Vice President - Application & Operation - Banking/Financial Services

Experience: 15 to 25 years

Reporting to : VP, Application Operations, Global Services, will report to the SVP - Global Services.

Role Location : The role will be based out of India - preferably Pune or Chennai.

Job Purpose : 

- As Vice President, Application Operations, Global Services the role works closely with the global head of India and globally. It's a key role managing a significant portion of global AppOps organization based in Global Services, driving efficiency, optimization and service delivery. The role acts as the catalyst for service excellence while promoting accountability for stable, secure and resilient platforms and products to enable Clients and customers.

- Experience and knowledge of Company's broad technological capabilities are combined with a passion that inspires the Organization in continuous improvement in all facets of the technology stacks and supporting processes. As the conduit and representative of business aligned technology services consistent Client centricity is critical.

- The ideal candidate for this role is someone with deep technical, architectural and domain skills. A global leader with demonstrable experience in banking and financial services industry. The candidate would need to be able to demonstrate a commercial orientation, fiscal prudence, someone who ensures a measured and purposeful approach to the provisioning of the world class solutions that empower the Company brand.

Key Accountabilities : 

- Ownership of end to end operating model with-in.

- Engage with key business stakeholders on a regular basis to understand their needs, involve them in joint planning and drive overall high stakeholder satisfaction and Customer LTR score.

- Leads as the single point of accountability and escalation to our Clients, the Business and to the organization for technology service provisioning.

- Ensure execution of enterprise wide programs and initiatives aligned to strategy.

- Ensure adoption of strategic technology tools and contribution towards enhancing them.

- Combines technical and commercial acumen and expertise to enable business profitability in the technology solution portfolio.

- Optimizes technology utilization across the spectrum of internal and external stakeholders, in line with functional and financial goals.

- Drives efficient technology outcomes by leveraging initiative management, new product adoption, automation and lifecycle management opportunities to the fullest.

- Possesses expert knowledge and expertise of the production architecture and brings together product development, clients and infrastructure providers

- Partners directly with the CIO and Business Lead to define, execute critical business objectives, & represent to our Clients as the face of Company Technology Solutions.

- Consistently advocates for our Clients with ownership of, and accountability for the technology change roadmap.

Additional Responsibilities :

- Building, improving and sustaining ongoing operational support of servers, storage, middleware, and databases on-prem or off-prem vendor supporting their applications and services

- Co-ownership in driving transformational improvements to the SDLC (e.g. DevOps, Agile, Continuous Integration/Continuous Deployment)

- Level 1 and 2 support ownership of all assigned applications.

- Prioritization, coordination, and flawless implementation of all business and technology projects.

- Design of the high-performing and highly available infrastructure components.

- Ensures the Infrastructure organization understands the customers- perspective of service, and,is able to prioritize its services and service assets appropriately.

- Works collaboratively with global technology functions to deliver technology standards across the Company regions and maintains adherence to corporate policies.

- Develops strategic plans identifying opportunities to improve Service Quality while minimizing costs.

- Implements CTO initiatives including data center operations and consolidations, development of global operating model strategy, and service quality improvement initiatives.

- Support merger & acquisition activity from due diligence through assimilation and integration

- Provide input on budget requirements for areas of responsibility.

- Aligns implementations across the global team, ensuring budgets are maintained and resources are allocated effectively.

- Develops and evaluates technology plans, policies, and procedures to ensure alignment with company goals and standards. Continuously analyzes programs to ensure maximum utilization and efficiency, as well as meeting budget guidelines.

- Accountable for personally driving defined transformation programs to reduce cost, improve efficiency, increase availability, and improve overall quality of service delivery.

- Manage third party processors, hardware & software vendors, and external infrastructure providers to provide a single view into Digital products technology.

- Accountable for the adherence to all compliance processes and ITIL controls.

- Manage and report the financials tied to the infrastructure and human capital to support the business.

- Lead effort to hire and build a diverse workforce aligned to corporate and country goals.

- Drive a culture of risk excellence and ensure service delivery is compliant with standards.

- Ensuring self and team anticipates, monitors, actively manages and reports all risk and compliance issues, breaches and suspicious activities.

- Own and execute on the Business continuity plans for the areas of responsibility.

Experience :

S/he will be a hands-on, business-oriented leader who has a proved track record of successfully leading the Cloud engineering teams and is also capable of leading and building a global organization and trusted valued relationships. S/he should truly possess the capabilities, character and intellect that exemplify great leadership.

The ideal candidate should possess the following key traits:

- Strong knowledge of emerging technology and the application of the technology in global environments - particularly - big shop- high volume processing environments.

- Ability to thrive in a highly ambiguous and even turbulent environment;

- Be comfortable with the context and content of the Payments industry and IT Infrastructure spaces.

- Understanding of ITIL Frameworks and major security frameworks such as NIST.

- Demonstrated strategic thinking and thought leadership, ability to influence decision makers and gain consensus on difficult issues.

- Experience in the Financial Services, Payments industry, and/or high-transaction processors.

- Has expert knowledge of business operations, policies, and practices and of the industry supported.

- Plans high-level strategy for IT organization and influences business strategy for the business units supported.

Leadership Skills : 

The ideal candidate will need to demonstrate the following competencies:

Strategic Agility : 

- Explains our Aspiration and Purpose with confidence and conviction and in a way in which associates can understand and relate to. 

- Analyzes and defines a multi-year, market-based strategy linked to our organizational vision. Provides thought leadership and influences business-level strategy beyond own area. Demonstrates sound judgment through market awareness, questioning assumptions, connecting multiple data points and seeking various options to produce insights.

Market Insights: 

- Understands the implications of industry and market trends for Company clients and their customers. Differentiates products and services to meet the needs of our clients' customers. Creates insights about the future of the marketplace.

Business Acumen: 

- Understands our business, products and services and how we make money. Monitors business drivers and financial indicators affecting their Business Unit or Corporate Function. 

- Shares competitive insights gained from interactions with clients, suppliers and other individuals with key decision-makers. Anticipates market demands and identifies the levers to pull to add profitability and business value.

Operational Excellence to Drive Results: 

- Aligns the different businesses or groups to ensure delivery of what's needed to meet client commitments. Knows the client perspective and uses knowledge to anticipate their requirements. Continuously lakes the right action to build value and trust with the client. Implements solutions with a One Company mind-set and the client's total experience in mind.

Change Leadership: 

- Develops plans to effectively and efficiently implement change, considering direction and broader implications. Identifies opportunities to partner with businesses to create alignment where it makes sense and minimize duplication. Makes a compelling case for changes and mobilizes others to initiate them. 

- Demonstrates openness to new ideas through active listening and dialogue. 

- Assumes positive intent when faced with new ways of working.

- Collaboration, Trust and Influence: 

- Builds an inclusive work culture by establishing trust within and across teams and clients. Ensures their business area provides support to other areas of the company to achieve Company goals. Listens to and works with colleagues to solve challenges. Influences others with compelling information/data. Recognizes others for their successes and creates an inclusive team atmosphere where associates are valued for their unique points of view.

Organizational Capability Development: 

- Identifies and puts plans in place to acquire and/or develop high-quality, diverse talent to meet immediate and future business needs. Systematically builds organizational capability by sharing talent to meet business needs. Builds team strengths and capability through quality on-the-job coaching, feedback and ongoing support of learning and growth opportunities.

Courageous Leadership: 

- Builds a work environment where associates feel safe to experiment, admit mistakes, ask questions and offer differing perspectives. Is not afraid to challenge the status quo. Adapts management style based on the development level/maturity of each associate and specific situation. Models Company Values and holds others accountable for their actions. Delivers difficult messages with candor and respect.

Personal Characteristics : 

- The ideal candidate will have clarity of thought, be an effective communicator and be fair in his/her interactions. He/she will be energetic, entrepreneurial and seasoned professional with excellent executive presence, solid visioning and strategic capabilities. 

- Strong commercial acumen, execution capability and well-honed relationship management skills are vital. He/she should have the gravitas, maturity and the credibility to be accepted at the senior-most levels within industry. The individual will bring an entrepreneurial and collaborative mind-set to be able to transform and grow the operations.

- S/he will build trusting and sustainable client relationships and ensures we design and implement solutions with a One Company mind-set and the client's total experience in mind.

Sector Experience Must have : 

- Exposure to the banking and financial services domain Required

- Experience of working in a globally distributed workforce environment Required

- Prior experience of leading a technology organization at scale Required

- Business strategy formulation and execution Required

- Ability to lead and influence in a highly matrix environment Required

- Technological expertise with proven track record in being of being a Subject Matter Expert Required

- Experience of Internal/ Client management role Required

- Experience of leading teams/partnering with clients across multiple geographies Required

Nice to have : 

- Sector Experience

- Captive experience

- Merchant acquiring and cards business knowledge

- Leadership Experience