Derek Simonson
@dereksimonson
Senior IT leader driving production stability, governance, and high-stakes service delivery.
JapanWhat I'm looking for
I am a senior IT operations and service delivery leader who stabilizes complex, high-risk systems across global banking and telecom. I lead multi-region teams across APAC and North America to maintain uptime and govern change where failure isn't an option.
I have delivered executive programs for Tier-1 financial services and large telecoms, coordinating multi-vendor efforts and CIO-level stakeholders to balance speed, risk, and compliance under compressed timelines. I led the rapid deployment of 3,000 laptops to enable remote work for 9,000 employees after a major crisis, directing a 20+ person cross-functional team to sustain business continuity.
In regulated environments, I established disciplined change governance and introduced SRE practices to bridge DevOps and steady-state operations, improving SLA compliance (97%–98%) and maintaining production reliability for mission-critical systems. I managed high-volume change pipelines and incident response for data centre operations, achieving high Change Success Rates and PUE improvements.
I focus on measurable operational outcomes: reducing dock-to-rack lead times, improving SLA and CSR benchmarks, and delivering cost-avoidance and revenue growth through tighter governance and service management. I bring hands-on delivery experience, structured governance, and a proven record of leading teams through crisis and ongoing operational excellence.
Experience
Work history, roles, and key accomplishments
Senior Manager, Change Management
Bell
Sep 2022 - Present (3 years 4 months)
Director-level leader responsible for enterprise change, service delivery, and production stability across security, data centre, and network environments; maintained 97%–98% SLA compliance and managed a 20% surge in change volume while enforcing zero-tolerance stability for mission-critical systems.
Service Delivery Executive
Morgan Stanley
Apr 2020 - Sep 2022 (2 years 5 months)
Senior service delivery lead for Tokyo data centre operations accountable for production stability, incident management, and SLA performance; reduced dock-to-rack lead time to under 10 business days and maintained >98.5% change success rate.
Associate Vice President - Projects
Rakuten
May 2017 - Mar 2020 (2 years 10 months)
Senior consulting leader for Rakuten Mobile and E-commerce who led IT service management and incident programs, translated commercial needs into scalable operational models, and implemented ITIL practices to improve service reliability.
Project Manager
AIG
May 2015 - May 2017 (2 years)
Led global technology and infrastructure programs focused on governance, security, and end-user computing; managed projects up to $9M and oversaw a Platform Implementation Project Office supporting a $64.4B insurer.
Led PMO and Service Management Office for Citibank Tokyo, growing services revenue from $3.5M to $7M and improving SLA performance from below 93% to 98% through tightened governance and operational discipline.
Head of IT & SVP Program Management
Royal Bank of Scotland
Jan 1999 - Jan 2007 (8 years)
Senior regional technology and program leader for RBS Japan, responsible for IT strategy, multi-site operations, and governance of mission-critical data centres and trading systems across Tokyo and Hong Kong.
Education
Degrees, certifications, and relevant coursework
YUYork University
Bachelor of Arts, Computer Science & Communications
Bachelor of Arts combining Computer Science and Communications studies focused on foundational computing and communications principles.
Tech stack
Software and tools used professionally
Availability
Location
JapanAuthorized to work in
Job categories
Skills
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