Regional Managing Director — Singapore · BFSI

Position overview

Gladwin International Leadership Advisors is representing a confidential organisation in Banking, Financial Services & Insurance on a senior CTO leadership mandate anchored in Singapore. The remit explicitly spans Canada, Continental Europe, China.

This is a country CEO / MD-class mandate with board- and headquarters-facing accountability for strategy execution, regulatory relationships, and brand in-market.

The organisation wants a leader who can hold tension — growth vs. control, global standards vs. local speed — without false trade-offs.

Context you will inherit

• Market & sector: Managing credit risk leadership as NPAs cycle and credit costs rise in an increasingly unsecured lending environment
• Geographic spine: Primary hub Singapore with explicit corridor responsibility across Canada, Continental Europe, China.
• Organisation stage: Digital and data maturity uneven across business lines — quick wins exist beside multi-year platform investments.
• Stakeholders: Expect dense matrix: global product houses, regional P&L owners, shared services, and internal audit all pull on the same calendar.
• Secondary lens: Leading the transition from branch-centric to digital-first customer acquisition and service models

The mandate (12–24 month arc)

1. Architecture: Simplify core platforms; reduce brittle integrations that slow releases and inflate run cost.
2. Engineering velocity: Improve delivery predictability — CI/CD, quality gates, and technical debt pay-down cadence.
3. Security & resilience: Raise bar on application security, incident response, and business continuity.
4. Data & AI: Sponsor pragmatic AI use cases with governance; modernise data foundations where they block decisions.
5. Vendor strategy: Renegotiate or consolidate strategic vendors; align cloud spend to workload economics.
6. Tech talent: Upgrade engineering leadership bench; fix hiring bar and career ladders for ICs and managers.

Responsibilities (representative)

• Own technology strategy, architecture standards, and engineering culture.
• Partner with product on roadmap trade-offs — scope, quality, security, and debt.
• Lead vendor and cloud strategy; align contracts to usage and exit flexibility.
• Sponsor security and resilience programmes with clear executive metrics.
• Build engineering leadership bench and technical career ladders.

Leadership profile

• Technical depth: Credible with engineers on architecture, quality, security, and delivery mechanics.
• Education: Strong undergraduate grounding; MBA / advanced degree / professional qualification common at this level.
• Communication: Executive presence in English; additional languages valued where market-relevant.
• Judgment: High signal-to-noise under pressure; ethical clarity; willingness to halt initiatives that break risk appetite.
• Geographic muscle: Comfort operating from Singapore with regular engagement across Canada, Continental Europe.

Team & culture

The organisation runs hot — ambitious targets and thin buffers. You need to channel energy into sustainable rhythms: predictable planning, honest risk surfacing, and recovery time for teams after major pushes.

Success measures (examples)

• Value creation: EBITDA / cash trajectory vs. owner or board case — especially under stress scenarios.
• Execution: On-time delivery of named transformation milestones; reduction in repeat incidents or audit findings.
• Leadership: External hires and internal promotions that stick; reduction in key-person concentration.
• Innovation: Launched offers or capabilities that move the needle on differentiation, not pilots that stall.

First 90 days (orientation arc)

• Days 1–30: Map cash, covenant, and customer concentration risks before announcing initiatives.
• Days 30–60: Align owners and board on a 12-month value story — financial and non-financial.
• Days 60–90: Launch two quick operational fixes that build credibility with frontline managers.
• Deep-dive on talent — who is load-bearing, who is blocking, where external hire is mandatory.
• Socialise a simple KPI tree so every function sees how their metrics roll up.

Stakeholder map (illustrative)

• Internal: Executive committee, functional peers, shared services leads, and programme PMOs.
• External: Key suppliers, technology partners, and joint-venture boards where applicable.
• Board / owners: Expect deep dives on risk, liquidity, talent, and transformation — slides light, substance heavy.

Travel & mobility

Expect substantial travel — customer, hub, and owner meetings. Specific cadence discussed with shortlisted candidates.

Compensation

Package aligned to CTO benchmarks in Banking, Financial Services & Insurance — typically fixed, variable, benefits, and mobility where applicable. Structure detailed at shortlist.

Application status

This mandate is no longer accepting new applications. The search progressed through Q4 2025 and closed for submissions in February 2026. We retain this posting for transparency on the type of leadership work we carry in Banking, Financial Services & Insurance and Singapore. For similar active mandates, browse open roles or submit a general profile through executive search inquiry.

Reference: banking-financial-services · CTO · Singapore · Gladwin International Leadership Advisors