Head of Integration

About the Role
The position is crucial for leading and driving the delivery of key integration workstreams resulting from the acquisition of RBL into the company. This role ensures alignment with the overall integration strategy, target operating model, and synergy objectives set by the Head of Integration. The successful candidate will translate strategic integration objectives into actionable plans across multiple business areas, including products, operations, technology, and support functions. This involves driving stakeholder alignment, governance, dependency management, benefits realization, and risk mitigation.

The role requires partnering with senior business leaders to identify and execute integration opportunities, monitor delivery progress, resolve any cross-functional challenges, and ensure integration outcomes are achieved within agreed timelines, budgets, and regulatory requirements. Additionally, the position serves as a key advisor to the Head of Integration, providing support for executive decision-making through data-driven insights, business cases, progress reporting, and recommendations to maximize operational efficiencies, customer outcomes, and merger value realization.

Key Tasks

• Lead the development and execution of the integration strategy and target operating model.
• Establish integration priorities, sequencing, and transformation objectives across business functions.
• Drive operating model transformation and synergy realization initiatives.
• Review and challenge integration plans to ensure alignment with strategic objectives.
• Provide strategic recommendations and decision support to the Head of Integration and Executive Leadership.
• Lead product and customer proposition integration across both organizations.
• Drive identification and realization of revenue, customer, and operational synergies.
• Govern product portfolio optimization, pricing harmonization, and channel integration decisions.
• Sponsor business cases supporting revenue growth and customer value creation.
• Ensure customer experience remains a key driver of integration decisions and priorities.
• Lead integration and transformation initiatives across Operations, Customer Service, Contact Centre, Finance, HR, Procurement, Compliance, and other support functions.
• Drive standardization of processes, controls, governance, and service delivery models.
• Approve target-state operating models and transformation initiatives.
• Drive realization of operational efficiencies, resource optimization, and cost synergies.
• Resolve cross-functional integration issues impacting business performance or customer experience.
• Lead governance forums supporting integration delivery and strategic decision-making.
• Manage relationships with senior executives, business leaders, regulators, and key stakeholders.
• Drive resolution of cross-functional conflicts, competing priorities, and key delivery risks.
• Ensure effective oversight of integration progress, dependencies, and benefit realization.
• Support the Head of Integration in executive communications and Board-level reporting.
• Provide leadership oversight across all integration workstreams.
• Ensure alignment between business, operations, products, and technology transformation initiatives.
• Drive prioritization of integration initiatives to maximize business value.
• Sponsor digitization, automation, and process simplification opportunities.
• Remove strategic blockers impacting delivery and escalate major risks where required.
• Oversee integration risk management framework across all workstreams.
• Ensure regulatory, compliance, audit, legal, and conduct obligations are embedded within integration activities.
• Provide governance over key operational, technology, customer, and regulatory risks.
• Review and approve mitigation strategies for critical integration risks.
• Ensure integration activities maintain regulatory compliance and operational resilience.
• Own realization of revenue, cost, operational, and customer synergies arising from the merger.
• Challenge and validate synergy assumptions and business cases.
• Monitor benefits realization and intervene where targets are at risk.
• Drive accountability across workstreams for delivery of committed integration outcomes.
• Provide regular updates to the Head of Integration on value realization performance.

Experience & Skills

• 18+ years of experience with at least 8+ years in Banking or Financial Services and 5+ years leading large transformation or integration programs.
• Merger and acquisition integration experience is a must.
• Prior Retail Banking experience (cards, loans, and liabilities).
• Consultancy background is preferred.
• Bachelor’s degree in Business, Engineering, Computer Science, Information Systems, or related discipline.
• MBA is preferred.
• PMP / PRINCE2 certification.
• Agile Certification (CSM / SAFe).
• Lean Six Sigma certification is preferred.