AGM-Chief Innovation Officer

Job description / Role

Our exclusive and esteemed client who has steadily grown to be the biggest bank and leading financial institution in the Middle East and North Africa Region with a market share around 45% of banking sector assets is seeking an AGM-Chief Innovation Officer.

The incumbent will be part of senior management responsible for leading and managing the Group's innovation agenda (core/ adjacent/ disruptive). The Chief Innovation Officer is supposed to start and launch the innovation programme and establish the voice of innovation across the entire banks organization. The goal of this programme is to encourage all employees to come up with ideas through free thinking and facilitation in an environment and space that allows innovation.

The incumbent will manage the Innovation and Lean+ teams, which have direct responsibility for the portfolio of innovation, reengineering and process improvement projects across the Group. The Chief Innovation Officer will facilitate the decision on the focus areas (e.g., cost saving/ revenue generation/ business model changes/ product development/ etc.) to avoid ideas that are not relevant or add little value.

Essential Duties & Responsibilities by Dimensions:

Shareholder & Financial:
- Act as an incubator for the innovation function in the bank by instilling an environment and culture that encourages company-wide innovation.
- Leads, drives and manages the innovation governance as well as the innovation process Establish and maintain strong working relationships across all business and support units as well as countries across the banking Group.
- Ensure senior and middle management officers recognize and support initiatives to encourage innovation through close interaction and by deploying Lean/ Six Sigma/ Change Management standards and the process improvement methodology.
- Responsible for managing the innovation budget and conducting post-mortems on completed innovation and Lean+ initiatives to ensure that they delivered the forecasted value creation to the Group.
- Periodically assess the climate for innovation.
- Create the key performance indicators (KPls) for performance measurement of the innovation function in order to measure the overall effectiveness of the mandate to create a Group-wide culture centred around innovation and continuous improvement.
- Responsible for the execution and implementation of operational excellence, reengineering and end-to-end process improvement initiatives across business and support divisions within the banking Group.

Customer (Internal & External):
- Support the GCEO within the banking Group to successfully run the innovation agenda
- Act as the voice of innovation in the banking Group and support the systemization of innovation, quality and efficiency.
- Act as the owner of the portfolio of group-wide Innovation and Lean+ initiatives (domestic & international).
- Foster and empower employees to create a bottom-up innovation culture in which participants share ideas to improve existing products/ services.
- Assist employees that have submitted an idea to grow it from an idea to a fully matured innovation project, including guiding on conduct of analyses, preparation of a pilot, concept sharpening and business case formulation.
- Ensure the integration of internal and external customer needs and requirements
- Act as a partner to the concerned business and support divisions and lead process improvement projects together with representatives from one or more business and support divisions.
- Prepare and present regular updates to the Executive Management on global innovative trends, status of current the banks innovation initiatives and impact of completed innovation projects.
- Align and coordinate with GCD for all innovation related communication (internal and external).

Internal (Processes, Products, Regulatory):
- Own, lead and manage the end-to-end innovation process (e.g., core adjacent, disruptive), including the idea collection process, idea evaluation and idea selection.
- Own and maintain the internal database of innovation ideas.
- Manage the innovation execution by managing the portfolio of group-wide innovation initiatives and conducting the post-mortem on completed initiatives.
- Provide expert advice, input and guidance to process improvement teams regarding change management, process re-design strategies, performance improvement toolsets (especially those of Six Sigma and Lean), and technical expertise, such as statistical process control and data analysis.
- Adopt and implement industry best practices and standards of project portfolio management.
- Supervise all phases of project execution of the portfolio of Innovation projects (incl. Lean+ projects).
- Manage project teams and ensure timely high quality and impact delivery.
- Responsible for performance reviews and management of Black Belts.

Learning & Knowledge:
- Identify related areas for professional self-development. Ensure the provision of relevant guidance, direction and training to subordinates to develop and enhance their skills.
- Assess performance of direct reports and provide regular feedback on their development.
- Possess a superior knowledge of innovation, continuous improvement, digitalization and disruption.
- Possess project management fundamentals as well as project portfolio management methodology/ techniques and tools.
- Maintain a high level of knowledge about banking processes, regulations, and generally accepted operating practices. Research industry topics and react by recommending changes to products, services, and systems.

Other:
- Ensure high standards of confidentiality to safeguard commercially sensitive information

Requirements

- Top tier university degree or equivalent
- Minimum of 12 years work experience in a change management and senior advisory function within the financial services arena
- Proven track record within the field of innovation preferably from global financial services institution
- Track record as a change leader, motivator, driver for cultural change throughout a large and complex organization
- Substantial top management experience and proven track record in driving senior management agenda
- Demonstrated career development, progress, and experience in establishing new functions
- High level knowledge of all major banking related business and support functions.

Required Special Skills:
- Excellent oral and written communication skills
- Excellent leadership, people management and moderation and interpersonal skills
- Capability to motivate, drive and lead teams
- Profound conceptual skills, structured thinking and a result-driven way of working
- Drive, energy and ability to demonstrate thought leadership
- Strong project management and execution skills
- Ability to handle tight deadlines, work well under pressure and get things done in an operating environment
- Ability to work in an unstructured, open ended and multi-cultural environment

Operating Environment/ Location:
- Located in Qatar with visits to domestic and overseas entities, as and when required/ considered necessary

Framework and Boundaries:
- Group's overall vision and strategy.
- Group's innovation strategy and roadmap
- Applicable policies, processes and procedures
- Relevant regulatory pronouncements of applicable local and international regulators and related best practices.
- Delegated and re-delegated authorities as per the delegation of authority structure.

Communications and Working Relationships:
- Direct interaction with Executive Management, all divisional and country GMs/ AGMs, department and unit heads across the banking network.
- Interaction with banks internal, external research institutions, universities as well as other stakeholders (corporations/ customers/ suppliers/ incubators/ JVs/ etc.).

Supervisory Responsibilities:
- Manage the members of the innovation team (Lean+ and Innovation) to execute on the mandate for establishing the innovation function
- Supervise the Innovation and Lean+ sections as established by the Group. These tasks include participating in the management of all HR issues related to the team such as team performance, absence management, training needs identification and other requests.

Solid Line reporting:
- Directly supervises the Head of Lean+ and the Head of Innovation

About the Company

Building businesses, changing lives

At Tandem, we’ve built a vast network of top-tier professionals across the globe. We empower businesses to thrive by delivering unmatched talent solutions. With our global reach, collaborative approach, and unwavering commitment to excellence, we drive transformative growth and shape exceptional teams.

Who we are.

We are a team of industry experts, driven by a passion for innovation and excellence. We are dedicated to providing unique talent solutions and nurturing collaborative partnerships that redefine success.