Cluster Ops Head – Middle East and Pakistan - Director

The Middle East and Pakistan Cluster Operations is a combined function incorporating all the Operations areas/functions across the Middle East and Pakistan Cluster, excluding the United Arab Emirates.

The function provides the leadership to ensure that -

• The business cluster and its leadership receive the Operations support that it requires to deliver its goals and strategies.
• Citi’s Operations organisation in the Cluster delivers effective service at a competitive cost and in a manner that is consistent with supervisory requirements and Citi’s policies.
• Operations global strategies are executed in the cluster countries.
  
  

The Middle East and Pakistan cluster is made up of the following 5 countries:

Bahrain, Kuwait, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Pakistan

Job Purpose:

The position will be responsible for leading Operations across 5 countries (Kuwait, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, and Pakistan) in the Middle East and Pakistan Cluster, and across all respective legal entities.

The holder of this job will be a member of the MEA Operations Senior Leadership team, and the Middle East and Pakistan Cluster management team and will interact with CCOs of the Cluster countries. The position will include oversight of all of Citi’s operations in the Cluster, Leadership and Management of all Operations functions.

• Responsible for performance and development of Operations Heads within cluster, in conjunction with functional leaders, including resource and people development to build successful talent pipelines and a high-performance culture for their countries.
• Accountable for working with Country Operations Heads to ensure successful Regulatory and Audit reviews in the markets within the Cluster, ensuring full compliance with local policies and regulations.
• Ensuring that the Operations Heads maintain close and successful proactive interaction with local Regulators, Central Banks, Governments and Auditors.
• Develop and manage overall Operations in the Cluster in line with the business objectives and strategies.
• Partner with senior business leaders and CCOs to deliver against key objectives and business strategies.
• Responsible for resolving escalations from Operations Heads, and other stakeholders within the Cluster to ensure resources are maximized to deliver a high-quality service.
  
  

Key Responsibilities:

• Act as the face of Operations in this cluster, and as the escalation contact for Middle East and Pakistan regulators on all Operations related matters. Manage oversight of ongoing requirements in terms of questionnaires, inquiries, regulatory reporting, consultation on new regulatory papers, inspections etc.
• Ensure the Country Operations Heads in the cluster are effectively leading and managing all Operations functions/in-country coordination.
• Manage close working relationships with all cluster business and product partners to provide direction from Operations perspective, to ensure adequate operational support across the franchise, in line with business strategy & objectives and with Cluster / Global goals.
• Responsible for ensuring the Middle East and Pakistan Country Operations Heads manage effective relationships with local market partners / institutions (e.g., Regulators, Governments, Cash Clearing house, Central Bank, Securities Clearing and settlement etc.) and that they participate in professional forums (local Banks Associations), in Operations related strategic discussions and implementations locally.
• Accountable for Operations Heads delivering local Regulatory reporting and the Regulatory control matrix (RCM) including timely identification and implementation of all changes to laws/new regulatory requirements related to business area and that the branches are run within legal and regulatory guidelines, including internal policies and procedures.
• Support the Middle East and Pakistan Country Operations Heads in the delivery of high-quality customer service through Operations processes and platforms that are reflected in high customer satisfaction.
• Accountable for the Country Operations Heads’ delivery of Operations initiatives / projects and active contribution to business-driven projects.
• Manage and oversee Middle East and Pakistan Country Operations Heads in ensuring that both local and outsourced processes are well controlled, ensuring safety and soundness of the country operations in partnership with Cluster and global teams, CSCs and service providers. Ensure Country Operations Heads coordinate outsourced / offshored services from a control, quality and cost perspective in line with the Outsourcing Governance Policy.
• Responsible for ensuring that Middle East and Pakistan Country Operations Heads maintain a strong control and compliance environment, focus to reduce operational risk; manage the Operations MCA; deliver satisfactory audit ratings and contribute to successful audits for franchise and partner businesses; identify and address Operations issues timely and completely through CAPs.
• Provide support to Middle East and Pakistan Country Operations Heads to ensure active participation in Country governance committees such as (but not limited to) CGC, ExCo, CCC and proactively escalate any potential franchise issues.
• Train and develop the Middle East and Pakistan Country Operations Heads to build a highly engaged team, a culture of ethics and ethical conduct; focus on talent development and retention, engagement, diversity, capacity planning in line with business needs; create a working environment of meritocracy and team spirit that can be measured through VOE results. Ensure effective management and coordinate Operations to meet business needs and capacity requirements.
• Lead and guide the efforts of Middle East and Pakistan Country Operations Heads in exploring and developing key best practice themes within Operations such as simplification, straight-through-processing, outsourcing, leveraging organizational resources within and outside Operations to drive and implement those themes.
• Accountable for ensuring the Middle East and Pakistan Cluster and Country Operations Heads minimise operating losses through proactive issue identification and mitigation.
• Responsible for the Operational Resilience strategy in the cluster. In coordination with the Middle East and Pakistan Country Operations Heads, define an effective Crisis Management strategy and ensure that the COB plan is maintained and tested on a timely basis.
• Accountable for addressing and resolving escalations from the markets in the cluster.
• Development of robust, diverse and inclusive succession plans for the role holder, Country Operations heads and their directs.
• Responsible for cascading of communications from global and cluster heads to Operations Heads in-countries, making sure there is awareness and countries are well informed. Also supporting escalating needs of the countries to cluster and global partners.
  
  

Development Value:

With primary responsibility for oversight the Cluster countries, Operations functions, the role provides a significant potential to gain & improve people leadership, team building, strategic thinking, problem solving skills as well as in-depth knowledge of products/processes, widen managerial breadth and interface with the senior management of the Cluster Countries, and International SMB&IC Operations partners. It will also provide an opportunity to closely interact with Citi’s senior management in a complex and diverse business and cultural environment. Regular travel to Cluster Countries will be required.

Qualifications:

• Minimum a bachelor’s degree with 15 years banking experience, and minimum of 10 years in O&T Organization.
  
  

Competencies / Skills:

• Excellent people management and leadership skills to manage diverse and geographically distributed teams across cultures.
• Client Focus.
• Innovation and forward-looking mindset.
• Strategic Thinking & Analytic thinking and problem solving.
• Strong impact and influencing skills.
• Ability to operate in an ambiguous environment.
• Excellent interpersonal and communication skills.
• Ability to coach and mentor.
• Teamwork and ability to motivate & develop others.
• Strong Risk and Control awareness and knowledge of control practices.
• Fluency in English.
• Resilience & Self-motivation.
• Organizational Savvy.
• Flexibility to react to changing priorities.
  
  

Experience/Knowledge:

• Superior skills to continually measure, enhance, and optimize operations related functions.
• Ability to fully comprehend and impact the ‘full picture’ along with other key players in other functional areas and clusters.
• Knowledge of internal Compliance requirements and MCA process
• Experience in Financial management.
• Knowledge of Continuity of Business process
• Ability to Regulatory Engagement and interfacing with the Board
• Experience in financial planning processes, including budgeting and forecasting.
  
  

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Job Family Group:

Operations - Management Operations

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Job Family:

Management Leadership

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Time Type:

Full time

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