Programme Manager (PSP Programme) Fixed Term Contract until 13 May 2030

Minimum Qualifications

• A post-graduate qualification in Project Management, Engineering (Civil or Transport), Business Administration, Commerce or related field.
• Professional project management certification: PMP, PRINCE2, SACPCMP,PMBOK or equivalent project/programme management certification

Minimum Requirements

• A minimum of 10 years demonstrable experience in programme management in the capital projects environment and managing multiple projects in the transport and rail sector, with a minimum of 3 years’ experience in supervising or managing teams.
• In-depth experience in programme and project management software, methodologies and tools, and project budget management and resource management.
• Experience working on large-scale and complex infrastructure or capital-intensive projects to successful completion.
• Strong understanding of governance, procurement, and infrastructure project delivery processes.
• Knowledge of South African policies, legislation and regulatory environment related to the transport sector in general and the rail sector in specific, and public-private partnerships.
• Demonstrated knowledge of legislation, regulations, policies, processes and procedures governing the infrastructure planning and development in South Africa (e.g. PFMA).
• Extensive experience in programme reporting and to various stakeholders including multidisciplinary teams and senior stakeholders.

Desirable Requirements

• Experience in the public sector engaging senior-level stakeholders.
• Experience in African infrastructure markets or emerging market contexts.
• Extensive experience working with projects in Public Private Partnerships (PPPs).

Technical Competencies

a) Strategic Planning

• Develops long-term objectives, strategies, and goals. Oriented to longer terms than day-to-day activities; determines long-term issues, problems or opportunities. Develops and establishes broad-scale, longer-term objectives, goals, or special projects (e.g., affecting a department, several departments or DBSA).
• Develops a business strategy; assesses and links short-term, day-to-day tasks in the context of long-term business strategies or a long-term perspective; considers whether short-term goals will meet long-term objectives.
• Ability to analyse complex economic trends and their impact on organisational strategy.

b) Business Development

• Identifies lucrative market opportunities through an excellent understanding and interpretation of sector analyses, including market structure, supply and demand aspects, competitor environment, and gap analysis.
• Actively participates in formulating, developing and implementing the business development strategy/ies to generate new investment opportunities in the public and private sector (delivery of infrastructure services).
• Constructs business plan of bankable multi-dimensional projects, using standard and/or customised templates and processes.
• Assesses Project/ Programme Feasibility through interrogation of resource requirements (including financing, capacity, capability and related issues).

c) Reporting

• Designs / customises reports to meet user needs.
• Prepares complex or tailored reports, gathers information from a variety of sources, analyses and includes in a report.
• Keeps standard reports under review and proposes improvements to meet user needs.

d) Project Management

• Initiates project plans and secures resources for projects that span area or department boundaries.
• Uses estimating techniques and develops project risk management approaches.
• Has an in-depth and practical understanding of how to maximise the effectiveness of project teams.

e) Quality Management

• Ability to develop quality management plans and inspection protocols. Implements systems and processes to ensure quality is built into the design and planning stages, and conducts audits and reviews to verify compliance with standards.

f) Business Acumen

• Takes actions to fit business strategy.
• Assesses and links short-term tasks in the context of long-term business strategies or perspectives.
• Reviews own actions against the organisation's strategic plan; includes the big picture when considering possible opportunities or projects, or thinks about long-term applications of current activities.
• Anticipates possible responses to different initiatives.
• Understands the projected direction of the industry and how changes might impact the organisation.

a) Strategic and Innovative Thinking

• Recognises opportunities or problems emerging in patterns and trends, and their impact on the business and profitability drivers.
• Recognises opportunities or potential problems, before they become obvious, by seeing the connections in a range of sources of information, including insights from outside DBSA.
• Experiments with new approaches, tests scenarios, questions assumptions and challenges conventional thinking.
• Develops innovative business and/or customer solutions that shape industry practices.

b) Driving Delivery of Results

• Identifies a business opportunity or a barrier to performance and takes action to address it.
• Reviews and makes changes to plans, offerings, etc. to get better results, thereby improving business performance.
• Sets challenging goals that will have a significant impact on the business or support the organisational strategy.
• Identifies and implements a business opportunity that will have a long-term impact on the business (which may include the organisation’s reputation or brand image). Monitors progress and adapts the plan if necessary to ensure optimal benefit to the business.

c) Leading and Empowering Others

• Clarifies roles and responsibilities; makes needs and requirements clear to the people of the team.
• Creates the conditions that enable the team to perform at its best (e.g., setting clear direction, providing appropriate structure, getting the right people, and obtaining needed resources).
• Supports the team publicly by demonstrating confidence in the team to others; recognises and rewards superior individual effort, and does not take personal credit for the team’s success.
• Sets a good example by personally exercising desired behaviour; acts on values and beliefs.

d) Organisational Awareness

• Recognises and/or uses the formal structure or hierarchy of an organisation (internal & external).
• Recognises key actors, decision-influencers, etc. and applies this knowledge when formal structure does not work as well as desired.
• Recognises and/or uses the corporate culture (language, etc.) that will produce the best response.
• Recognises underlying problems, opportunities, or external political forces affecting the organisation.

e) Customer/Business Service Orientation

• Gains the trust of customers by maintaining clear, two-way communication regarding mutual expectations and satisfaction with service.
• Requests ongoing feedback from customers and takes action in response to it; manages to retain and capitalise on existing customers.
• Utilises the feedback received by customers to develop new and/or improve existing services/ products that relate to their ongoing needs.
• Takes time to understand the customer’s business and medium to long-term objectives; provides information and recommends approaches.

The KPA’s, competencies and relationships listed in this document are not exhaustive, and the incumbent will be expected to undertake additional duties within their capacity to meet the needs of business and/or the business unit.