IT Budget Planning & Control  • Lead the annual IT budgeting process in collaboration with IT department heads, Finance, and executive leadership. • Develop detailed IT budget models covering CapEx (infrastructure, licensing, hardware) and OpEx (SaaS, support, staffing, professional services).  • Monitor budget utilization monthly; produce variance analysis reports and recommend corrective actions.  • Manage IT cost allocation models across business units: bill payment, payment acceptance, and shared services.  • Drive IT cost optimization initiatives without compromising operational resilience or compliance obligations. IT Procurement & Vendor Management  • Define and enforce the IT procurement policy, ensuring competitive, transparent, and compliant sourcing processes.  • Lead RFP/RFQ/RFI processes for major technology acquisitions including payment platforms, infrastructure, and software.  • Negotiate and manage contracts with technology vendors, ensuring favorable commercial terms, SLAs, and exit provisions.  • Maintain a complete vendor registry with performance scorecards, contract renewal calendars, and risk assessments.  • Ensure all vendor engagements involving outsourcing or data processing comply with CBE outsourcing regulations.  Financial Governance & Reporting  • Develop IT financial dashboards and reports for CTO, CFO, and board-level consumption.  • Support investment business cases for major IT projects, providing NPV, ROI, and TCO analyses.  • Ensure IT procurement activities comply with internal audit requirements and external regulatory expectations. Strategic Sourcing & CBE Compliance  • Ensure all technology outsourcing arrangements meet CBE's outsourcing risk management framework.  • Assess vendor financial stability and operational resilience as part of the due diligence process.  • Manage relationships with key strategic vendors (payment networks, cloud providers, core system vendors) at a commercial level.