
- Adaptability

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Please contact the Nedbank Recruiting Team at +27 860 555 566