Head of IT Architecture Asia ex Japan

All Together Possible - We're united by purpose, guided by empathy and inspired by our unique backgrounds and perspectives to make a difference in the lives of our customers, communities and the world at large.

MetLife in Asia has adopted a nimble approach to each market across the region and has successfully established a diversified geographical footprint in Asia that spans across nine markets Australia, Bangladesh, China, Japan, Korea, India, Malaysia, Nepal and Vietnam. Our regional team are spread across Hong Kong, Malaysia, Singapore & India.

Position: Head of IT Architecture Asia ex Japan

Job Location: Bangsar South, KL

Department: IT Architecture Asia

The Role:

• Subject matter expert in information technology architecture.
• Influences Asia regional leaders to ensure success of enterprise-level programs in the context of technology & solutions.
• Drives to maximize efficiency in both application development, security, and infrastructure.
• Assures that architecture solution is to deliver business values, aligned to MetLife IT strategic roadmap and standards in order to maximize synergies and enterprise leverage.

Key Responsibilities:

• Assist MetLife Asia departmental executives to develop, monitor and continually update long term information technology architecture, roadmaps and annual plans.
• Identify gaps or deficiencies in the existing portfolio of IT solutions, management information systems and reporting, technology landscape and processes.
• Provide leadership over MetLife Asia IT architects in 8 countries (China, Korea, Malaysia, Bangladesh, Nepal, India, Australia and Vietnam) in addition to matrix management of departmental architects and technical leaders as required.
• Facilitate an effective MetLife Asia key initiative, including the coordination of an appropriately balanced pursuit of business objectives, IT strategic alignment, technical and solution per architecture viewpoints.
• Simplify the IT landscape by reducing complexity, diversity of solution and establishing consistency of approach within IT, covering IT applications, security, and Infrastructure architecture.
• Manage the identification and analysis of business drivers to business capabilities, information, technical and solution architecture requirements, including analyzing industry trends, technology to determine their potential impacts on the MetLife Asia architecture landscape.
• Illustrate a deep understanding of how both current and future technology can be used to drive business transformation.
• Identify organizational requirements for the resources, structures and cultural changes necessary to support the Enterprise Architecture.
• Advise and collaborate locally and regionally with all levels of financial, non-financial, technical and executive audiences to develop strategies and ensure integrity of the architecture program.
• Drive the development of enterprise standards and strategic target states and ensure alignment across MetLife technology departments and business functions.
• Cultivate an environment of innovation, thought leadership, and partnership.
• Facilitate recurring MetLife Asia internal architecture, roadmap and standards meetings and assure action plans are fully developed and assigned to the appropriate departmental executives.
• Liaise with external vendors and technology partners such as Microsoft, Oracle, IBM etc.

Candidate Qualifications:

Essential Business Experience and Technical Skills

• Must have minimum15 years working experience in IT architecture solution design. Experience in the life insurance or financial services industries is a plus.
• Must demonstrate experience and knowledge in information technology architecture practice, standards and plans in the financial industry. Life insurance experience will be a plus.
• Possess wide technical knowledges and architecture design experience on Microservices architecture, Data solution, Azure cloud architecture design. Having experience such as Kubernetes, Openshift, or AWS will be a plus.
• Be strong team player and good stakeholder management
• Possess Data architecture experience.
• Must have a good understanding of the financial services business and be able to discuss the business implications of technology decisions, as well as the technology implications of business decisions, particularly in terms of costs and implementation roadmaps.
• Must have minimum 3 years’ experience in IT Architecture Governance and demonstrate strong capability in communication and negotiation
• Must demonstrate expertise and implementation experience in Enterprise Architecture frameworks such as TOGAF, Zachman and other associated frameworks.
• Ability to communicate effectively with all levels of financial, non-financial, technical and executive audiences.
• Must have the ability to develop strategic relationships with their client groups and vendor partners
• Strong leadership skills required to restructure and continually refine organizational goals and direction
• Ability to direct multiple teams' activities; ability to direct, motivate and develop project staff in an evolving environment.
• Strong interpersonal, conflict resolution and negotiation skills.
• Ability to communicate effectively with all levels of executive and non-executive audiences.
• Excellent written and oral communication skills in English. Other languages will be plus

Why MetLife?

At MetLife, we’ve been in the business of making and keeping promises for more than 150 years. We’re always there for our employees, customers, shareholders, and communities — navigating life and change together, finding purpose every day while laying the foundation for a more confident future. A future where our families and finances are protected. A future that’s exciting and full of potential. A future that’s inclusive and sustainable.

At the heart of our culture lies a passion for people. We hire smart, creative, collaborative people and we believe that when we’re kind to each other, when we respect and empathize with co-workers and customers alike, that’s when we make a lasting impact. We embrace inclusion, actively listen, respect every contribution, and ensure that everyone has access to what they need to succeed. This allows us to think bigger, experiment more, innovate faster, and win together.

We are building a purpose-driven and inclusive culture that energizes employees to make a difference. MetLife’s diversity of people commitment ensures our employees are empowered, thriving, and feel like they belong. These efforts begin with our purpose —Always with you, building a more confident future. We are strengthening our resolve to help build a workforce and society that protects all people, values all voices, and creates economic growth and opportunity for all.