Job Summary

The WRB Chief Operating Officer (COO) is accountable for delivering superior client outcomes across the end-to-end client lifecycle. The role ensures that client management, operational delivery, and first-line risk management are tightly aligned to client needs, WRB strategy, and regulatory expectations.

Key responsibilities include
•    Own the end-to-end service and process experience along the client lifecycle and interactions, from onboarding (including CDD) to exit, and act as the single point of accountability for operational client outcomes within the market. 
•    Lead client management / middle office units as client-facing enablement functions, closely aligned to Front Office teams in delivering superior services to clients. Embed digitisation principles in redesigning processes for straight-through-processing with Head, Operations, whenever possible.
•    Deliver, along with the Head, WRB, on its strategic ambition through strong stakeholder management across various functions, including T&O, frontline, Call Centre, Compliance, Finance and Risk, ensuring alignment across the organisation. 
•    Act as first-line risk management leader with accountability for identifying, assessing, and managing non-financial risks within the market. Ensure robust controls are embedded within client management units and broader operations, aligned with the Bank’s risk appetite and policies. 

Key Responsibilities

Strategy
•    Support the execution of Business Strategy, along with the Head, WRB. Agree on country priorities, and resolve issues around the operating model, systems and processes to ensure these are considered and prioritised into investment plans, remediation initiatives and any other process as appropriate.
•    Business transformation: Lead the development and implementation of strategic, growth and efficiency initiatives for WRB in the market consistent with the agreed priorities of WRB Management Team and the overall strategy, risk tolerance and financial objectives.
•    Responsible for defining a COO and Operations market operating model in the markets, and accountable for its implementation. Ensure market systems, capabilities and processes are fit for purpose and are implemented as per expected standards across our footprint. 
•    Work closely with the Group COOs to deliver strategy while ensuring strong controls, processes, governance, and risk management are in place in the market. 

Business
•    Work with the WRB Banking Management Team to maintain rigorous cost and investment discipline across the business. Ensure appropriate prioritisation of issues around risk, control, investment, people, projects, and change management. Oversight of all Financials related to the market. 
•    Offer appropriate support in critical market projects, including regulatory projects, or lead initiatives as decided by the WRB COO. Drive ideation around country innovations and enhancements to digitisation and emerging technologies that give real time decisive client outcomes.
•    Accountable to ensure BCM framework adequately supports the business strategy.  Where necessary provide executive sponsorship for major BCM initiatives.

Processes
•    Provide leadership for the client management units, where applicable, and ensuring efficient and effective delivery of client lifecycle activities (onboarding, lending, servicing, offboarding).
•    Accountable to drive a balance of alignment and automation, de-coupling activities especially minimizing dependencies that are blocking or slowing down client service through architectural changes, and improve STP rates. Drive standardisation agenda for the business, maintaining rigorous cost and investment discipline across the business. Establish, embed and implement agile practises across operational processes. 
•    Identify root causes, pain points, inefficiencies impacting clients, and lead remediation efforts. Establish and monitor KPIs metrics. 
•    Productivity and Efficiency: Lead the development and delivery of cost levers and internal and external commitments in the market. Develop Productivity metrics and embed in business processes. 
•    Prioritise business operating issues including the capability to deliver new products with control and efficiency on platforms which are consistent global architecture. Oversee the prioritisation, design and management of significant change initiatives under WRB in the market. 
•    Use of data analysis and leverage on best-in-class market capabilities (e.g. predictive modelling, AI, digitisation.

People & Talent
•    Champion and act as a role model of the Group’s values and culture in the region
•    Lead and support a change in mindset, building a culture of client centricity, agility, and accountability through standardised metrics and measurement, ensuring everyone in Operations are drivers and owners of client outcomes.
•    Set effective metrics and standards, transparently communicating them to team members, providing feedback and rewarding employees accordingly. Set the appropriate tone and expectations for the wider team.
•    Employ, engage, and retain high performance people, to maximise the success of design and delivery with succession planning for critical roles.
•    Ensure team structure/capacity is reviewed to enable delivery of client outcomes. 
•    Ensure the provision of on-going training & development, ensure that direct reports are suitably skilled and qualified for their roles and that they have effective supervision in place to mitigate any risk.
•    Develop a team structure to meet the needs of all stakeholders in line with COO expectations

Risk Management
•    Embed the related processes aligning to Clients’ requirements while adhering to the Bank’s Operational Risk Framework (“ORF”) and develop control measures to ensure processes are functional. Deliver outcomes on standard metrics/scorecard, e.g., productivity, accuracy, service levels, losses / lapses, issues, and the Operational Risk Framework (“ORF”).
•    Responsible to monitor and minimize operational losses and upkeep management controls awareness and in conjunction with the COO, Business Risk, ensure appropriate focus on risks/issues and resolutions. Develop control measures to ensure processes are functional. Responsible for embedding of Operational Risk Framework in WRB, ensuring appropriate focus in solving for High risk and Very High-risk issues. 
•    Responsible to minimise operational loss and audit failures, to ensure appropriate focus on issues and resolutions in collaboration with business risk management
•    Work with the relevant NFRCs to ensure processes for WRB clients are fit for purpose and meet regulatory requirements. 

Governance
•    Ensure there is a framework for effective management of non-financial risks for WRB clients and in compliance with applicable internal policies and external laws and regulations across our markets. Evaluate processes within the market to ensure controls and governance are in place.
•    Provide informed, independent, and objective counsel to the Head, WRB routinely and/or upon request, to enable them to make informed decisions around business practices reflecting regulatory expectations, client outcomes, risk posture, and corporate values. 
•    Together with the COO, Business Risk, responsible to manage regulatory audits / inspections on COO teams in country / region through direct reports. Represent the Bank as appropriate to regulators.  
•    Responsible for delivering ‘effective governance’; ability to challenge fellow executives effectively; and willingness to work with regulators in an open and cooperative manner.
•    Evaluate systems, processes, tech platforms and functionalities in compliance with regulatory and internal policy requirements as well as related procedures 

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.

Key stakeholders
•    Head, WRB Hong Kong and Management Team 
•    WRB COO and Operations global MT
•    Functional Partners including T&I, Risk, Compliance, HR, Finance, Legal, Audit, etc. 
•    Group and regional CIOs / CTMs where appropriate 
•    Regulators where appropriate  
•    Banking Associations and industry partners 

Skills and Experience

•    Business Facilitation
•    Manage Change
•    Management of Frontline Risk
•    Business Governance & Support
•    Strategy & Business Model 
•    Service Delivery & Operations Management

Qualifications

Education     As Per Bank’s Requirements and HR Policy
Languages     English

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.