Title:  Platform Owner

Job Classification

Platform Owner (145793)

Closing date: 26 June 2026

Job Family

Information Technology

Career Stream

IT Operations

Leadership Pipeline

Manage Self: Technical

FAIS Affected

Job Purpose

The Platform Owner is accountable for the end‑to‑end ownership, strategic direction, and sustainability of a core technology platform, including platforms that include AI, data, and intelligent automation capabilities. This includes ensuring the platform delivers measurable business value, remains architecturally sound, compliant, scalable, secure, and cost‑effective, while enabling multiple products, teams, and use cases across the organisation.

The role acts as the single point of accountability for platform outcomes, balancing business demand, technological evolution (including AI and automation adoption), operational resilience, risk, and vendor management. The Platform Owner works closely with Product Owners, Architects, Engineering, Data, AI, Operations, Risk, Finance, and external partners to ensure the platform supports current and future digital, automation, and AI‑driven business strategies.

Job Responsibilities

Platform Strategy & Ownership

• Define and maintain the platform vision, roadmap, and target state, aligned to enterprise strategy, domain architecture, and business outcomes—explicitly incorporating AI, analytics, and automation capabilities where relevant.
• Own the end‑to‑end platform lifecycle, including onboarding, change, modernisation, AI enablement, automation expansion, and eventual decommissioning.
• Ensure the platform supports reuse, standardisation, scalability, and automation‑first principles across consuming products, channels, and AI use cases.
• Drive adoption of intelligent automation, self‑service capabilities, and AI‑enabled features to improve efficiency, quality, and speed to market

Governance & Accountability

• Establish and enforce platform standards, guardrails, and non‑functional requirements (performance, reliability, security, resilience, explainability, and ethical AI where applicable).
• Ensure alignment with enterprise architecture, data governance, AI governance, security, risk, compliance, and regulatory requirements, particularly in regulated environments.

Delivery & Execution

• Work with Product Owners, Engineering Leads, and Data / AI teams to translate business demand into platform, automation, and RPA and AI capabilities.
• Prioritise platform backlog items, including technical debt, automation opportunities, model lifecycle improvements, resilience enhancements, and strategic innovation.
• Oversee platform delivery across multiple teams or delivery streams, ensuring predictable, high‑quality outcomes and safe adoption of AI and automation.

Job Responsibilities Continue

Operational Excellence

• Accountable for platform stability, availability, performance, and operational readiness, including AI and automation workloads in production.
• Partner with Operations and SRE teams to ensure effective incident management, problem management, model monitoring, and root‑cause remediation.
• Drive continuous improvement through automation, observability, telemetry, AIOps, and operational maturity.

Vendor & Commercial Management

• Own relationships with platform vendors and strategic partners, including AI service providers, automation tool vendors, and system integrators.
• Manage contracts, SLAs, roadmap alignment, performance management, and compliance obligations.

Stakeholder Management & Leadership

• Act as a trusted technology leader and advisor to senior business and technology stakeholders.
• Communicate platform strategy, AI and automation opportunities, risks, and trade‑offs clearly to executive and governance forums.
• Mentor and guide teams to build deep platform, automation, and AI capability, ensuring succession and long‑term sustainability.

People Specification

Essential Qualifications - NQF Level

Preferred Qualification

IT Related Degree or Diploma

Essential Certifications

Preferred Certifications

Platform Specific Certifications

Minimum Experience Level

• Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Information Systems, Engineering, or related field.
• 8–12+ years’ experience in technology delivery, platform ownership, or large‑scale systems management.
• Proven experience owning or leading enterprise platforms, including platforms supporting automation, data, or AI workloads, in complex environments (e.g. payments, banking, telco, large digital ecosystems).
• Strong understanding of architecture principles, platform design, distributed systems, and non‑functional requirements.
• Strong hands-on experience with card switching solutions such as Postilion and Base24‑EPS.
• Experience working with third‑party vendors, cloud services, and commercial contracts.
• Extensive experience in card processing, with in-depth knowledge of transaction switching, clearing, and settlement.
• Experience in regulated industries (financial services, payments).
• Exposure to cloud platforms, APIs, event‑driven architectures, automation tooling, AI/ML platforms, and modern integration patterns.
• Familiarity with AI governance, model lifecycle management, and responsible AI practices

Technical / Professional Knowledge

Behavioural Competencies