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.

Acting as a strategic bridge between vision and execution, the Senior Associate Director aligns resources and processes across AIDF’s three pillars : Research, Education and Training , to strengthen institutional capability, financial sustainability and global impact. The role also leads AI and digital adoption in internal workflows, and builds a high performing operations team.

Key Responsibilities

a. 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.

b. 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.

c. 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.

d. 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.

e. 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.

f. 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

Qualifications

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

Experience

• 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.

Technical & Professional Skills

• 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.

Competencies & Attributes

• 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

Location: Kent Ridge Campus

Organization: Asian Institute of Digital Finance

Department : Administration

Employee Referral Eligible:

Job requisition ID : 32109