Senior Vice President, Strategic Partnerships Director

Senior Vice President, Strategic Partnerships Director (Execution)

Singapore, Singapore, SG

About UOB

United Overseas Bank Limited (UOB) is a leading bank in Asia with a global network of more than 500 branches and offices in 19 countries and territories in Asia Pacific, Europe and North America. In Asia, we operate through our head office in Singapore and banking subsidiaries in China, Indonesia, Malaysia and Thailand, as well as branches and offices.

Our history spans more than 80 years. Over this time, we have been guided by our values — Honorable, Enterprising, United and Committed. This means we always strive to do what is right, build for the future, work as one team and pursue long-term success. It is how we work, consistently, be it towards the company, our colleagues or our customers.

About the Department

We are building and expanding the best digital bank in ASEAN.

Traditional retail banking is changing rapidly, and will change even more in the next 10 years. We fundamentally rethink the retail banking strategy, business model and proposition, to stay relevant and keep up with the challenges that lie ahead in this rapidly evolving landscape.

TMRW (pronounced as “tomorrow”) empowers the digital generation with a full suite of banking solutions through a smart, mobile-only app. Our mission is to build and expand the best digital bank in ASEAN. Launched in Indonesia and Thailand as the first mobile only digital bank by United Overseas Bank (UOB) in ASEAN, TMRW offers innovative and simple solutions to help customers stay one step ahead of their finances. Our business model is powered by next-generation artificial intelligence, machine learning, data analytics, user interface design and smartphone capabilities. These include our own digital technology innovations as well as solutions provided through our collaboration with FinTech partners. We embrace a competitive strategy that focuses on customer intimacy, measured by net-promoter-score (NPS).

Since launch, TMRW has won many awards in total, including: Best Digital Bank in ASEAN, Best Digital Bank for Customer Experience and Best Bank for Millennials.
As we enter our next phase of growth, we are looking for entrepreniurial and open minded team players who are keen to learn, enjoy taking on multiple roles, and willing to step out of your comfort zone.
You will be the catalyst of change for UOB and be part of our exciting roadmap in the next chapter of growth. Get ready for an exciting career path in a start-up environment that is diverse and fast-paced, where you will have the opportunity to be engaged in transformative programs, and collaborate with business, and technology teams as well as regional and country stakeholders. We believe in empowering our people, giving them autonomy and ownership of what they do and their successes.
Join us to transform the future of banking and make banking simple, transparent and engaging

Job Responsibilities

Partnerships are a key strategic priority for TMRW to scale and commercialize. 
The partnerships team is responsible for forming strategic partnerships across E-Commerce, Telco and Travel partners who have large customer bases which UOB and TMRW can leverage for acquisition and cross-sell to lower overall costs of acquisitions and accelerate growth.

Description of Role

Manage the sourcing, agreements, implementation and business objectives of key strategic partners of TMRW to drive accelerated acquisitions, usage and revenue in line with TMRW’s scale & commercialization objectives.

In this strategic partnership execution role, there will be close collaboration with internal stakeholders (Build Center of Excellence/ Products/ UX/UI/ marketing/ development/ compliance teams) and external partners. The role will be responsible for end-to-end accountability over the partnership program design, proof concept scoping, delivery and defining post-program engagement model and measurable technical and commercial outcomes.

Business and Technical Requirements

 Ability to liaise across TMRW, UOB and Partner organizations, in particular at the solutioning level

 Manage contract negotiations and work with legal and compliance teams to drive mutually beneficial commercial terms 

 Understanding and appreciation of technical requirements to enable partnership solution design and executional requirements

 Work alongside relevant product, on-boarding, marketing, engagement and serve/transact units of TMRW to define the partnership solutions

 Liaise with country partnership team to ensure volume and quality balance through targeting the right partnership and customer segment through strategic approach

 Multitask across a number of complex and high-impact projects

 Reporting of progress, risks and outcomes to senior stakeholders

 Have a relentless drive to understand trend and themes on how banking opportunities can relate to the day-to-day saving/ purchasing behavior of a customer;

 Have experience in managing forming partnerships with start-up or corporation and is be able to deliver results in a large, complex and matrix organisation.

 Use venture-building methodologies (e.g. design thinking, agile, etc).

 A mindset that embraces creativity, optimism, ambiguity and does not worry to fail-fast.

Current Projects & Initiatives

 Execution of key partners’ solutions that have been on boarded, negotiating and ideation of digital solutions with potential strategic partners
 Sourcing and agreement additional strategic partners in 2022 across Thailand, Indonesia, Vietnam, Singapore and Malaysia.

Key Responsibility

 Sourcing, agreements and requirements gathering to take significant time and effort with specific subject matter expertise required to ensure the projects are completed on time, within budget and with expected results 
 Designing the high-level scope and solutions of strategic partnerships to achieve mutually beneficial outcomes with sustainable business impact
 Work with UOB Wholesale banking teams to identify and approach key partnerships for strategic alliances and participation in corporate employee program (CEP)
 Alignment with country teams to ensure tactical partnerships relationships are elevated to drive higher acquisitions through strategic initiatives

Job Requirements

Relevant Experience

 10-15 years’ experience
 Performing the role of a business lead/ product owner in driving capabilities implementation for TMRW Digital Group
 Strong understanding of customer acquisitions and payments models and possible use cases of deployment
 Good understanding of the consumer banking landscape in terms of products, functional teams, services and typical banking applications
 Must demonstrate strong analytical, problem solving, communication and creative skills
 Strong analytical skills and able to assess multiple systems for troubleshooting. Good problem solver and decision maker. 
 Excellent communications (written and verbal) skills and able to work across both business and technology partners.
 Passion about digital technologies, and its ability to change significantly the way we live.
 Experience with working in a Hub and Spoke model i.e. centralised management with responsibility for regional roll outs.

Geographies & Markets

Based in Singapore. Project will involve extensive coordination with internal and external stakeholders across UOB and partners organizations in Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand and Vietnam 

Other information 

Candidate should possess the following qualities:
1) Willing to learn and a fast learner
2) One-bank mentality to work for benefit of wider UOB franchise
3) Logical thinking & problem solver
4) Ability to work in team as well as independently
5) Strong sense of responsibility
6) Ability to multi-task 
7) Outcome oriented