Director, International Transformation Business Management Lead

About SMBC Group

SMBC Group is a top-tier global financial group. Headquartered in Tokyo and with a 400-year history, SMBC Group offers a diverse range of financial services, including banking, leasing, securities, credit cards, and consumer finance. The Group has more than 130 offices and 80,000 employees worldwide in nearly 40 countries. Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group, Inc. (SMFG) is the holding company of SMBC Group, which is one of the three largest banking groups in Japan. SMFG's shares trade on the Tokyo, Nagoya, and New York (NYSE: SMFG) stock exchanges.

In the Americas, SMBC Group has a presence in the US, Canada, Mexico, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, and Peru. Backed by the capital strength of SMBC Group and the value of its relationships in Asia, the Group offers a range of commercial and investment banking services to its corporate, institutional, and municipal clients. It connects a diverse client base to local markets and the organization's extensive global network.

The anticipated salary range for this role is between $170,000.00 and $235,000.00. The specific salary offered to an applicant will be based on their individual qualifications, experiences, and an analysis of the current compensation paid in their geography and the market for similar roles at the time of hire. The role may also be eligible for an annual discretionary incentive award. In addition to cash compensation, SMBC offers a competitive portfolio of benefits to its employees.

Role Description

The International Transformation Office: Business Management Lead is a senior transformation role responsible for driving global transformation delivery discipline, portfolio governance, execution transparency, and organizational effectiveness across the International Transformation Office, and institutionalizes a high-performing management framework for the international transformation portfolio.

Reporting to the Head of International Transformation Office, this role serves as a central integrator across transformation priorities, helping translate strategic objectives into coordinated plans, governance routines, communications, and measurable execution outcomes.

Role Objectives

• Establish and run the business management framework for the International Transformation Office, ensuring strategic priorities are translated into structured plans, governance routines, and measurable execution mechanisms.
• Support the Head of International Transformation Office in setting portfolio priorities, sequencing work, and aligning strategic objectives to transformation roadmaps.
• Drive consistency in how initiatives are planned, governed, tracked, escalated, and reported across the global transformation portfolio.
• Develop operating rhythms, management routines, and executive materials that improve visibility, accountability, and decision-making.
• Help create greater organizational clarity across priorities, interdependencies, timelines, risks, and outcomes.

Project, Program & Portfolio Management Standards

• Define and embed project, program, and portfolio management standards across the international transformation agenda.
• Standardize core disciplines including planning, milestone tracking, dependency management, status reporting, issue escalation, risk management, and benefits realization.
• Improve portfolio-level visibility into delivery health, execution risks, resource constraints, and critical decisions.
• Establish clear governance expectations across initiative owners, workstream leads, and transformation stakeholders.
• Drive the adoption of consistent reporting, KPI frameworks, and portfolio review mechanisms across major programs.

Additional Requirements

Change Management & Communications Strategy

• Lead the development of change management and communications strategy for the International Transformation Office.
• Establish standards for transformation communications, leadership messaging, stakeholder updates, and organizational change planning.
• Partner with initiative leaders to improve readiness, communication quality, stakeholder alignment, and change execution across the portfolio.

Executive Governance & Decision Support

• Oversee governance routines for the International Transformation Office, including leadership forums, portfolio reviews, committee materials, management packs, and decision escalations.
• Support the Head of International Transformation Office in preparing executive updates, strategic materials, and cross-functional decision points.
• Ensure governance forums are focused on the right priorities, supported by the right data, and structured to enable timely decisions and accountability.

Cross-Functional Coordination

• Serve as a central coordinating point across demand management, delivery capacity, financial planning, and strategic sourcing activities.
• Partner with Finance to improve transparency into portfolio funding, cost tracking, budget alignment, and financial decision support.
• Work closely with Strategic Sourcing / Procurement and delivery leaders to ensure vendor-related decisions, dependencies, and timelines are integrated into portfolio planning and governance.

Execution Performance, Risk & Operational Effectiveness

• Improve execution performance through stronger management controls, performance tracking, and early identification of delivery risks.
• Surface portfolio-level risks, decision gaps, dependency conflicts, and delivery pressures early for leadership action.
• Partner with Risk, Compliance, Finance, and control functions to ensure transformation governance is consistent with enterprise expectations and regulatory standards.

Qualifications and Skills

• 12 years of experience in business management, transformation management, strategy execution, program management, or chief-of-staff-like leadership roles within large, complex organizations.
• Experience supporting enterprise or international transformation portfolios within financial services or other highly regulated industries.
• Strong experience establishing project, program, and portfolio management disciplines across multi-workstream initiatives.
• Demonstrated success in executive governance, management reporting, communications strategy, and cross-functional coordination.
• Strong understanding of financial planning, resource management, portfolio governance, and organizational operating rhythms.
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills, including the ability to develop executive-ready materials.

Leadership Profile

• Strategic and highly organized, with the ability to bring structure to complex transformation environments.
• Execution-focused and detail-oriented, while able to maintain an enterprise-wide perspective.
• Strong interpersonal judgment and credibility across business, technology, finance, sourcing, and control functions.
• Calm under pressure, effective in ambiguous environments, and able to coordinate across competing priorities.

Work Environment

SMBC's employees participate in a Hybrid workforce model that provides employees with an opportunity to work from home, as well as, from an SMBC office. SMBC requires that employees live within a reasonable commuting distance of their office location.

SMBC provides reasonable accommodations during candidacy for applicants with disabilities consistent with applicable federal, state, and local law. If you need a reasonable accommodation during the application process, please let us know at [email protected].