Director, Finance - Test and Release Program Manager

SMBC Group is a top-tier global financial group. Headquartered in Tokyo and with a 400-year history, SMBC Group offers a diverse range of financial services, including banking, leasing, securities, credit cards, and consumer finance. The Group has more than 130 offices and 80,000 employees worldwide in nearly 40 countries.

Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group, Inc. (SMFG) is the holding company of SMBC Group, which is one of the three largest banking groups in Japan. SMFG’s shares trade on the Tokyo, Nagoya, and New York (NYSE: SMFG) stock exchanges. In the Americas, SMBC Group has a presence in the US, Canada, Mexico, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, and Peru.

Backed by the capital strength of SMBC Group and the value of its relationships in Asia, the Group offers a range of commercial and investment banking services to its corporate, institutional, and municipal clients. It connects a diverse client base to local markets and the organization’s extensive global network. The Group’s operating companies in the Americas include Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corp. (SMBC), SMBC Nikko Securities America, Inc., SMBC Capital Markets, Inc., SMBC MANUBANK, JRI America, Inc., SMBC Leasing and Finance, Inc., Banco Sumitomo Mitsui Brasileiro S.A., and Sumitomo Mitsui Finance and Leasing Co., Ltd.

Role Description The Finance Change Management Director Test and Release Manager is responsible for planning, coordinating, and managing all testing and release activities within complex, multi-stream financial programs. This role ensures software solutions meet quality standards and are released in a controlled, reliable, and compliant manner, in alignment with regulatory and business requirements. The main areas of coverage: Test Management: Define test strategy, plans, and approach across multiple workstreams and platforms.

Coordinate and manage end-to-end testing cycles including system integration, UAT, regression, and performance testing. Oversee test environment readiness, data provisioning, and defect management. Ensure adherence to quality standards and audit requirements.

Collaborate with internal QA teams and external vendors. Release Management: Develop and manage the release schedule for large-scale program deployments. Coordinate release readiness reviews, implementation plans, and change control processes.

Maintain and manage the release calendar with clear visibility of dependencies. Ensure rollback strategies, release documentation, and post-deployment validation are in place. Stakeholder & Risk Management: Act as a central point of contact for testing and release-related communications across business, IT, and third-party stakeholders.

Identify, escalate, and manage testing and release risks, issues, and dependencies. Provide regular reporting and insights on test progress, release health, and quality metrics. Audit engagement: Manage audit enquiries across projects.

Work with team to ensure quality of documentation Skills & Qualifications: Proven experience (8 years) in test and release management within complex, regulated environments (ideally financial services). Strong knowledge of test methodologies, tools (e.g., ALM, JIRA, Selenium, LoadRunner), and release tools (e.g., Jenkins, Git, Azure DevOps). Deep understanding of SDLC, Agile, and Waterfall methodologies.

Experience managing multiple releases, environments, and cross-functional testing teams. Excellent stakeholder communication and coordination skills. Preferred : Experience in Finance LOB and understanding of accounting concepts, GL technologies, core banking systems, trading platforms, or payments.

ISTQB Certification or equivalent. ITIL certification for Release & Deployment Management. SMBC’s employees participate in a Hybrid workforce model that provides employees with an opportunity to work from home, as well as, from an SMBC office.

SMBC requires that employees live within a reasonable commuting distance of their office location. Prospective candidates will learn more about their specific hybrid work schedule during their interview process. Hybrid work may not be permitted for certain roles, including, for example, certain FINRA-registered roles for which in-office attendance for the entire workweek is required.

SMBC provides reasonable accommodations during candidacy for applicants with disabilities consistent with applicable federal, state, and local law.