VP & Head of Business Finance Change Management - GM

Role Overview

Vice President and Head of Business Finance Change Management for Global Markets at First Abu Dhabi Bank, based in Abu Dhabi.

Company Overview

First Abu Dhabi Bank (FAB) is the largest bank in the UAE and one of the world's largest and safest financial institutions. The Global Markets Business Finance team comprises Business Unit Control, Valuation Control, Central MI and Change Management teams, supporting Global Markets and Group Treasury businesses locally and internationally. The unit falls under the Group Finance department and reports to the CFO, CIB Finance & International.

Role Purpose

Lead the Change Management Team in pioneering digital transformation initiatives targeted at implementing controls and increasing operational efficiencies. Drive strategic initiatives with an innovative mindset focused on maximizing growth and eliminating inefficiencies across Global Markets and Group Treasury, with responsibility for major international rollout projects, new products launches, transformation projects, process re-engineering and systems change requests.

Key Responsibilities

Team Supervision

• Lead a techno-functional advisory team acting as liaison between Global Markets, Operations, Compliance, Risk, Legal, IT and PMO across FAB's Head Office and international locations.
• Advise on Global Markets and Finance best practices, audit point resolutions, optimization opportunities, international rollouts, automation opportunities, and processes, products and controls rollouts.

Policies, Systems, Processes & Procedures

• Devise solutions and drive initiatives for implementing controls as part of tactical and strategic solutions for current risky and time-consuming processes.
• Enhance governance, accuracy and efficiency of financial and management reporting output.

Continuous Improvement

• Participate in identifying opportunities for continuous improvement and sustainability of systems, processes and practices considering global standards, productivity improvement and cost reduction.

Business Activity Support

• Transform finance streams from cost centers to business drivers by collaborating with Global Markets team on revenue-generating initiatives.
• Support Global Markets' business growth, ambitions and goals.
• Pioneer digital transformation initiatives targeted at implementing controls and increasing operational efficiencies through re-engineering, automating and optimizing processes with an agile delivery mindset.
• Collaborate with stakeholders in Product Control, Global Markets, Group Treasury, Operations, Risk and Finance to support new business activity deployment and enhance existing functionalities in Murex and downstream systems.
• Review business needs and translate them into application functional requirements for complex financial products and processes.
• Ensure compliance with and documentation of Risk & Control Self-Assessments (RCSA), Operational Risk Assessments for Projects (ORAP) and Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs).

Centralization of Business Change Requests

• Centralize all system change requests for Product Control and Financial Control Departments.
• Log business issues including gaps and risks.
• Review business requirement documents (BRDs).
• Follow up on systems' IT implementations.
• Perform user acceptance testing (UAT) before deployment.
• Ensure global rollout of changes.
• Notify all stakeholders of required end user procedures.
• Support new business requests, ensuring they are controlled through existing or new system architecture.
• Provide responsive support to front office, ensuring "speed to market" of new products.
• Hold delegated authority for New Activity Working Group (NAWG) new product sign-off.

Transformation Projects

• Simultaneously lead multiple projects focused on automation and optimization of manual processes leveraging various systems.
• Deliver complex automation projects within tight deadlines.

International Rollouts

• Manage the change management team by overseeing validation processes, reconciliations, gaps and issues identified.
• Represent business and lead integration and migration activities from a Global Markets Finance perspective relating to sensitive and complex mergers and acquisitions.
• Escalate issues to management and assist in mitigating operational risk.
• Address business-critical audit and compliance issues by developing and implementing tactical and strategic solutions.

New Products, Processes and Controls Rollout

• Grow business profitability by liaising with Front Office, Operations, Legal, Risk, Compliance and IT teams to roll out new financial products, modules, systems, processes and controls.
• Validate and sign off on financial products' behavior, lifecycle and accounting activity.
• Introduce new processes to ensure compliance controls are well established across platforms, decreasing the risk of operational incidents and fraud.

Product Ownership

• Maximize delivered value by defining the Minimal Viable Product (MVP) and ensuring early value delivery.
• Create and maintain functional and operational processes associated with the platform.
• Manage and coordinate all stakeholders contributing towards the product functionally or operationally.

Reporting

• Re-engineer current processes to facilitate management and financial reporting and analysis.

Qualifications & Experience

• Bachelor's degree in Engineering, Accounting or Finance.
• Minimum 10-12 years' experience in a similar role in a reputable international or global bank.
• Extensive track record of successfully delivering techno-functional bank-wide projects.
• Proven leadership and managerial experience within a top-tier institution.
• Strong business acumen and technical expertise in systems and infrastructure.
• Product management experience.

Skills & Competencies

• Strong stakeholder management across Global Markets Finance and IT.
• Strong verbal and written presentation skills.
• Senior stakeholder management capability.
• Highly developed numerical and analytical skills.
• Interpersonal skills with expertise to represent the team on strategic initiatives.

Additional Information

Working at FAB means being part of a team of talented and passionate individuals with a shared vision to support stakeholder ambitions. FAB offers unique career choices, a chance to innovate, craft solutions for the future and express yourself in a performance-based culture. The organization provides a range of learning and development initiatives to support employees through training and skill development. FAB has structured plans for the recruitment and career progression of Emirati talent to enable them to make a mark in the financial and banking sector both regionally and globally.