Join our leadership team in Hong Kong as the Executive Director, Head of System Resilience for Wealth & Retail Banking (WRB). In this pivotal role, you will champion the system resilience agenda by designing and executing comprehensive strategies to ensure uninterrupted delivery of critical banking services. You will lead cross-disciplinary collaboration to enhance operational resilience, oversee major incident management, and spearhead recovery planning that safeguards our clients and business integrity, even amid unforeseen technological disruptions.

With a focus on continuous improvement, you will play a vital role in strengthening the organisation’s capability to anticipate, respond to, and recover from operational challenges, ensuring seamless and reliable customer experiences aligned with our organisational values and regulatory expectations.

Key Responsibilities

Key Responsibilities include:

• Own the development and delivery of WRB system resilience frameworks, embedding resilience across technology and operational domains.
• Lead end-to-end management of significant technology incidents, ensuring prompt resolution, effective stakeholder communication, and compliance with incident governance protocols.
• Collaborate closely with Technology, Risk, Operations, and Compliance functions to identify resilience gaps and implement risk mitigation measures.
• Design and facilitate comprehensive resilience exercises such as disaster recovery drills, failover tests, and scenario simulations, validating recovery capabilities.
• Provide insightful reporting on resilience performance, incident trends, and systemic risks to senior leadership and regulatory bodies.
• Champion the integration of business continuity plans within daily operations, ensuring all critical customer journeys possess robust recovery strategies.
• Act as the primary business liaison in resilience-related forums, shaping technology and operational initiatives to meet evolving resilience requirements.
• Drive a culture of operational excellence by modelling exemplary conduct aligned with the highest ethical standards and regulatory compliance.

Collaboration and Stakeholder Engagement:

In this leadership role, you will engage extensively with both internal and external stakeholders to advance the system resilience agenda:

• Internal engagement with the COO of WRB Hong Kong, the Senior Management Team, CIO and Technology Leaders, Product and Segment Heads, Digital Banking, Operations and Service Delivery teams.
• Close collaboration with Operational and Technology Risk Management, Business Continuity Management, Compliance, Legal, and Corporate Affairs teams, especially during major incident communications.
• Partnership with external service providers and regulatory agencies, ensuring preparedness and alignment with regulatory resilience expectations.
• Leadership in incident governance and crisis management, fostering a unified approach across functions to maintain service reliability and protect clients.

You will serve as a key conduit ensuring business priorities drive technology risk management and incident recovery efforts.

Role and Technical Competences

The role demands a balance of strong leadership and technical expertise:

• In-depth understanding of customer needs, particularly within the wealth and retail banking sectors, with an ability to translate these into resilience requirements.
• Proficiency in big data management and analytics, employing data-driven insights to inform resilience strategies and monitor system health.
• Skilled in business data analysis, gathering and reporting critical resilience metrics accurately and timely.
• Strong problem-solving capabilities, with experience in identifying root causes and driving sustainable remediation.
• Exceptional stakeholder engagement skills, capable of influencing and guiding senior business and technology leaders in a complex, matrixed organisation.
• Familiarity with operational resilience principles, incident management frameworks, and technological architectures underpinning digital banking platforms.

Qualifications

Ideal candidates will possess the following qualifications and attributes:

• A Bachelor’s degree in Business, Information Technology, Engineering, Risk Management, or a closely related field; a Master’s degree is advantageous.
• Extensive experience (12-15 years) within financial services, with a focus on technology, operations, incident management, or operational resilience.
• Demonstrated success leading complex, large-scale incident and crisis management programmes within highly regulated environments.
• Deep knowledge of banking technology architecture, digital platforms, and regulatory landscapes pertaining to operational resilience and technology risk.
• Proven capability to foster collaboration and influence senior stakeholders across a diverse, matrixed organisational structure.
• Advanced analytical and communication skills, with a record of effectively interacting with senior executives and regulatory bodies.
• Ability to lead decisively under pressure while maintaining professionalism and composure during critical incidents.

This role provides an excellent opportunity for a resilience-focused professional to make a significant impact on WRB’s operational robustness, ensuring exceptional and reliable client experiences in a dynamic banking environment.

Competencies