Head of Technology Delivery for Japan

Description and Requirements
Position Summary
As part of Tech Talent Transformation (T3) agenda, MetLife is establishing a Technology Center in India. This technology center will perform as an integrated organization between onshore, offshore, and strategic vendor partners in an Agile delivery model.
As part of this we are building an India Technology delivery team for Japan which is one of largest markets in Asia. We are seeking a highly skilled Japan Technology Delivery Head with experience in driving technology and talent transformation, manage the strategic tech Platforms and to manage the Technology organization and deliveries from India for MetLife Japan.
In addition, this role will also drive Technology Transformation relating to changing the way technology resources work. This role will drive executive technology decisions including leading large technology teams based in Hyderabad as the primary location as well as work with strategic vendor partner to manage the tech delivery for Japan. He/she will drive the people agenda including attraction and retention of talents, employee engagement, and the branding of MetLife as the employer of choice for technologists. He/she will also drive the build out of the organization in India from scratch at the outset. He/she will partner with the CIOs, and all the Corporate Functions to deliver the objectives of the role wholistically.
He/she will design, develop, deliver and support the critical tech platforms of MetLife Japan using his/her delivery team. He/she will also be responsible for enabling the development teams by providing training, co-development, consultation, and reference implementations.
For technology transformation agenda, he/she will drive the change in how technologists work especially for the developer, SRE and QA population as aligned with the Agile way of working.
He/she should be a strategic thinker, an effective communicator, and an expert in technological development.
Key Relationships
Internal Stake Holder - Japan CIO, India Technology Center Head for Asia, Business process Owners, Functional and Department Heads (HR, IT, Finance, CRE, Legal, etc.)
Key Responsibilities
Head of India Technology Delivery - MetLife Japan
• Lead and manage the Technology teams based in India to deliver software, infrastructure and architecture related deliverables that meets the requirements of the Business for MetLife Japan.
• Build up Strategic and Technical relationship with all senior Leadership to drive the Technology vision and goals.
• Responsible for leading and managing deliver across high priority initiatives, collaborate with technology and business leads in Japan to ensure services are being delivered per agreed expectations and proactively drive continuous service improvements.
• Thought leadership & transformation recommendations in business application software solution on various MetLife products.
• Recruit, coach and nurture a team that is consistently over performing and delivering on business and technology objectives. Drive change management and culture change by adhering to and evangelizing MetLife values and behaviors.
• Accountable for providing day-to-day leadership and management of the resources based in India (employees and partner resources) to ensure high engagement (MyVoice or equivalent)
• Create a diverse and inclusive team in India.
• Accountable for driving the positioning of MetLife as an employer of choice for technologists.
• Accountable and responsible for effective financial management, planning and monitoring of the teams based in India.
Head of Japan Platform
• For the leadership of the Japan Platform team, he/she will manage the critical tech platforms including Cloud, Data, AI, DevOps, SRE, API, Messaging and equivalent common platforms leveraged by all the development teams. He/she will also be responsible for enabling the development teams to leverage these platforms by providing training, co-development, consultation and reference implementations.
Technology Transformation (Changing the Way We Work)
• Drive the multi-year technology transformation agenda focusing on changing the way technology work (Developers, Production SRE, QA)
• Deliver on the commitments for the transformation by working with the teams in Japan including DevOps implementation, production observability and production stabilization, removing of toil and increasing the quality of software deliveries through increased coverage of testing, including automated testing.
• This includes leverage of generative AI to improve developer productivity to achieve the target productivity goals and transform the way we work
• Establish robust patterns to scale the transformation across all teams
• Working with tech partners e.g. Microsoft to bring the best of the products to MetLife
Knowledge, Skills, and Abilities
Education
• A Bachelors/Master's degree in Computer Science
Experience
• Overall experience in building and driving Technology teams
• Managing teams of 300-400 people
• Minimum 15-20 years working experience in leading software applications delivery in a mission critical and highly regulated environments
• Hands-on prior experience in developing software products
• Partnership with multiple stakeholders across different countries to deliver software products
• Engagement of external ecosystems partners to enable the teams as necessary and relevant
Knowledge and skills (general and technical)
• Great communicator and leader who is able to engage employees, stakeholders proactively
• Passion for driving transformation (culture & technology)
• Application development and delivery in diverse technology platforms including Java, .Net and others.
• Cloud / Data / AI domain expertise
• Microsoft Azure stack, GitHub CoPilot, OpenAI or equivalent, Azure DevOps, API
Other Requirements (licenses, certifications, specialized training - if required)
• Preferably certified in Microsoft Azure Fundamentals or equivalent at minimal
• SAFE or any Agile/Scrum certification is a plus
Personal Characteristics
• Business acumen: A level-headed, clear communicator to gain detailed level of understanding of organizational business requirements and business dynamics.
• Self-Motivated and able to work independently.
• Attention to detail.
• Collaborative
• Team Player
• Decisive
• Supportive
• Passionate
• Professional
• Accountable
Working Relationships
Internal Contacts
(and purpose of relationship):
• CIO teams
• CTO teams
• CDAO teams
• Infosec teams
• Corporate Function teams (HR, Finance, Legal, CRE etc.)
About MetLife
Recognized on Fortune magazine's list of the 2024 "World's Most Admired Companies" and Fortune World's 25 Best Workplaces™ for 2024, MetLife , through its subsidiaries and affiliates, is one of the world's leading financial services companies; providing insurance, annuities, employee benefits and asset management to individual and institutional customers. With operations in more than 40 markets, we hold leading positions in the United States, Latin America, Asia, Europe, and the Middle East.
Our purpose is simple - to help our colleagues, customers, communities, and the world at large create a more confident future. United by purpose and guided by empathy, we're inspired to transform the next century in financial services.
At MetLife, it's #AllTogetherPossible . Join us!
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