Financial Operations Manager, Asia AI Program
Manulife · Kuala Lumpur +1 · 12d ago
We are expanding the use of AI across sales, service and operations in Asian markets. Each project requires budget management, forecasting, an approved business case and benefits tracking. The AI ProgramandFinancial Operations Manager supports these financial and portfolio management activities. You willmaintaina clear view of the regional AI portfolio, including its cost, deliverystatusandrealisedbenefits. You will run the monthly financial cycle covering actuals, forecast, variance,capitalisationand the funding allocationsacross Global, Asia and local. You will produce the monthly portfolio review that the region's most senior AI executive takes into the leadership forum. You will build and challenge the business cases that decide which projects are funded next. You will alsomonitorflagship projects andidentifypotential delivery delays early. This finance role works with country finance teams, project leads, technology delivery managers and executive sponsors. Its reports are reviewed by senior leaders and inform portfolio decisions. It is suited to a finance professional with three to five years of experience who wants to apply financial analysis in a regional transformation environment.
Position Responsibilities:
Financial governance and business case management
Own the monthly financial cycle for every centrally funded AI project — actuals, forecast, variance against approved budget, and the commentary that explains the movement.
Calculate and confirm the capitalization of technology and data science labor with the expense team each month.
Develop and validate business cases supporting new funding requests, and present the financial analysis in the approval forum.
Keep the enterprise planning system current — workforce budget, forecast and expected capitalization — so that the bottom-line position reconciles to the approved budget and no cost center shows a false overspend.
Portfolio management and reporting
Maintain the regional AI project register, including funding source, delivery stage, business owner, technology platform and executive sponsor, and ensure that it remains accurate and current.
Manage the monthly portfolio performance review: issue the reporting request and standards, follow up on missing submissions, review each submission for quality and executive readiness, consolidate the results and release the report on schedule.
Produce the monthly delivery status report, covering achievements, work in progress and the 90-day forward plan.
Proactively manage the AI investment portfolio from a delivery and execution standpoint: gather and update project information in the use case database, track progress against plan, flag issues as they are identified, and propose better approaches to portfolio management and oversight. This does not mean owning delivery of individual projects, but staying close enough to the work to surface risks early and suggest improvements.
Benefits tracking and value realization
Own the reporting of realized value from AI across the region, reconciling the month-end portfolio extract and identifying new projects and missing attribution.
Secure verification of the numbers from each country's AI lead and write commentary that explains what moved and why.
Maintain each project's cost and benefit position across revenue generation, cost savings and cost avoidance, and identify benefits that do not yet have sufficient supporting evidence.
Budget, vendor and delivery oversight
Maintain the forecast for external delivery partners and specialist data science resources, supply the reference data for the invoicing cycle, and keep hiring and resourcing assumptions aligned with the budget.
Participate in delivery sessions for flagship portfolio projects, identify blockers and provide advice where appropriate.
Hold a pre-governance check-in with each country project office ahead of its monthly review so that timeline and cost risk are raised early rather than discovered late.
Stakeholder management and executive communication
Coordinate across country AI leads, country project offices, delivery teams, regional and group finance, the technology delivery organization and the global AI program.
Align definitions, deadlines and data before disagreements become escalations.
Draft the material senior executives take into leadership forums — slides, commentary, highlights and remarks — turning portfolio data into a clear position on cost, progress and value.
Required Qualifications:
A bachelor's degree in finance, accounting, economics, business or a related discipline. A professional qualification such as CPA (Certified Public Accountant), ACCA (Association of Chartered Certified Accountants) progress towards the CFA (Chartered Financial Analyst), or a project management certification such as PMP (Project Management Professional), PRINCE2 or Agile is welcome but does not replace hands-on experience.
3 to 5 years in financial planning and analysis, business finance, finance transformation, a project or program office, business management, or management consulting.
Genuine interest in the delivery and execution side of AI initiatives, not only the financial reporting. This role requires proactively gathering and updating portfolio information, tracking delivery progress and flagging issues, and proposing improvements to portfolio governance.
Command of core finance disciplines: budgeting and forecasting, actuals-versus-forecast variance analysis, cost center and project code structures, accruals, capitalization of labor and infrastructure, business case construction, and benefit tracking across revenue, cost saving and cost avoidance.
Advanced Excel — large models, multi-source reconciliation, pivot analysis and clean model structure — together with executive-standard PowerPoint. Working confidence with enterprise planning and portfolio systems such as Anaplan, Oracle, or Planview, and with general ledger and expense reporting tools.
Demonstrated day-to-day use of AI tools to improve personal productivity and work quality.
Experience in portfolio and project governance, milestone and roadmap tracking, risk and dependency management, and status reporting to a fixed calendar.
Strong written English, including the ability to prepare executive-ready commentary.
Preferred Qualifications:
Insurance, banking, or consulting background, with experience at associate/consultant level bringing structured problem-solving, stakeholder management, and strong presentation skills.
Exposure to technology, AI, or digital investment initiatives, with the ability to understand project costing, funding decisions, and challenge business assumptions effectively. Deep technical expertise is not required.
Regional Asia experience, with the ability to work across diverse markets and cultures, aligning stakeholders and driving outcomes in a multi-country environment
When you join our team:
We’ll empower you to learn and grow the career you want.
We’ll recognize and support you in a flexible environment where well-being and inclusion are more than just words.
As part of our global team, we’ll support you in shaping the future you want to see.
About Manulife and John Hancock
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