Cost Project Manager

Job Title: Cost Project Manager

Function / Department: Finance        

Job Purpose:

We are looking for a Finance Project Manager to help us find ways to make our operations more cost-efficient. It takes money to make money as Its not about how much money you make, it’s about how you much you save it. This is a great opportunity for someone who would like to make an impact with save-to-transform mind-set. 

Roles & Responsibilities:

• In IDFC FIRST Bank, Cost Management Team is responsible for equitable cost allocation across various segments. 
• The team also monitors operating, and Capex spends at the Bank Level. The key deliverable of the team is to target investment in winning capabilities and implement changes in the cost management approach with the Bank’s objective of focus on cost to income ratio. 
• The candidate needs to have relevant work experience in the Cost Management Team preferably in a banking sector. Also, have experience in handling the Technology expenses of Banks and suggesting the cost rationalization initiatives. 
• Evaluation of all existing cost drivers for the Business and Support Units, challenge and justify the spend be it new technology or manpower deployment and recalibrate the cost drivers where necessary.
• Identification of the cost optimization projects and partner with teams for all major initiatives from concept initiation, planning, cost savings estimation up to the end of implementation cycle. Provide interim feedback to management on project status as may be required.
• He/she will be accountable for the accuracy, quality, tracking and reporting of scheme costs ensuring the area is financially compliant.
• Engagement with the business and support teams for reviewing end to end business processes and suggesting measures to improve efficiencies.  
• Evaluation of various proposals of opex and capex and aiding business teams to take the decisions based on the cost benefit analysis/return on investment.   
• Minimizing cost allocations; approach for direct booking of the cost to products and in case of requirement of allocation, identifying and implementing the methodology for appropriate allocation of the expenses to the various business units
• Benchmarking of the operating expenses with the competitors in the industry for evaluation of the best practices and explore the scope for implementation in the Bank.
• Review large vendor contracts as per internal guidelines and provide finance perspective and CFO approval for such contract.
• Ensuring budgetary controls across various line various line items of Opex.
• Forecasting of quarterly and yearly operating expenditure spends, trend analysis, analysing variance from projections and highlighting deviations for corrective action for various Opex and Capex spends.
• Exploring usage of activity-based costing for cost optimization.
• Leveraging use of technology and analytics for improving productivity.
• Timely implementation of the initiatives identified.

Education Qualification:

Graduation: Bachelor of Commerce (B.com) / Bachelor of Science (B.Sc) / Bachelor of Arts (BA) / Bachelor of Business & Insurance (BBI) / Bachelor of Management Studies (BMS) 

Post-graduation: Master of Business Administration (MBA) / Master of Commerce (M.com) / Master of Arts (MA) 

Experience: 5 to 10 of relevant years of experience.