Job Purpose

The Job Holder is responsible for leading the continuous improvement initiatives of the Strategic Financial Planning unit and supporting Financial Accounting and Control unit as well, while leading the financial and reporting systems integration effort. He / She identifies short / medium / long-term solutions to improve the efficiency of the Group by analysing and measuring effectiveness of existing processes and the development of sustainable and quantifiable process improvements / systems re-engineering to establish best practices. He / She acts as a change agent with respect to strategic plans & projects to produce sustainable and scalable process improvements.

Key Responsibilities

Strategy, Planning and Management

Planning and Management

• Define, scope, plan and manage business process improvement projects in line with group/department/management strategy and objectives
• Lead process improvement initiatives within Group, and in conjunction with suppliers/vendor, to deliver efficiencies and benefits to internal and external customers of department
• Deploy adequate technology in line with organizational policies & to meet advanced management requirements

Operations, Review and Reporting

Understanding

• Maintain updated knowledge of rules, regulations, standards and best practices in the field and related matters of interest to the area
• Enhance expertise and knowledge in project management, business analytics solution(s) and advise / educate management on their relative importance and impact

Fieldwork

• Enable, direct and manage the delivery of projects focused on improving/digitizing business processes using structured tools / methodologies in line with the Project Management methodologies
• Direct and manage project business cases and validates comprehensiveness of project implementation approach and details.
• Evaluate selection of vendors and consultants for critical projects within the Group.
• Participate in developing the Group’s capital expense budget (covering systems and projects), and reviews actual expenses and variances. Identify improvement opportunities and appropriately act on improvement requests from the higher management
• Analyse requirements related to process digitalization and Business Analytics to deliver the solutions along with other Business Intelligence groups internally or / and externally
• Document and monitor business processes, business rules, metrics and Standard Operating Procedures in line with the improvement initiatives and project within Group
• Manage and improve the financial processes with help of technology (e.g. BI, Cubes, Qlik Sense, Predictive analytics, financial systems)
• Establish “business analytics & AI” competency centre within Group to automate reporting processes while improving performance of business processes. Manage improvement initiatives across Group to deliver business benefits
• Manage and monitor the deployment of business process improvement methodologies / tools across the Group, build capability through knowledge sharing and coaching
• Manage implementation of relational and multidimensional data models and cubes using the suite of Business Intelligence, Multi-dimensional data management tools
• Ensure ongoing development and operation of financial information management initiatives and enable fact-based decision-making, ad-hoc analysis, insight generation and development of predictive capabilities
• Provide support and expertise for analytics (e.g. data mining, cube management, change management, troubleshooting, etc.) to management for effective decision making
• Standardize, manage and improve information management framework covering critical stakeholders

Reporting

Present findings and recommendations with confidence and communicate these to project sponsors, business lead and key stakeholders

Stakeholder Management

Internal Interactions

• Liaise with internal clients to collect business needs, translate them into solution requirements covering analytics and management reporting
• Collaborate with Enterprise Project Management Office for management of all-important deliverables related improvement initiatives in line with Project Management Governance framework
• Collaborate with core IT teams (e.g. Business Intelligence systems, QA, QC, Core banking management, satellite system) for development/testing/management of all-important deliverables related improvement initiatives
• Participate in the various cross-functional committees/teams for multiple purposes to achieve optimal cooperation and to assume seamless quality service
• Assist in development of staff and play a key role in influencing change within department

People Development

• Participate in the selection and development of staff
• Evaluate performance and recommend developmental needs of the team
• Review recommendations of subordinate staff and provide guidance in resolving complex or sensitive problems
• Maintain and promote positive work culture and responsible for improving employee engagement level of the team

Job Specifications

Education Qualification(s): Bachelor's degree or equivalent in a related field

Desired Attributes : MBA in the required field

Certifications(s): Business Intelligence, Project Management Methodologies

Experience

• Minimum 7 years of experience required in Finance / Accounting within Banks or Financial Institutions in similar role

Language(s) known: English (Proficient)

Desired Attributes : Arabic (Proficient)