MetLife

Role Value Proposition 

This is a strategic role and has broad responsibilities in ensuring overall success of the Technology organization in Japan’s tech planning and budgeting (~$240m p.a.), financial discipline and controls, portfolio management, appropriate governance for vendor management (~1000+ FTC), agile delivery model (ADM) and lean portfolio enablement.  

This role facilitates the alignment to MLJ’s and Global Tech’s strategy, expedite ADM transformation agenda and IT investments optimization with a value-added impact to stakeholders. It bridges Finance and Technology, ensuring alignment between financial performance and IT strategic goals. The ideal candidate combines strong financial acumen with a deep understanding of IT operations, project management and cost optimisation.

Key Responsibilities:

Responsible as the overall lead for the following functions within MLJ TE:

• IT Financials Planning, Budgeting and Management
  • Develop and manage the annual IT budget in collaboration with other Tech department leaders and regional/global teams on transfer pricing items
  • Forecast operational and capital expenditures for IT initiatives, projects and infrastructure
  • Analyze variances between actuals and budget; provide actionable insights
  • Support strategic planning by modeling ROI, TCO and business cases for IT investments
  • Monitor and control IT spend, identifying opportunities for cost savings and efficiency
  • Track software licensing, cloud services, vendor contracts and managed services expenditures

• IT Portfolio Planning and Management
  • Develop the IT Portfolio in collaboration with business stakeholders during annual planning, manage and ensure project investments are well prioritized and deliver expected value
  • Conduct IT resource demand planning according to the portfolio of project execution requirements
  • Maintain and update Resource Management (RAM) records to reflect current demand
  • Align resource management with the budget and control investments and expenses
  • Implement consistent risk and issue tracking, ensuring early identification and escalation of project-level and cross-project challenges
  • Oversee portfolio dashboards, health reports, and executive summaries to track program/project performance, status, risks and dependencies

• Vendor Management
  • Develop and execute IT Vendor management strategy aligned with business and technology goals
  • Segment and categorize vendors based on criticality, spend and risks to determine oversight levels and relationship models 
  • Serve as the point of contact for strategic vendor relationships, ensuring mutual success and value creation
  • Lead contract negotiations, renewals, SLAs and pricing agreements to ensure optimal terms and risk mitigation
  • Define and track KPI and SLA to measure vendor performance
  • Conduct regular business reviews with vendors and internal stakeholders to assess delivery, escalate issues, and drive continuous improvement
  • Monitor and mitigate vendor-related risks including financial, operational, regulatory and cybersecurity exposures
  • Manage vendor budgets, invoicing, cost tracking and forecasting in collaboration with IT Finance
  • Identify opportunities for cost optimization
  • Establish and lead vendor governance frameworks

• Project and Program Methodology and Governance
  • Establish and maintain IT project and program (Waterfall/Agile) governance structures and methodologies  
  • Ensure compliance of MetLife project and program methodologies
  • Ensure alignment with relevant enterprise governance, risks and compliance policies
  • Standardize the utilization of project management tools such as TargetProcess and facilitate in data completeness and hygiene
  • Develop training and onboarding programs for project managers/scrum masters to ensure consistent application of methods
  • Evaluate and evolve methodologies to support agile, iterative delivery and traditional project execution models 
  • Manage and support the rollout of project /program management tools such as TargetProcess and Apptio

• Agile Enablement
  • Define and drive the Agile enablement strategy across IT, including roadmap development, metrics and KPIs
  • Continuously improve scaled agile framework (SAFe) to support cross-team alignment and delivery
  • Lead a team of agile coaches to uplift agile maturity across teams
  • Facilitate the provision of coaching to executives, delivery leads, and cross-functional teams to instill agile mindset and practices
  • Establish communities of practice and alignment to global COE to foster learning, consistency and innovation in agile delivery
  • Work with Project/Program Governance team to define governance structures that balance agility with accountability and controls
  • Develop metrics and reporting systems to track agile maturity, team velocity, predictability, and business value delivery
  • Support the creation of agile funding and governance models (e.g. lean and persistent team budgeting)
  • Optimize agile workflows, boards and reporting dashboards
  • Promote standardization in agile artifacts, ceremonies and team setups 
  • Lead organizational and cultural changes required to scale agile, including upskilling, engagement and communication initiatives

Essential Experience, Skills and Competencies:

Skills      

Language:

• Bilingual proficiency at business level in English & Japanese 

About MetLife

MetLife is a leading global life insurance and employee benefit company, with 90 million customers in over 60 countries. We are leading the global transformation of an industry we’ve long defined. Be a part of our remarkable journey - one in which you help to write the next century of innovation in insurance.  MetLife in Japan has over 50 years of history as the first foreign life insurance company. We provide an innovative and broad range of products through diverse distribution channels to individual and institutional customers. 

At MetLife, you'll have accountability for end-to-end solutions, working with other talented engineers who share your passion for technology, distinctive digital experiences and customer-driven innovation. From implementing new platforms to migrating applications to the cloud, you'll be instrumental in creating technologies built to scale. 

We hire smart, creative, collaborative people who are kind to each other. We embrace diversity, equity and inclusion. This allows us to think bigger, experiment more, innovate faster, and win together. Join us, because making the world a better place with MetLife is #AllTogetherPossible.