Head of Lifecycle Management

Role Overview

The Head of Lifecycle Management will bring teams together to deliver a seamless client journey across FundPark. The role will align functional priorities around shared client outcomes and ensure teams work as one while retaining their respective mandates.

This hands-on leadership role will build the lifecycle management capability and turn cross-functional gaps into sustainable improvements. It will enable controlled innovation and help successful minimum viable products (MVPs) move into scalable business-as-usual (BAU) delivery rather than remain dependent on temporary workarounds.

The initial focus will be to agree the scope and responsibilities of the function. The role will then assess the Technology backlog against lifecycle needs and establish the reporting and governance needed to improve client outcomes and delivery performance.

Key Responsibilities

End-to-End Lifecycle Ownership

• Own the operating blueprint across customer and facility journeys and supporting products. Define stage outcomes and owners with clear entry and exit criteria.
• Oversee the full lifecycle from initial opportunity to closure. Connect onboarding and funding with ongoing servicing and monitoring through facility changes, renewal or dormancy.
• Align functional contributions and hand-offs between teams. Resolve ownership gaps and dependencies while preserving functional mandates and decision rights.

Journey Performance, Controls and Customer Outcomes

• Measure client outcomes and service performance alongside control effectiveness and operational efficiency.
• Find root causes of journey failures and drive accountable remediation. Use lessons from incidents and frontline feedback to improve standard practices.
• Embed compliance and credit obligations alongside funder and operational requirements into processes and systems, ensure documentation and reporting support effective controls.

MVP Enablement and Path to Scale

• Enable rapid MVP testing with Product and Technology within executive guardrails.
• Transition validated MVPs into Product and Technology roadmaps and BAU ownership. Address temporary workarounds and technical debt through existing governance rather than adding approval layers.
• Ensure MVPs are ready to operate before testing begins, with appropriate controls and supporting systems. Confirm funding and documentation arrangements and the ability to service and monitor each MVP.

Technology, Data and Backlog Alignment

• Drive automation that improves client experience and control while reducing effort and keeping manual fallback solutions limited and governed.
• Translate lifecycle needs into agreed business requirements and process flows with clear acceptance criteria, engage users early and test the end-to-end journey before release.
• Review the Technology backlog against journey outcomes and recommend sequencing. Expose duplication and dependencies alongside data gaps and technical debt that constrain scale.

Governance, Prioritisation and Decision Discipline

• Run outcome-focused governance with clear action owners and escalation routes. Maintain decision records and change controls supported by concise executive reporting.
• Lead Governance & Prioritisation within Lifecycle Management. Balance remediation against growth and partnership needs within Technology capacity and agreed transformation priorities.
• Clarify delegated authority for lifecycle standards and journey prioritisation as well as launch readiness and escalation. Preserve functional approval rights across the business.

Operating Model and Capability Build

• Define the operating model and functional interfaces with clear responsibilities. Build the capability in line with approved business need and headcount.
• Embed practical lifecycle standards and playbooks supported by consistent templates and reporting.
• Coach teams and functional owners to take accountability and escalate early. Build disciplined execution and continuous improvement into daily practice.

Leadership and Team Scope

The Head of Lifecycle Management will lead from the front and set a clear vision and direction for the team. The role will bring Journey & Process and Governance & Prioritisation together as one function and translate lifecycle requirements into clear team priorities and measurable delivery commitments.

The Head will allocate responsibilities and guide hands-on execution while holding the team accountable for outcomes. They will coach and develop team members and coordinate agreed Business Analysis and delivery support to meet requirements. Team growth will remain subject to the approved operating model and headcount.

Key Stakeholder Partnerships

• COO and Executive Leadership: agree lifecycle priorities and trade-offs within enterprise guardrails.
• Product, Partnerships: translate client and partner needs into measurable journeys and scalable MVPs within agreed controls and decision rights.
• Risk, Credit, Legal and Compliance: embed policy and regulatory obligations into journey design alongside contractual and documentation requirements. Make controls, limits and monitoring executable.
• Operations, Technology, Business Analysis and Data: turn requirements into practical processes and system behaviour with clear dependencies and acceptance criteria. Establish system labels and reporting with scalable BAU ownership and service standards.

Experience

• Significant experience leading end-to-end journeys or cross-functional transformation across multiple business areas, with strong knowledge of how Product, Risk, Operations and Technology work together in financial services or a comparable regulated, technology-enabled business.
• Translate business and control needs into process, data and Technology requirements. Guide delivery from build and testing to BAU.
• Establish governance and decision rights supported by clear reporting and working routines where ownership is fragmented or change is significant.
• Relevant experience is strongly preferred in any of these areas: SME lending; working-capital, supply-chain, receivables or inventory finance; and/or cross-border financial services.
• People leadership or capability-building experience is preferred. Must be able to lead through influence before a full team is in place.

Skills and Attributes

• Strong analytical and problem-solving skills, able to identify root causes and prioritise improvements that benefit clients and the business.
• Strong influencing skills, able to align teams, challenge constructively and resolve competing priorities without relying on direct authority.
• Sound commercial judgment, able to balance client experience and growth with effective controls and practical delivery.
• Effective hands-on leader, able to set direction, coach a small team and hold people accountable for delivery.
• Comfortable building in a lean organisation, able to create clarity where ownership is fragmented and improve processes without adding unnecessary bureaucracy.
• Communicate clear decisions and ownership. Take accountability and apply sound judgment with persistence to deliver sustainable outcomes in a lean, fast-moving environment.
• Fluent written and spoken English. Mandarin and/or Cantonese is highly desirable for regional stakeholder engagement.

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree required; qualifications in business, finance, operations, engineering, information systems or a related discipline are advantageous.
• Relevant professional training in process improvement, product management, programme management, business analysis or change delivery is beneficial but not required.

Success Measures

• A lifecycle model used consistently across teams with clear ownership and decision rights supported by standard practices and decision records.
• Fewer failed hand-offs and less rework with fewer unmanaged exceptions and faster resolution of cross-team gaps without extra governance.
• Measurable improvement in client outcomes and control effectiveness against baseline, with fewer delivery delays caused by incomplete requirements, unclear acceptance criteria or unresolved backlog dependencies and decisions.
• Validated MVPs reach agreed handover milestones with Product, Technology and BAU owners accepting responsibility. Unsuccessful tests are stopped or redesigned within agreed decision timelines.

Indicative First-Year Priorities

• Define and secure the scope, boundaries and RACI for Lifecycle Management.
• Build the baseline end-to-end customer, facility and product lifecycle, including current-state issues and priority control or ownership gaps.
• Establish lifecycle performance measures, management information and a regular cross-functional operating cadence.
• Review lifecycle-related Technology backlog items, data gaps and technical debt; recommend a sequenced improvement roadmap.
• Create the minimum lifecycle standard and handover model for MVPs, including system labels, controls, monitoring and scale or exit criteria.
• Apply the lifecycle approach to priority journeys and use the findings to refine the operating model and capability required.
• Build role-specific playbooks and embed accountable ownership across Product, Risk, Operations, Technology and Commercial teams.