Head of IT (GM) Japanese Finance Firm Mandaluyong

This is a newly created, General Manager-grade position. The Head of IT sets the company's IT direction: owns company-wide IT architecture, prepares and owns the annual IT investment plan, and presents both directly to the Board of Directors and to the IT division of our parent company in Japan.

The role connects the business and IT. It decides what gets built and in what order, and is accountable for the pipeline from request to production. It is not hands-on with coding or infrastructure: it assesses whether application design and security posture are sound, leads a small in-house team, and brings in vendors as needed.

IT strategy and architecture Own the company-wide IT architecture and the standards that applications and infrastructure must meet Decide build, buy or vendor options, and make sure audit trail, segregation of duties, data retention and disaster recovery are designed in from the start Set the multi-year IT roadmap in line with business priorities

IT investment plan and budget Prepare the annual IT investment plan and IT budget, and prioritise spending against business value and risk Own the plan once approved: track delivery, cost and benefits, and report variances (approval above set thresholds rests with the CEO and Board)

Board and parent-company reporting Present the IT plan, architecture decisions and progress directly to the Board of Directors and to the parent company's IT division in Japan Explain technical choices in business terms, and answer for them without the CEO in the room

Business requirements and prioritisation Gather requirements from operations, credit, collections, accounting and legal, and turn them into clear, prioritised work Decide what gets built and in what order; say no, in writing and with a reason, when a request does not fit Own the pipeline from request to production, including testing, release and post-release support

Team leadership Lead, coach and set priorities for the application developers and the infrastructure & network engineer Review design and code quality at a judgement level, and build the team's capability as the function grows

Vendors, systems and access Select and manage IT vendors and service providers, including contracts, SLAs and performance Own system administration rights and access control across company systems

Security and resilience Oversee information security, backup and disaster recovery, including planning and carrying out DR tests Assess the security posture of new and existing systems, and make sure risks are identified and addressed

Not part of this role

Compliance, licensing, regulatory filings and consumer protection

Hands-on coding, or hands-on hardware and infrastructure work (the team and vendors do this)

Title/grade: Head of IT, General Manager grade, reporting to the CEO

Scope: owns company-wide IT architecture and the annual IT investment plan, and presents both to the Board and to our parent company's IT division; leads two application developers and one infrastructure & network engineer, plus vendors

Start: as soon as possible

Profile

Experience with a core banking, lending, credit, or insurance system is a strong advantage, but not required

This is not a hands-on role: the person does not code or do hardware work

Compliance, licensing, and regulatory filings are outside this role, so IT governance or IT compliance specialist profiles are not the right fit

Candidates above the range

If you find a particularly strong candidate whose expected salary is above PHP 200,000, please still send them to us and clearly flag the expectation. Please do not rule them out yourself.

Required

Senior IT leadership experience owning IT strategy or architecture, and an IT budget, for a company or business unit

Experience presenting IT plans and decisions to senior management or a board

Project manager or solutions architect experience on business system implementations, working directly with business departments to define requirements and make decisions

A track record of designing systems with audit trail, segregation of duties, data retention and disaster recovery built in

Judgement-level experience across both applications and infrastructure

Experience managing IT vendors

Comfortable being the person who says no, in writing, with a reason

Preferred

Experience with a core banking, lending, credit or insurance system (a strong advantage, not a requirement)

Experience in financial services, such as retail finance, leasing or insurance

Experience leading a core system replacement or major system implementation

Microsoft Power Platform, Dataverse and Azure

Use of AI tools in day-to-day work

Experience in an organisation of under 100 people

Experience reporting to a foreign parent company

Not a fit for

Vendor-side project managers who have only written specifications against other people's decisions

Candidates whose track record depends on a large organisation's brand, budget or infrastructure

Hands-on developers looking for a senior engineering role

IT governance or IT compliance specialists

SL/VL, HMO after probationary period

13th month pay

HMO

Note: the client will discuss benefit details during the job offer

Work schedule:

Monday‐Friday (once a week wfh) 8:00 AM to 5:00 PM

Work arrangement: hybrid – 3 days on-site, 2 days work from home

Interview process:

CV screening → Confidentiality Undertaking signed by the candidate → interview with our CEO → reference check with two former direct supervisors → offer.

First Interview F2F; then If there will be a second, it will be online.