Senior Associate Director, IREUS

Company description:

The National University of Singapore is the national research university of Singapore. Founded in 1905 as the Straits Settlements and Federated Malay States Government Medical School, NUS is the oldest higher education institution in Singapore

Job description:

Job Purpose

The Senior Associate Director is a key member of AIDF's leadership team. The role co-drives AIDF's institutional strategy and provides senior oversight across partnerships, financial governance, internal operations and digital transformation.

The role also leads AI and digital adoption in internal workflows, and builds a high performing operations team.

1. Institute Strategy & Cross-Pillar Leadership

• Co-develop and steer AIDF's short- and long-term institutional strategy with the Executive Director and Director of Administration.
• Shape strategic priorities across the Research, Education and Training pillars, ensuring alignment with NUS and national digital finance agendas.
• Develop and refine training portfolio strategy (location, client, product mix) balancing brand building, impact programmes and commercial sustainability.

1. Strategic Partnerships, External Funding & Programme Oversight

• Provide senior leadership for multi-year, multi-country collaboration programmes with regulators, financial institutions and ecosystem partners.
• Lead external funding development, including opportunity identification, proposal shaping and participation in senior-level discussion.
• Represent AIDF at senior stakeholder, academic and industry forums, strengthening the institute's visibility and influence in the global fintech and digital finance ecosystem.
• Oversee delivery quality, governance and partner satisfaction for cross-border programmes.

1. Financial Strategy, Budget Governance & Institutional Sustainability

• Lead AIDF's financial strategy and long-term sustainability planning in collaboration with the Director of Administration and Executive Director.
• Provide oversight of multiple revenue and cost streams, including multi-million-dollar research grants and training revenues, ensuring sound budget governance and resource allocation.
• Establish and maintain robust financial planning, forecasting, performance tracking and reporting frameworks to support senior decision-making and audit readiness.

1. Digital Transformation Governance, Process Innovation & AI Adoption

• Design and govern AIDF's digital transformation roadmap, including AI-enabled workflow automation, data and reporting capabilities.
• Set up transformation governance, policies and decision frameworks, and lead institute-wide change management involving stakeholders.
• Drive adoption of digital and AI tools to enhance operational efficiency, compliance, transparency and data-driven insights.

1. Education Strategy, Market Positioning & Capability Development

• Provide strategic leadership for AIDF's education and executive training portfolio, including market and location strategy, client engagement and product development.
• Build and maintain a network of trusted advisors, teaching faculty and subject-matter experts to support high-quality programme delivery.
• Ensure curricula and content governance reflect emerging technologies and insights from AIDF's research and industry collaborations, and comply with NUS policies and quality standards.

1. Leadership, Talent Strategy & Culture Building

• Lead, coach and develop the operations and programme management teams, building a strong internal talent pipeline and succession readiness.
• Foster a high-performance culture anchored in accountability, innovation, collaboration and service excellence.
• Clarify roles, KPIs and performance expectations, and promote cross-functional ways of working that support AIDF's growth and resilience.

Requirements

• Bachelor's in Business, Information Technology, Finance or a related discipline.

• At least 15 years of relevant experience in technology, risk management, governance and/or digital transformation, ideally within financial services, consulting or public sector environments.
• Proven track record in leading complex, multi-stakeholder programmes and portfolios, including budget ownership, financial governance and regulatory or audit engagement.
• Demonstrated experience in strategic partnership management, business development and external representation with senior stakeholders (boards, C-suite, regulators, industry bodies).
• Prior exposure to higher education, research institutes or capability-building environments will be an advantage.

• Strong grounding in financial and grant governance; familiarity with regulatory frameworks.
• Advanced programme and project management skills.
• Experience with enterprise data, analytics and AI adoption to support decision-making and operational improvement.
• Comfortable navigating large, matrixed institutions and working across functions such as finance, HR, IT and academic units.

• Strategic thinker with the ability to translate vision into pragmatic frameworks and executable plans.
• Strong leadership, influencing and stakeholder management skills, with credibility at senior levels.
• Excellent communication and articulation skills, able to distil complex issues for diverse audiences.
• High integrity, sound judgment and resilience, with a strong bias towards collaboration and delivering results.

More Information

Department : Administration

Employee Referral Eligible:

Job requisition ID : 32109