Role Summary
The Associate Vice President - Operational Strategy & Planning (Finance) plays a key role in driving strategic financial planning, business performance management, and operational alignment across the company's data center operations in multiple entities across the APAC region.
This position partners closely with country finance teams, regional operations, and corporate leadership to deliver insights, develop business strategies, and ensure execution of growth and profitability goals. The role bridges finance, operations, and strategy, ensuring financial rigor in all operational decisions.
Duties and Responsibilities
Regional Financial & Strategic Planning
- Lead the development of the annual operating plan, long-term strategic plan, andquarterly forecasts for multiple APAC entities.
- Partner with regional and local finance teams to integrate financialoutcomes, market trends, competitive intelligence, and operational constraints, ensuring alignment with corporate strategy.
- Support strategic decision-making by analysing financial outcomes, market trends, pricingstrategy, and businessscenarios.
- Provide actionable insights to leadership on profitability, operational efficiency, andinvestment priorities.
Business Performance Management
- Design and maintain comprehensive performance dashboards and KPIs covering revenue,utilization, margins, costs, and CapEx efficiency.
- Review and analyse performance versus targets across business units and entitiesidentify improvement levers.
- Lead monthly/quarterly business reviews, synthesizing financial and operational data into clear insights, risks, and strategic recommendations.
- Provide commentary and analytics for management reporting, board updates, and investorpresentations.
- Identify early warning signals, performance gaps, and operational bottlenecks, and proactivelyrecommend corrective actions.
Operational Strategy & Optimization
- Work closely with operations and engineering teams to translate operational metrics(capacity, utilization, uptime, PUE) into financial performance indicators.
- Assess cost structures, pricing models, and operational efficiency metrics torecommend optimization strategies.
- Partner with business units to evaluate new initiatives, expansions, and commercialopportunities from a financial standpoint.
- Drive strategic initiatives around cost optimization, profitability improvement, andscalability, and support the company's multi-site, multi-country expansion ambitions.
Capital Planning & Investment Analysis
- Lead CapEx planning and tracking across multiple data center builds,expansions, and maintenance programs.
- Develop ROI, IRR, and NPV analyses for strategic investments, site acquisitions, hyperscale/AIdeployments and new project proposals.
- Partner with project management and finance teams to monitor capital utilization andvariance against budgets.
- Support post-investment reviews to evaluate actual performance versus business caseassumptions.
Process Standardization & Financial Governance
- Standardize regional processes for budgeting, forecasting, and reporting across all APAC entities.
- Enhance financial governance, policy compliance, and control frameworks within the regional finance function.
- Drive process automation and data accuracy through improved use of financial systems and tools (SAP, Anaplan, Power BI, Adaptive, Hyperion, etc.).
- Support audit, compliance, and internal control initiatives related to financial operations.
Cross-Functional Leadership & Stakeholder Management
- Act as a strategic finance partner to regional business leaders, providing financial insights to support operational decisions.
- Collaborate with country finance heads to ensure timely, accurate, and consistent regionalreporting.
- Communicate key financial and strategic updates to senior leadership, corporate finance,and investor relations.
- Mentor and guide finance analysts or managers in the region to strengthen analyticaland planning capabilities.
Strategic Projects & Transformation
- Participate in regional transformation programs, including cost optimization, system integration, and business restructuring.
- Support M&A evaluations, due diligence, and integration planning for new market entries or acquisitions.
- Support ESG financial reporting, sustainability metrics, and initiatives tied to energy efficiencyand environmental commitments.
Qualification and Experience
- Bachelor's degree in finance, Accounting, Economics, or related discipline MBA or professional qualification (CA, CPA, CMA, CFA) preferred.
- 10-15 years of relevant experience in FP&A, business planning, or financial strategy, ideally in data center, technology infrastructure, telecommunications, or real estate industries.
- Proven track record in multi-entity financial management across APAC.
- Strong analytical, financial modelling, and presentation skills.
- Experience working in a regional or matrix organization with cross-functional collaboration.
- Proficiency in Excel, Power BI, SAP, or equivalent FP&A tools.
Competency and Behavioral Skills
- Strategic and analytical mindset
- Commercial and operational acumen
- Cross-functional leadership and stakeholder management
- Process improvement and standardization
- Excellent communication and presentation skills
- Agility and adaptability in a fast-growing, dynamic environment
