Interesting Job: VP - FinTech Engagement & Emerging Technologies

I saw this one on LinkedIn earlier (“VP – FinTech Engagement & Emerging Technologies”) and I thought it would be worth writing about in case anyone reading might be interested. The tech media has long scoured job boards to get an idea on what areas the likes of Apple, Google and others might be focusing on, based on the profiles they are aiming to hire.

So it’s stimulating to see Emirates NBD, one of the biggest in the region, advertising for this one. I don’t know the company well enough to know how senior ‘VP’ is, but it’s listed as ‘Director’ on LinkedIn. This is important, in my view – you ideally want someone pretty senior handling these kinds of issues at a big bank, otherwise the visibility can disappear very quickly if the role is too junior.

At my most recent organisation we appointed an Executive Vice President of FinTech which I felt was both necessary internally but also as a statement of the organisation’s ambitions externally too. So it’s good to see NBD heading this way too.

Here is the summary of the role – I can think of quite a few colleagues who would LOVE this one so if you’re interested, I would highly recommend applying swiftly. I’d also go so far as to suggest that of the 200+ applicants the role has already got on LinkedIn, not many of them will have the skills and experience that NBD is looking for… so if you’re genuinely interested, try it.

Also: If you’re serious, reach out to one of the Talent Acquisition team at Emirates NBD directly and ask about the role. I don’t think that would hurt either.

About the job

The purpose of the new unit is to develop a vision of Innovation, research and fintech engagement with a strategy to develop, incubate new ideas of doing things differently, and/or radical new business models in the current state, to create competitive advantage & value for the bank and accelerating digital transformation. 

The specific role is to scout for the challenger banks or fintechs who are unbundling the bank’s business, evaluate the value proposition, identify threats & opportunities to collaborate through strategic engagement models – partner, incubate and/or equity stake. The Role has a dotted reporting line to Business and strategy teams. 

Responsibilities:

• Managing interaction with CDO organization, understanding their developments to align with the efforts on Innovation in the organization
• A structured working model with business teams to funnel opportunities, problem statements, needs and proposing right potential partners
• Continuous Market Analysis of Fintech space globally
• Identifying business areas, which are being unbundled by startups, through continuous evaluation of possible partners aligned with the strategic priorities of the bank.
• Creating a governance and risk management framework around fintech/ startup engagements
• Incubating the startups and conducting Proof of concepts for business objective validations
• Closely working with internal IT domains for taking the qualified ideas and prototypes to market
• Running Design thinking workshops for ideation aligned with business priorities
• Manage the Fintech portfolio, accountable for business analysis, system architecture, program implementation, budget and resource management to deliver high performance secure customer-centric solution
• Manage and deliver FinTech projects
• Understanding the funding model (VC, angel investors)
• Proposing investment opportunities 
• Continuous benefit value analysis and measures of the qualified ideas

Skillset and Experience required:-

• 12 – 15 years of experience in technology and business units driving digital agenda, Ideally the candidate should have launched new products successfully and should also demonstrate solid examples of innovation delivered
• Masters in Business Management or Engineering preferred
• 2 – 3 years in leading Fintech engagement for accelerators or enterprises driving their innovation agenda
• Understanding of the latest technology and business trends in the Fintech space
• Understanding the trends in the insurance and regulatory businesses 
• Strong leadership qualities and a peoples person, managing their passion, continuously motivating and empowering them to come forward and develop out of the box thinking
• A challenging mindset pushing boundaries beyond comfort zone
• A people’s person, motivates them to lead from the front 
• Non-judgmental, open minded and non-possessive 
• A true collaborator who believes in collective intelligence