Asia Head of Operations

**Head of Operations**

**Roles & Responsibilities**

On behalf of our client, a leading Private Bank, we are looking for a **Head of Operations Asia - Managing Director. **The Head of Operations Asia will be based in Singapore and will oversight for leading over 700 employees across locations in Hong Kong and Singapore. The position has management responsibilities of the delivery of operations for the organisation across Asia Pacific and partners with the global teams to align priorities. Responsible for managing an annual expense budget of about 50m. The position reports directly to Global Head of Operations for the organisation with a matrix responsible to the Asia Pacific COO.

**Key Performance Objectives**:

- Ensure the organisation meets and exceeds financial goals. Work in partnership with regional GMMs, products and functions to identify opportunities to optimize expenses.
- Take a leadership role in identifying key themes within operations such as re-engineering through LEAN, simplification, digitization, straight-through-processing and outsourcing, and leveraging organisational resources within and outside operations to drive and implement these initiatives.
- Engage with regional businesses and functions to provide strategic direction and support from an operations perspective, and ensure execution priorities are aligned with operations’ global strategies.
- International Ambassador for Asia, working with the global operations team to understand global priorities and ensure Asia priorities are included in the global priorities
- Drive transformation for operations to continue to improve automation opportunities to scale the business sustainably.
- Also deliver on key programs in the areas of infrastructure upgrades, data localisation, data quality, information security, cyber security and data protection for the franchise, working with the respective regional functional and country operations heads.
- Maintain a strong control and compliance environment throughout the operations organisation that can rapidly adapt to the continually changing regulatory and compliance environment.
- Addressing business, operational risks in the spaces of 3rd party management, continuity of business and non-employees, by focusing on right-placement and risk mitigation.
- Continue to foster an environment of proactive escalation, and prompt resolution of all operations issues including the timely closure of relevant Corrective Action Plans.
- Focus on talent development with priorities around building a strong pipeline, diversity, and leverage the breadth of opportunities to develop future leaders.
- Create and drive a culture of inclusion, diversity and meritocracy across the Bank, with high ethical and leadership standards.
- Lead a diverse management team, focusing on their individual development, and empowering them to build strong relationships with their regional and in-country partners.

**Qualifications**
- 20+ years of work experience. Of which at least 5 years are in senior leadership role(s)
- A thorough understanding of operations risk, control management and regulatory expectations. Ability to drive execution in this space as well as the perceptiveness to identify early warning signals.
- Strong influencing and negotiation skills. Ability to explore alternatives and positions to reach outcomes that are supported and accepted by stakeholders.
- Superior people leadership skills, including being able to connect, inspire and motivate large teams.
- Heightened focus on client experience and demonstrated track record of showing empathy to arrive at the best solutions to drive this experience.
- Strategic and innovative thinker with demonstrated ability to define strategy and provide direction and support with the skills to switch quickly from strategic to tactical.
- Demonstrated ability to build and promote diverse talent and an inclusive culture within the organisation and ensure succession planning.
- Prior experience in managing across different cultures strongly preferred.
- Ability to partner on global initiatives
- Proven record of executive-level change management