ED, LCS Business Platform Lead, Group Legal, Secretariat

Business Function

 

Group Legal, Compliance & Secretariat ensures that the bank's interests are protected by zealously guarding and enhancing its reputation and capital. We also work to maintain a good standing with all our regulators, customers, and business partners. Because we believe that at the heart of business banking is to uphold the values of trust and integrity for all our stakeholders.

DBS is modernising its Legal, Compliance, and Secretariat (LCS) Platform consisting of Financial Crime and Regulatory Compliance applications through 6 transformation programs to deliver industry-leading solutions to increase effectiveness of controls, improve efficiency/deliver productivity gains, and address employee pain points or enhance experience by reimagining relevant customer and employee journeys.

This role sits within the LCS PASO team with a primary purpose to own and drive the success of LCS Platform. The LCS Business Platform Lead is accountable for the overall health, planning, prioritization, and delivery of all initiatives and enhancements of capabilities, covering all applications in the Financial Crime and Regulatory Compliance space as well as for leading, and empowering team with clear directions and intervening as needed to clear roadblocks.

The role entails leading a group of Program Leads and Product Owners, partnering with business stakeholders within LCS and Business Units, LCS Analytics Lead, and importantly, collaborating effectively with LCS Technology Platform Lead as 2-in-a-box along with technology Tribe Leads to drive and ensure all solutions developed address the business requirements and help achieve the outcomes on time.

Responsibilities

Some key accountabilities include:

Define and deliver program initiatives and achieve business outcomes as per established timeline in the scorecard and aligned to DBS platform transformation milestones. Prioritize program backlogs (initiatives and enhancements) by balancing regulatory, audit and business priorities, squad capacity, to ensure all committed timelines will be met; Identify and mitigate/escalate risks and resolve issues and effectively collaborate with cross-functional stakeholders. Accurately and transparently communicate initiatives’ progress, risks and challenges, and critical incidents impacting capabilities in a timely manner with effective change management. Drive content and present to platform sponsors through platform governance and program steering committees; to senior management and regulators on key initiatives or decisions, budget plans, capability/control landscape, innovations through quarterly business review sessions. Ensure business cases and financial performance track to budget and mitigate as needed together with finance and technology team.

The LCS Platform Lead is accountable for the overall success and performance of the platform covering strategic vision & transformation roadmap, budget & financial performance, thought leadership, delivery prioritization & execution, communication including critical incidents, stakeholder management of LCS and other business and support units, internal/external audit teams, and country regulators, and team leadership. Details are as follows:

(1) Drive LCS Platform Strategy, Roadmap and Operating Model

Continuously refine platform strategy and roadmap aligning with LCS and DBS Horizon 3 direction and priorities. Conduct market research, analyse trends including RFI/setting up proof of concepts, incorporate innovations and emerging risks to ensure solution stack is evolved with industry developments and our future needs. Lead annual platform budget process across markets and fine-tune specific set of initiatives and enhancements to be executed against capacity and investment appetite to its approval. Incorporate DBS Platform Operating Model milestones and key transformation goals such as Managing through Journeys, improve technology productivity & agility, increase technology resiliency, etc. Ensure LCS Platform Operating model including program organization, roles and responsibilities, SDLC artifacts and controls as agreed with technology teams are effective in reducing errors and improving product quality.

(2) Lead Program initiative prioritization and execution 

Work with program leads to define program roadmap and prioritize backlogs including new and unplanned requests by balancing regulatory, audit and business priorities, and capacity to ensure all committed timelines will be met. Build business case by program to draw down the approved budget and set up financial tracking. Manage team to get to detailed business requirements/epics/user stories by liaising with business users and subject matter experts including the acceptance criteria. Evaluate key solution designs proposed by technology and analytics team for initiatives to ensure best practices are followed and are optimally aligned to the platform goals. Ensure agile methodology at scale is embedded across programs and solution defects rate across SDLC stages are on a downward trend. Monitor and ensure that initiatives are executed flawlessly, on schedule, and without compromising quality and proactively help resolve and mitigate risks across programs.

(3) Demonstrate effective Stakeholder Management and communication

Communicate clearly with senior business and support unit users to drive changes to facilitate smooth rollout of initiatives and quicker realization of benefits.
Influence and negotiate with senior business and support units, other technology teams, and LCS leaders on difficult prioritization calls, schedule delays, outcomes, etc. to ensure best interests of LCS and DBS are protected. Effectively partner with technology to clarify audit and regulator queries on system capabilities, implementations, production incidents, and remediation efforts; execute relevant control improvements per committed timelines in relevant applications/products. Manage relationships with strategic LCS system/product vendors and data subscriptions to vendor feeds or portal/data access. Oversee and communicate critical production incidents with business and LCS stakeholders on the root cause and resolution progress. Ensure relevant risks and issues are communicated to senior leaders and users on time through governance or as needed.

(4) Contribute with Thought Leadership and industry projects

As a member of LCS Executive Committee (Exco), contribute and shape strategic people, key risks, board communication agenda and share key platform communications. Challenge solution design and implementation plan for critical initiatives to ensure best possible outcomes without or reduced technology debt. Keep abreast with industry trends and peer bank developments and work with team to provide innovative solution and new propositions to experiment. Participate in various DBS forums, program steering committees and offer relevant points of view and challenge the status quo where appropriate. Contribute to the industry collaborative efforts such as ACIP working groups and projects such as COSMIC to strengthen the ecosystem.

(5) Lead team to build and reinforce high performance culture

Guide and coach direct reports and team members in complex and ambiguous situations on best practices and leveraging past experiences. Provide timely feedback on development opportunities to help them grow as well as encourage relevant training to reach their career aspirations. Help members succeed by removing roadblocks, appreciate and reward great performance, and address key pain points with relevant leaders. Continue to build on collaboration and solution-oriented culture within the team and among peers in other teams; Develop or hire the best person for open roles.

Requirements 

Degree holder with 15-20 years of working experience in relevant field.  Demonstrated success and progressive leadership experience, including large-scale Project & Programme Management or technology management function or software product development. Minimum 5 years IT experience with Open-Source and/or Agile project management or software product development. Proven effectiveness in driving complex multi-stakeholder planning processes, driving cross-functional teams and programs to desired results, while adequately managing risks and timely issues resolution. Solid background in business analysis and root cause analysis, ideally in the Financial Services industry/Retail Banking. Excellent understanding and knowledge of Financial Crime Compliance, KYC/CDD, or Regulatory Compliance domains and business processes. Proven track record of partnering with Technology and Business stakeholders to deliver results. Good understanding AI/ML, data management & architecture. Any working experience in the Financial Crime solutions (AML, Sanctions, Fraud or Regulatory Compliance domains) and solutions such as (Actimize, Oracle AML, BAE NetReveal, Fircosoft, or RegTechs) would be an asset. Project Management and/or Business Analysis or CAMS/ICA certification is preferable.
Excellent communication, executive presentation, and organization skills; can be relied upon to make quick and decisions. Ability to multi-task with excellent analytical, problem-solving, and planning skills. Ability to own and be hands on as required in the management of tasks. Strong interpersonal skills including mentoring, coaching, and collaborating with different teams and diverse team members. Ability to perform under pressure and management of multiple priorities with competing demands for resources. Excellent relationship-building, conflict resolution, influence, and negotiation skills. Significant experience in managing and driving change. Self-motivated with positive and can-do attitude and is solution-solution oriented; comfortable to move forward in situations where things are ambiguous, or priorities are dynamic in nature. Good understanding of finance concepts and budgets.

Apply Now 

We offer a competitive salary and benefits package and the professional advantages of a dynamic environment that supports your development and recognises your achievements.

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