Job Summary

The Transformation and Process Excellence Leader will be responsible for driving strategic growth, transformation, and stakeholder value-add within the finance operations, specifically focusing on Record to Report and General Ledger functions. This role requires a strong leader with a performance-driven mindset, capable of re-engineering processes, implementing digital transformation initiatives, and ensuring service excellence.

Key Responsibilities

Strategy
The Process Excellence Head in India will:
•    Deliver Process excellence and process improvement initiatives aligning to the General Ledger journey and R2R journeys
•    Benchmark existing Finance processes with industry best practices leveraging SAP infrastructure with the bank
•    Identify areas of process improvements and efficiencies and formulate strategy and solution for improvements
•    Work closely with vendors and technology in-house partners to identify the more sustainable and cost-effective options on solution design and platform choices for General ledger deliverables.
•    Manage SMEs/business analysts, Senior stakeholders including CFO, Business Heads, Global Process Owners across multiple locations delivering the workstreams within the overall Aspire scope.
•    Influence design and execution of the projects where there is no direct control.
•    Impact & influence stakeholders with an aim to identify efficiency & financial opportunities by establishing new processes and delivering new solutions
•    Oversee finance and accounting processes, with emphasis on reporting for General Ledger, ensuring strict adherence to timelines, accuracy, and control frameworks.
•    Lead process re-engineering and continuous improvement initiatives to optimize performance through Six Sigma / Lean methodologies.
•    Establish robust measurement, analytics, and insights frameworks for informed decision-making.
•    Develop KPI / Metrics dashboard for Senior Leadership to monitor areas of performance and improvements within Finance processes
•    Engage with business leaders to deliver tangible, measurable benefits through both local and global initiatives.
•    Partner in automation, RPA, and digital transformation projects, ensuring alignment with tactical priorities and long-term strategic goals.

Business and Processes
•    Partner with global process owners and operational leaders on reporting controls, compliance and process reviews in financial control domain covering Financial reporting, GL integrity and various reconciliations processes.
•    Contribute to design, implement, operate, and review controls with process and control owners to achieve optimal results and efficiency.
•    Hands on experience with UK ACG SOX compliance 
•    Hands on experience with Finance transformation projects with detailed understanding of P&L, Balance Sheet, Tax, Regulatory reporting, FP&A.
•    Contribute towards people agenda through various forums, including talent acquisition, development, and retention programs.
•    Foster business partnering to create win-win value for customers, stakeholders, and shared services
•    Lead the discussion with Auditors, CFOs and senior stakeholders.
•    Understand various banking product lifecycles, General Ledger processes and work with team to create delivery plans suited for product specifications/ level of complexity and geographical coverage.
•    Determine the resources (time, money, equipment, etc) required to complete the project

People & Talent
•    Manage ~3-5 staff directly providing guidance and mentorship to support both delivery and career development.
•    Hands on experience in managing large team size comprising of senior leadership 
•    Establish strong relationships with Business, Functions COO’s, CIO Functions and ITO Functions
•    Provide thought leadership and strategic direction to finance functions and operational roles.
•    Build strong relationships with stakeholders, cross-functional teams, and external consultants to deliver value-driven outcomes.

Governance

•    Communication with the various stakeholders at all levels – at appropriate forums – including PWGs, scrum meetings, team huddles etc.
•    Work closely with formal and informal project sponsors to identify & remove roadblocks in a timely manner.
•    Follow up with various task owners to ensure the timely completion of tasks and any delays or risks are reported / escalated.
•    Constructively challenge and present viable alternatives to business models, operational processes and the interpretation of relevant rules and regulations whilst continually looking to minimise regulatory risk and the ongoing cost of finance operations.
•    Facilitate the defining and agreeing of solutions to drive effectiveness and efficiency with representatives from key Business and Technology stakeholders

Regulatory & Business Conduct

•    Display exemplary conduct and live by the Group’s Values and Code of Conduct. 
•    Take personal responsibility for embedding the highest standards of ethics, including regulatory and business conduct, across Standard Chartered Bank. This includes understanding and ensuring compliance with, in letter and spirit, all applicable laws, regulations, guidelines and the Group Code of Conduct.
•    Effectively and collaboratively identify, escalate, mitigate and resolve risk, conduct and compliance matters.
•    Lead the ASPIRE Subledger & General Ledger to achieve the outcomes set out in the Bank’s Conduct Principles: [Fair Outcomes for Clients; Effective Financial Markets; Financial Crime Compliance; The Right Environment.]  
•    Effectively and collaboratively identify, escalate, mitigate and resolve risk, conduct and compliance matters.

Key stakeholders

•    Senior Program/Project Managers across ASPIRE and impacted downstream 
•    T&I teams – including Development, Infrastructure streams
•    Global Process Owners, Auditors
•    Finance GPO team
•    GCFO COO MT 
•    Product Vendor Teams
•    Leads from internal and external programmes (E.g. BCBS 239)

Qualifications

•    EDUCATION: Chartered Accountant / Cost accountant (CMA & CFM) 
•    CERTIFICATIONS: Six Sigma or equivalent certification 

Skills and Experience

•    15+ years of experience in a business facing project management role
•    Strong communication and stakeholder management skills with prior experience in running war-rooms or test-focused working groups
•    Domain knowledge in Finance (core ledger, sub-ledger) and/or Financial regulatory projects with a good financial background.
•    Familiarity with SDLC and strong insights on various project lifecycle phases, methodology and tools
•    Experience with waterfall & agile methodologies
•    Proactive, self-starter, autonomous & highly organised 

About Standard Chartered

We're an international bank, nimble enough to act, big enough for impact. For more than 170 years, we've worked to make a positive difference for our clients, communities, and each other. We question the status quo, love a challenge and enjoy finding new opportunities to grow and do better than before. If you're looking for a career with purpose and you want to work for a bank making a difference, we want to hear from you. You can count on us to celebrate your unique talents and we can't wait to see the talents you can bring us.

Our purpose, to drive commerce and prosperity through our unique diversity, together with our brand promise, to be here for good are achieved by how we each live our valued behaviours. When you work with us, you'll see how we value difference and advocate inclusion.

Together we:

• Do the right thing and are assertive, challenge one another, and live with integrity, while putting the client at the heart of what we do
• Never settle, continuously striving to improve and innovate, keeping things simple and learning from doing well, and not so well
• Are better together, we can be ourselves, be inclusive, see more good in others, and work collectively to build for the long term

What we offer

In line with our Fair Pay Charter, we offer a competitive salary and benefits to support your mental, physical, financial and social wellbeing.

• Core bank funding for retirement savings, medical and life insurance, with flexible and voluntary benefits available in some locations.
• Time-off including annual leave, parental/maternity (20 weeks), sabbatical (12 months maximum) and volunteering leave (3 days), along with minimum global standards for annual and public holiday, which is combined to 30 days minimum.
• Flexible working options based around home and office locations, with flexible working patterns.
• Proactive wellbeing support through Unmind, a market-leading digital wellbeing platform, development courses for resilience and other human skills, global Employee Assistance Programme, sick leave, mental health first-aiders and all sorts of self-help toolkits
• A continuous learning culture to support your growth, with opportunities to reskill and upskill and access to physical, virtual and digital learning.
• Being part of an inclusive and values driven organisation, one that embraces and celebrates our unique diversity, across our teams, business functions and geographies - everyone feels respected and can realise their full potential.