Officer, Digital Financial Services & Project Risks

Sidian Bank Limited is a financial institution founded in 1984, operating in the banking and financial services sector in Nairobi, Kenya.

The Officer, Digital Financial Services & Project Risks, will support the continuous, independent second-line assurance of Sidian Bank's Digital Financial Services (DFS) controls and project risks. This involves providing objective oversight on the design and operational effectiveness of controls across DFS channels, digital lending platforms, merchant acquiring, and data lake pipelines and projects. The role also ensures that all DFS, operational, and systems risks across the bank's platforms strictly comply with internal policies, as well as Central Bank of Kenya (CBK) and Office of the Data Protection Commissioner (ODPC) guidelines.

1. Maintain second-line governance oversight to ensure all digital banking operations, credit scoring algorithms, and data processing architectures comply with CBK guidelines, statutory limits, and ODPC regulatory requirements.
2. Collaborate with the Data Privacy Officer to align DFS data flows, processing activities, and Data Lake ingestion pipelines with the Kenya Data Protection Act 2019 and its regulations.
3. Provide objective second-line oversight and challenge on the design and operational effectiveness of control systems and workflows across all DFS channels.
4. Validate that all approved products are supported by end-to-end standard operating procedures (SOPs), workflow routines, and dual-authorization control frameworks signed off by relevant stakeholders before launch.
5. Coordinate with the ERM and IT Risk Officer to evaluate technical vulnerabilities, system change management requests, API security controls, and Privileged Access Management (PAM) across the bank’s DFS systems and projects.
6. Review risk profiles and control baselines for new feature deployments, digital lending engines, third-party integrations, and Data Lake ingestion controls prior to production go-live.
7. Review technical documentation for DFS products and projects (e.g., solution architecture, process and data flow diagrams) for comprehensive risk identification and control design effectiveness.
8. Track the remediation of technical control gaps, vulnerability assessment items, and red-teaming test findings to final closure on DFS and Projects.
9. Oversee Business Continuity Planning (BCP) and Disaster Recovery (DR) readiness for critical digital channels (Mobile Banking, Internet Banking, USSD, Merchant, Digital Lending engines, and Data Lake feeds).
10. Participate in periodic BCP/DR failover tests, assessing operational resilience, recovery time objectives (RTO), and recovery point objectives (RPO) during simulated switchover events for DFS projects.
11. Validate that failback routines, offline processing queues, and manual reconciliation procedures during system outages maintain strict accounting controls and data integrity.
12. Monitor digital lending controls, including loan scoring parameters, automated approval thresholds, disbursement limits, and write-off reconciliation routines, as well as controls around AI use in DFS products.
13. Review merchant acquiring controls, including transaction limits, float reconciliations, fee splits, chargeback handling, settlement controls, chargeback/reversal workflows, and interchange fee collection routines.
14. Develop and monitor DFS control metrics, project risk indicators, and operational KRIs, and assist in developing breach thresholds.
15. Ensure all DFS and project risks are comprehensively captured and tracked through the business RCSA.
16. Perform independent control tests and validate both the design adequacy and operational effectiveness of controls.
17. Review and evaluate the effectiveness of automated monitoring systems with independent sample testing of implemented DFS controls/rule exceptions and override queues to ensure digital fraud and operational failures are promptly detected and remediated.
18. Support the investigation, logging, and root-cause analysis of digital transaction failures, payment outages, and privacy breaches in coordination with the Data Protection & Privacy Officer.
19. Track incident remediation action plans, ensuring first-line operational teams resolve underlying system flaws to prevent recurring outages or losses.
20. Formulate, maintain, and report on Key Risk Indicators (KRIs) for DFS solutions, Digital Lending, Merchant Acquiring, and Data Lake operations & Projects.
21. Prepare comprehensive second-line risk and control performance dashboards for IT Risk, BCP & Data Privacy for Senior Management & Board Risk Reports on DFS and projects.

1. Bachelor’s degree in Information Technology, Computer Science, Business, or a related field.
2. Strong knowledge of Information Security related frameworks/regulations such as ISO 27001, NIST 800-53, or other leading industry certifications (e.g., CompTIA Security +, CEH, CISA).
3. At least 5 years of experience in Banking or Information Technology with exposure to Digital Financial Services (DFS) & Projects.
4. Knowledgeable in IT operations, IT Controls, IT Risk, IT Audit & Project Management.
5. Knowledge of Data Protection laws & General Data Protection Regulations (GDPR)/Kenya Data Protection Act, 2019 & Regulations, and CBK guidelines.
6. Excellent interpersonal & communication skills.
7. Ability to work effectively in teams.
8. Excellent analytical skills.
9. Strong problem-solving skills.
10. Excellent knowledge of security tools.
11. Proficient in report writing.
12. Professional qualifications such as Certified Information Systems Auditor (CISA), Certified Information Security Manager (CISM), or Certified Information Systems Security Professional (CISSP).