Product Engineer – Reference Data Management

South Africa's financial sector is constantly evolving, and Absa is at the forefront of this transformation, seeking a skilled Product Engineer to join their dynamic team. This position is centred around bolstering Absa’s Reference Data Management capabilities, an increasingly critical function in today's complex data landscape. If you have a passion for leveraging enterprise platforms to streamline operations and a knack for translating business needs into technical solutions, this role might be your next career milestone.

This opportunity is ideal for an experienced enterprise application specialist who thrives on the challenge of implementing, configuring, and enhancing business-critical systems. While the primary focus will be on Reference Data Management, the role is embedded within a broader Enterprise Data Management platform team. This means you'll be collaborating extensively with colleagues specialising in Master Data Management, Data Quality, Metadata, Data Catalog, and Data Governance, fostering a holistic approach to data excellence.

About the role

At its core, this position involves the practical implementation and operationalisation of Reference Data Management functionalities. You will be instrumental in setting up and managing reference hierarchies, taxonomies, and ensuring the smooth lifecycle of data. A significant part of your responsibility will be establishing robust governance controls and approval workflows, as well as establishing effective stewardship processes. Onboarding new reference data domains onto the Ataccama platform will also be a key duty, requiring a methodical and detail-oriented approach.

The ideal candidate will possess a strong aptitude for understanding product capabilities, identifying their limitations, and exploring configuration options. You'll need to confidently align business requirements with standard platform features, championing best practices. This role is not about passive support; it demands an active engagement with business stakeholders. This involves understanding their operational hurdles, identifying opportunities for process improvement, and translating these insights into tangible application configurations, workflows, and business rules.

Your daily activities will span several critical areas:

• **Business Requirements & Solution Design:** Engage directly with business stakeholders to grasp their challenges and needs. Analyse these requirements and translate them into effective application configurations, intuitive workflows, precise business rules, and optimal platform utilisation. You’ll be recommending solutions that leverage the Ataccama platform's full potential, informed by industry best practices. Facilitating workshops, solution discussions, and user demonstrations will be crucial for ensuring alignment and buy-in.
• **Product Expertise & Configuration:** Develop a deep understanding of the Ataccama platform's features, how they can be configured, and any inherent limitations. You will be responsible for configuring workflows, business rules, approval processes, data models, and validation rules to meet specific business objectives. Ensuring that all solutions adhere to architectural standards, governance policies, and business goals is paramount.
• **Delivery & Support:** Own the end-to-end delivery of enhancements, from initial requirement analysis through design, configuration, rigorous testing, successful deployment, and ongoing production support. You'll actively participate in the implementation of new capabilities and modules. Collaboration with vendors, architects, and development teams will be essential for delivering comprehensive business solutions. A key aspect of this role is evaluating product features to identify opportunities for improvement through configuration rather than customisation.

You will also act as a functional and technical subject matter expert (SME) for the assigned applications. Driving the adoption of platform capabilities and maximising business value through their use will be a significant contribution. Providing guidance to business users on best practices and optimal application usage is also expected, as is staying abreast of product roadmaps and emerging capabilities. You’ll be involved in defining and maintaining reusable Reference Data Management implementation patterns and standards, and actively monitoring data quality, lifecycle compliance, and workflow processes, investigating and resolving any discrepancies or exceptions. Managing incidents related to data integrity and platform availability, performing root cause analysis, and engaging with product vendors for complex issue resolution will also fall under your remit.

What they're looking for

A Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Information Systems, Data Management, or a related field is required. While not strictly essential, certifications in MDM, Data Quality, or metadata tools would be highly advantageous. You should bring at least five years of experience in implementing, configuring, enhancing, and supporting enterprise applications within complex business environments. Demonstrable experience working with enterprise platforms such as MDM, Data Quality, Metadata Management, Governance, ERP, CRM, Workflow, or Case Management solutions is highly desirable, as the role demands the ability to rapidly learn and master new platforms.

Key skills include strong business analysis and requirements elicitation, process analysis and workflow design, and a proven ability in enterprise application configuration and implementation. Excellent stakeholder management and facilitation skills are a must, as is the ability to design solutions primarily using out-of-the-box product capabilities. Functional consulting and advisory skills will be key, alongside a solid understanding of business processes and data-driven decision-making. Experience leading workshops, demonstrations, and user engagement sessions is also important.

In South Africa, a role like this often forms part of a larger data governance or enterprise architecture function within established financial institutions, large retailers, or telecommunications companies. While exact figures vary widely based on experience and specific responsibilities, Product Engineers in this space can expect competitive remuneration packages. Career progression typically involves moving into lead product owner roles, enterprise architect positions, or broader data management leadership.

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Information Systems, Data Management, or a related field. Certifications in MDM, DQ, or metadata tools are a plus.
• 5+ years of experience implementing, configuring, enhancing, and supporting enterprise applications in complex business environments.
• Experience working with MDM, Data Quality, Metadata Management, Governance, ERP, CRM, Workflow, Case Management, or other business-critical enterprise platforms is highly desirable.
• Candidates should demonstrate the ability to engage business stakeholders, translate requirements into solutions, and successfully deliver business outcomes through application configuration and platform capabilities.
• Demonstrated experience translating business requirements into configured application solutions and successfully delivering business outcomes
• Experience participating in application implementations, upgrades, migrations, or platform transformation initiatives.
• Experience working in Agile, DevOps, or product-centric delivery environments.

Desirable Experience

• Reference data domains
• Hierarchy management
• Taxonomies
• Workflow approvals
• Stewardship models
• Reference data lifecycle management
• Data classification and standards management
• Data Governance, Master Data Management, Reference Data Management, Metadata Management or Data Quality initiatives
• Informatica MDM, IDQ or EDC.
• Ataccama ONE.
• Collibra.
• Talend.
• SAP MDG.
• Salesforce.
• Oracle, SAP or other enterprise application platforms

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