Sr Director, Software Engineering – Global Technology

Job Title: Sr Director, Software Engineering – Global Technology
Location: Burlington, ON (Hybrid)
Estimated Duration: Fulltime

POSITION – Senior Director 
The Senior Director Software Engineering of Global Technology GT Canada reports directly to the Vice President, CIO Canada. The Senior Director will act as the highest rank technical leader in GT Canada with an immediate focus to strengthen technical expertise in all aspects of technology delivery including technical design, development, quality management and application-level support.

The position requires a solid track record of hands-on technical leadership, preferably in the financial sector. Also, it requires extensive experience working in a global matrix organization, highly skilled in collaboration across functional units (business/products, legal, compliance, finance, operations) as well as within various global technology groups.

This role requires foundational experience leading large transformation/modernization programs with the objectives to increase efficiency, increase stability & resiliency, reduce risks, and increase productivity of project delivery (on scope, on time, on budget in an agile and/or traditional/hybrid model).

Critical skills required to be successful include excellent technical expertise, strong communication and collaboration skills, attention to detail, the ability to lead without authority and good understanding of financials (e.g. Opex, Capex, construction of a business case).

KEY RESPONSIBILITIES

• Leadership: Provide technical leadership to the IT delivery team while fostering a culture of collaboration, innovation, and excellence.
• Strategic Planning: Work with CIO Canada to develop and execute IT strategies aligned with the overall business objectives of Client Canada.
• Innovation: Work with CIO Canada to assess existing applications (mostly legacy) and define migration/transformation path. Focus on the usage of latest approved technology to enable configurable solutions, automation, and data-driven decision processes.  
• Team Development and Management: Recruit, grow and retain IT professionals (on, near and offshore) to build high-performing service-oriented teams capable of driving innovation and delivering results.
• Development: Ensure the application development is adhering to technical directions provided by Architects and Data Engineers, leveraging global standards and best practices, ensuring peer review is performed, early incorporation of infosec requirements, addressing technical debts/vulnerabilities, early consideration of capacity, performance, automation, monitoring/alerting, and service level impacts.
• Quality Assurance, Management & Control: Ensure the development and implementation of robust Quality Assurance and Quality Control processes across IT and business/Operations, with a focus on delivering high-quality services and products.
• Project Management: Lead IT projects from inception to completion, ensuring on-scope, on-time, and on-budget delivery of technology initiatives via agile or traditional/hybrid model.
• Vendor Management: Partner with Procurement, Legal and Compliance, GT teams to ensure that third-party technology or sourcing solutions align with our business needs and standards.
• Budget Management: Partner with Finance teams to develop and manage IT budgets, ensuring cost-effective technology solutions while maintaining high levels of performance and security.
• Compliance and Risk Management: Partner with Compliance and Risk Management teams to ensure compliance with applicable policies, regulations, data security standards, and best practices in IT governance.
• Global and International Technology Solutions: Work closely with various GT teams to leverage reusable business and technology solutions, infrastructure & operations, production support for Canada driving efficiency, economy of scale and technical skillsets to achieve common goals.
• Communication: Work with platform and business relationship management teams to ensure that all the stakeholders can understand, in simple terms, the technical solutions to ensure messaging is always aligned, accurate and consistent.

Qualifications

• Degree in Computer Science, Information Technology, or related fields
• 15+ years of experience in IT leadership roles, and Director-level experience in a global organization is preferred.
• Strong background in development, quality assurance, management, and control processes.
• Expert experience in a leadership capacity within the large financial institutions, financial arms of insurance companies, and credit bureaus is a must-have.
• Track record and passionate about leveraging technologies to drive innovation and efficiency to enable business objectives.
• Excellent verbal, written and presentation communication and interpersonal skills.
• Demonstrated ability to align IT strategies with business objectives.
• Expertise across the full technology stack.
• Deep understanding of Cloud, Data and AI technologies and their practical applications is a definite asset. GCP experience is preferred.
• Strong people leadership experience with direct reports in Canada, India and other global locations.
• Highly analytical problem-solving skills.
• Ability to work during off regular office hours to enable collaboration across global teams, and for production issue management or implementation support.