Head: Data & Analytics Job Cape Town area,South Africa,IT/Tech

The role

The Head of Group Procurement Data & Analytics maximises value from Santam’s data & analytics products (datasets, semantic models, dashboards). The role reports to the Group Procurement Head of Finance and Operations. It owns the product vision and backlog, data strategy, data model, data products ensuring compliance features (RLS, sensitivity labels, lineage, and other related features) are embedded within Group Procurement.

Translate business outcomes into a governed product backlog; prioritise features that deliver trusted insights while meeting policy, privacy and audit requirements. The role manages Data Analysts to ensure they provide data, dashboards, and operational insights that enable Procurement Managers, Category Managers, and Sourcing Specialists to make data-led sourcing decisions across Santam’s claims and Sanlam/Santam non-claims procurement categories

What will you do?

Strategic Leadership & Vision:

Implementation roadmap aligned to Santam’s business objectives;

Execute and localise the Santam Group enterprise data & AI strategy defined by the CoE for Group Procurement;

Contribute domain-specific requirements into Santam Group enterprise strategy supported by the CoE;

Drive transformation initiatives to consolidate data platforms, governance, and analytics capabilities for Group Procurement.

2. Data Strategy:

Enhance the data strategy to ensure high-quality, accessible, and secure data for reporting, insights and AI initiatives.

Drive data democratization and self-service analytics.

Collaborate with business units to identify data-driven opportunities for improvement, decision making and identification of savings opportunities.

Define and embed data classification and controls (data classification, sensitivity labels, RLS, endorsements) and document lineage and meta-data.

3. Data analytics, Business Intelligence (BI) and insights:

Define and communicate data & analytics product vision, roadmap and measurable outcomes.

Develop and deploy appropriate data models, BI dashboards to for each spend Category and Commodity and for major tenders as required.

Owns the data & analytics backlog: value-based prioritisation; user stories with acceptance criteria including governance/compliance requirements.

Manage and deliver data analysis and insights from multiple sources (ERP, claims systems, procurement platforms, Qlik View, Clicksense, Power BI, SQL, .

Creation, publish and maintenance of monthly reports, dashboards, and KPI packs for each procurement sub-category with commentary (trends, exceptions, root-cause analysis) and recommendations.

Support ad hoc analytics for operational and strategic initiatives.

Support continuous improvement projects, cost savings and efficiency projects.

Deliver insights and trend information to enable Group Procurement Managers and internal stakeholders to understand the current business dynamics and trends for decision making and operational management.

4. Governance & Risk Management

Implement and enforce CoE-defined data governance frameworks and controls;

Ensure compliance with enterprise data, AI, and risk policies;

Escalate and resolve exceptions through CoE governance structures;

Oversee data quality, integrity, and lifecycle management across all business units for procurement related data.

Ensure appropriate data governance and compliance with regulatory requirements (., POPIA, GDPR).

Engage stakeholders (Data Owners, System Owners, Risk/Legal) to approve changes impacting data or controls.

Representing the department on the Data Stewardship Council within Santam, Sanlam and Afrocentriq.

As the Data Change Champion for Group Procurement managing and ensuring appropriate controls and sign-off by data owners for all data sharing with internal and external parties.

Manage and ensure alignment with ISO/IEC 27001 on the classification, retention, and accountability for the data and data products.

As Data Owner for Group Procurement the role follows DAMA DMBOK guidance (authority over data assets, governance framework, stewardship model) and clarifies distinctions among owners/stewards/custodians (DAMA, DQOps).

Manage and ensure compliance and alignment to the Santam…