Senior Project Lead - Digital Transformation

The Senior Project lead position is the key person who answers the questions about what problem are we solving, what should we build and provide the requirements to the design and delivery teams. The role also supports on-ground execution effort with the business and delivery teams in case of queries, challenges and help de-bottleneck/escalate to the right stakeholders. The role would be expected to manage 1-2 project leads, and/or directly manage digital transformation work-stream with 3-4 initiatives concurrently. The role is expected to function largely independently, with limited support from the Senior Practice lead. The role requires strong problem solving, communication, process/journey design, converting high level design to tangible requirements and project management elements to deliver high impact initiatives for sizeable impact on key business metrics e.g., sales, profitability, customer experience, cost efficiency. This is a techno-functional role and is critical for realization of the bank’s digital transformation agenda. For the work-streams managed directly/by the project leads aligned to them, the individual owns the on-ground activities, from solution development to implementation and benefit realization.

There are 3 types of program work-streams that this role supports within the Group’s digital transformation agenda:

1. Business led: The business leaders have a desired vision / opportunity / change that they are already pursuing but are looking for specific inputs from a customer journey or process design perspective. The role is quite focused in such initiatives. Typically, this requires:

• Conducting a diagnostic to define as-is state
• Designing and creating buy-in on the ideal end state, including supporting as required with market and customer research
• Crystalizing ideal end state into a set of requirements from a process / policy / design / technology / people point of view
• Supporting as required to obtain sign off from Business and Control stakeholders (Risk, Security, Compliance, Legal etc.)

2. Business initiated: The business leaders have a desired vision / opportunity / change that they want to pursue but it is at a concept level. For such initiatives, the role is critical to bridge the gap between idea and reality. There is greater buy-in from stakeholders and often availability of budget / capacity to execute the projects, but the role needs to design the functional solution and manage the delivery. Typically, this requires:

• Defining the problem statement and creating alignment across key stakeholders (across teams)
• Conducting a diagnostic to define as-is state
• Designing and creating buy-in on the ideal end state, including supporting as required with market and customer research
• Crystalizing ideal end state into a set of requirements from a process / policy / design / technology / people point of view
• Prioritizing requirements based on impact and obtaining alignment
• Managing overall program delivery with relevant IT, other internal delivery teams (e.g. design), vendors or external stakeholders
• Facilitating de-bottlenecking, decision making and sign offs from Business and Control stakeholders (Risk, Security, Compliance, Legal etc.)
• Ensuring project stabilization and handover to / establishment of BAU (Business As Usual) roles
• Tracking impact is in line with expectations and facilitating sign offs on benefits

3. Group Digital Office led: These are programs where the opportunity / change is being proposed by Digital. For such initiatives, the role is critical in supporting Digital leadership team for creating buy-in with business and finance stakeholders. There is often limited support from stakeholders, especially at initial stages and requires quick contextual opportunities identification and building of stakeholder confidence. The role is often the face of the program and is critical in building Digital’s reputation within the organization.

In addition to the activities highlighted under Business initiated programs, typically this requires:

• Leading/supporting primary and secondary research to understand the problem context
• Conducting a diagnostic to define as-is state with varied level of access to information
• Designing and creating buy-in on the ideal high level end state
• Crystalizing ideal end state into a high-level set of requirements from a process / policy / design / technology / people point of view
• Identifying benefit levers and cost drivers for proposed solution
• Working with business and delivery teams for high level benefits and costs (business case)
• Socializing business case with decision makers to secure budget approvals
• Formalizing requires initiatives as per the necessary processes within IT, Procurement, and other delivery teams

Experience required:-

• 5+ years’ experience in top tier management consulting or
• 8-10 years’ in a digital transformation/business projects/product team in a large organization (Not IT project leads but on the business / techno-functional side) or
• 10-15 years on the business side within financial services

Knowledge and Skills:-

• Problem Solving: Demonstrated experience in leading solution design project execution for at least 5 successful large scale / high impact programs
  • Problem structuring: Understand the big picture and create frameworks to facilitate diagnostic, solution design and requirement gathering
  • Hypothesis generation: Build hypothesis and identify data requirements to validate hypothesis
  • Data Gathering and analysis: Effectively gather data and conduct right analysis, identify proxies where data does not exist or is difficult to obtain
  • Synthesis: Synthesize findings and analysis

• Communication Skills: At least 3-4 years of experience in preparing presentations for presenting to functional / department head levels (VP / SVP level)
  • Verbal communication: Clear, confident, respectful communication, able to manage challenging stakeholders (loud, critical, unresponsive)
  • Written communication: Able to storyline presentations and not just create slides; able to create documents for project deliverables with limited guidance from senior practice lead
  • Presence: Able to influence functional / department head level stakeholders (CEO – 2 level)

• Digital Transformation and Operations: Functional understanding of various digital transformation technologies such as GenAI, RPA, IPA, RDA, Machine learning, Big data analytics, chatbots, NLP/NLG and ability to identify what is the right fit for the given problem

• Project Management: Demonstrated experience in independently leading project management for at least 3 successful large scale / high impact programs and for 5+ projects in supporting capacity
  • Planning: Preparation of tactical implementation plans
  • Execution: Tight management/ execution to plan
  • Impact orientation: Identification of key impact levers, hunger for impact

Responsibilities

1. Deliver high-quality technology solutions, analysis, support and incident resolution.

• Plan and execute technology solutions, analysis, support and incident resolution against agreed priorities.
• Review information for accurate and complete outputs.
• Resolve issues and escalate material exceptions.
• Maintain clear records and timely updates.

Performance Measures:

• Quality and accuracy
• Achievement of service levels
• Issue resolution

2. Maintain compliance with security, data governance, architecture and service standards.

• Apply security, data governance, architecture and service standards consistently.
• Complete required checks, approvals and documentation.
• Identify control gaps and support corrective action.
• Maintain audit-ready evidence.

Performance Measures:

• Policy adherence
• Reduction in errors
• Closure of risk actions

3. Improve quality, efficiency and stakeholder outcomes.

• Analyse performance and feedback.
• Recommend practical improvements.
• Support automation and standardisation.
• Track sustained benefits.

Performance Measures:

• Turnaround time
• First-time-right quality
• Improvement delivery

4. Strengthen collaboration across business and control functions.

• Build effective stakeholder relationships.
• Communicate requirements, decisions and risks.
• Share knowledge with colleagues.
• Support an inclusive and accountable team.

Performance Measures:

• Stakeholder confidence
• Communication quality
• Team capability

Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Information Technology, Data Science, Engineering, or a related field.
• Relevant banking or professional certification is preferred.
• Ongoing professional development in banking regulation, risk management and digital ways of working.