The posting
Company: 1011 United Overseas Bank Ltd
About UOB
United Overseas Bank Limited (UOB) is a leading bank in ASEAN with a global network in Southeast Asia, Asia Pacific, Europe and North America. Operating through our head office in Singapore and banking subsidiaries in China, Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand and Vietnam, we have a global network of about 430 branches and offices in 19 markets. At the heart of UOB is our culture, shaped by the UOB Way and anchored on our four values – Honourable, Enterprising, United and Committed. For more than 90 years, these values have guided how we do right by our customers, collaborate with one another and create long-term value for the communities we operate in. As One Bank, we are committed to helping our colleagues build sustainable careers grounded in purpose, supported by strong values, and enriched with meaningful opportunities to grow.
Job Description
Role Purpose
The Executive Director builds on Innovation Group’s foundational capabilities to create, integrate and operationalise enterprise use cases, while leading the commercialisation of blockchain and digital assets and shaping the future evolution of UOB’s intelligent enterprise capabilities.
The role identifies high-value opportunities, connects enterprise capabilities, and establishes the operating models, governance, partnerships and adoption pathways needed to scale them across the bank. It translates emerging technologies, market developments and experimentation into secure, compliant and commercially viable solutions, ensuring measurable business and customer value.
As part of Innovation Group leadership, the role orchestrates internal and external stakeholders to drive the disciplined transition from research and proof-of-concept to enterprise deployment and value realisation.
Key Responsibilities
Create enterprise capabilities: Build on enterprise capabilities across Artificial Intelligence, Blockchain & Digital Assets, Convergence Services, Data and Enablement. Package capabilities into differentiated services, reusable patterns and customer propositions.
Originate and shape new use cases: Partner Business Units, Support Units and country teams to identify strategic opportunities and define the target outcome, value proposition, business case, sponsorship and adoption pathway.
Develop and commercialise propositions: Design, launch and scale propositions across AI, data and tokenised finance, including opportunities involving tokenised deposits, digital currencies, digital assets, custody, settlement and interoperability.
Operationalise integrated capabilities: Define end-to-end operating models, including business ownership, architecture dependencies, data requirements, controls, support, resilience, funding and transition to production.
Provide strategic foresight and thought leadership: Assess technology, regulatory, market and competitive developments, including emerging trends in blockchain, tokenisation and digital assets, and advise senior management on strategic opportunities, investments and risks.
Establish repeatable deployment patterns: Partner Technology, Operations and control functions to define repeatable approaches for workflow orchestration, deployment, movement of value, monitoring and regional rollout.
Lead ecosystem and industry engagement: Mobilise partnerships with clients, financial institutions, fintechs, technology providers, market infrastructures, academia and regulators to validate, operationalise and scale new propositions.
Embed risk and control by design: Ensure propositions comply with legal, regulatory, risk and operational requirements, with clear accountability, decision ownership, evidence, exception management and escalation pathways.
Build enterprise capability fluency: Develop playbooks, reference architectures and practitioner knowledge that enable teams to combine AI, Data, Blockchain and Convergence Services capabilities into scalable enterprise solutions.
Experience and Capabilities
Senior leadership experience: 15+ years of experience in banking, payments, capital markets, transaction banking, financial market infrastructure, technology, product management, strategy or innovation, with substantial leadership responsibility.
Enterprise innovation and commercialisation: Demonstrated success taking complex technology, digital-finance or enterprise initiatives from strategy and experimentation through pilot, regulatory engagement, implementation, adoption and measurable business value.
Cross-domain orchestration: Proven ability to create and commercialise new propositions by bringing together capabilities across AI, Data, Blockchain, Technology, Operations and business domains.
Blockchain and digital-assets expertise: Deep working knowledge of distributed ledger technology, tokenisation, digital assets, digital currencies, custody, settlement, interoperability and associated market, operating, risk and regulatory considerations.
Strategic, product and commercial leadership: Strong capability in customer discovery, opportunity assessment, business-case development, operating-model design, partnership management, portfolio prioritisation and go-to-market execution.
Stakeholder influence and communication: Strong ability to engage and influence senior stakeholders across business, technology, operations, risk, legal, compliance, finance, regulators, clients and external partners. Excellent written communication, structured problem-solving and executive storytelling skills.
Emerging technology awareness (desirable): Appreciation of quantum computing, quantum-inspired optimisation and other emerging technologies, with the ability to assess their practical relevance and potential applications in financial services.
Education: Bachelor's degree in a relevant field. An advanced degree or recognised professional qualification in technology, engineering, computer science, finance, business or a related discipline is advantageous.
Success Measures
Enterprise capabilities successfully integrated and commercialised, with clear accountability across capability owners and no duplication of foundational funding, build or technical ownership.
New enterprise propositions and reusable capability patterns created, particularly through the combination of AI, Data, Blockchain & Digital Assets, Convergence Services and Enablement capabilities.
A disciplined and prioritised portfolio delivered, with clear ownership, effective stage-gate governance and informed investment decisions.
Propositions successfully transitioned into pilots, production capabilities or business-owned services, supported by approved operating models, risk controls, adoption metrics and demonstrated business value.
A credible blockchain and digital-assets portfolio established, with meaningful progress across tokenised money, digital assets, digital currencies and related market infrastructure, delivering strategic, customer or commercial outcomes.
Effective ecosystem participation and partnerships, strengthening UOB's capabilities, market positioning and strategic options in emerging technologies and digital finance.
Forward-looking strategic guidance provided, identifying capability gaps, technology trends, regulatory developments and investment priorities to future-proof UOB's enterprise capabilities.
Greater enterprise reuse and scalability achieved, reducing duplicated effort, accelerating deployment and strengthening collaboration across Innovation Group capabilities.
Strong governance and leadership demonstrated, including audit-ready documentation, timely issue escalation, trusted stakeholder engagement and effective talent development.
An emerging-technology pipeline maintained, including quantum computing and quantum-inspired optimisation opportunities, with clear assessments of relevance, value and enterprise readiness.
Personal Attributes
Enterprise-minded integrator: Sees opportunities to combine specialist capabilities across business and technology domains into enterprise outcomes, while respecting ownership and accountability.
Strategic, commercially grounded and pragmatic: Balances long-term vision and intellectual curiosity with customer relevance, economic value, disciplined execution and measurable outcomes.
Control-conscious and accountable: Maintains strong judgement in balancing innovation with regulatory, risk, security and operational considerations.
Collaborative and influential: Builds alignment across business, technology, operations, control functions and external partners, while maintaining clarity of decision rights and responsibilities.
Credible and decisive leader: Communicates clearly, challenges assumptions, navigates ambiguity, makes evidence-based decisions and escalates appropriately when required.
Additional Requirements
Develop, Engage, Execute, Strategise
Be a Part of the UOB Family
UOB is an equal opportunity employer. UOB does not discriminate on the basis of a candidate's age, race, gender, color, religion, sexual orientation, physical or mental disability, or other non-merit factors. All employment decisions at UOB are based on business needs, job requirements and qualifications. If you require any assistance or accommodations to be made for the recruitment process, please inform us when you submit your online application.
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