Director of Engineering, Core Banking Engineering & Operations

Ford Credit is building Ford Credit Bank and launching a greenfield deposit banking operation. This role leads engineering delivery and operational excellence for the bank’s core banking ecosystem, with primary accountability for Fiserv DNA (core processing / system of record) and Fiserv Create Digital (digital banking experience).

Role Summary

As a Director of Engineering based in Chennai, you will build and lead teams responsible for both ‘build’ and ‘run’ outcomes: reliable platform delivery, production stability, operational controls, and continuous modernization. You will partner closely with US-based product, architecture, security/identity, compliance, and bank operations leaders and coordinate delivery with Fiserv and other ecosystem partners.

Key Responsibilities

• Own end-to-end engineering delivery and production operations for Fiserv DNA and Fiserv Create Digital (and other fiserv surrounds enabling the digital banking experience ), including availability, resiliency, and release readiness.
• Establish strong run-the-bank practices: incident/problem/change management, on-call readiness, operational runbooks, and measurable reliability improvements.
• Lead secure platform integration patterns across Ford Credit systems, Fiserv platforms, and ancillary services using well-governed API-based connectivity.
• Partner with security and identity stakeholders to deliver compliant identity federation / unified login patterns and related operational controls.
• Embed regulatory-grade engineering discipline: access controls, audit evidence, segregation of duties, vendor oversight, and risk management in day-to-day execution.
• Drive quality and non-production data compliance, including disciplined test data governance and use of masked/synthetic data where required.
• Modernize delivery and operations using DevOps/SRE patterns, observability, automation, microservices/event-driven integration where appropriate, and AI-enabled operational improvements (within risk and security guardrails).
• Build, mentor, and retain high-performing engineering and operations leaders in Chennai; develop a culture of accountability, learning, and customer-first execution.
• Manage vendor outcomes and performance—establish clear SLAs/SLOs, governance cadence, and escalation paths to ensure predictable delivery.

Required Qualifications

• 15+ years of experience leading software engineering and/or production operations teams delivering mission-critical banking or regulated financial platforms.
• Hands-on leadership experience with Fiserv DNA (mandatory).
• Hands-on leadership experience with Fiserv Create Digital (mandatory).
• Demonstrated accountability for production stability (availability, incident response, change control) and delivery outcomes (roadmaps, releases, quality).
• Strong understanding of operational controls and compliance expectations for regulated environments (audit readiness, access controls, vendor oversight).
• Proven ability to lead globally distributed teams and influence across product, architecture, security, and operations stakeholders.
• Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Engineering, or related field.

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience integrating core banking platforms with digital onboarding / identity / KYC ecosystems.
• Experience designing or implementing identity federation (SSO/OIDC/SAML) for digital banking platforms.
• Experience building test strategy and data governance across large, multi-system programs.
• Experience applying AI to operations (e.g., intelligent alerting, incident classification, automated runbooks) in a controlled, compliant manner.

Leadership Characteristics

• Operator + Builder: drives stability and control while modernizing engineering practices.
• Systems thinker: understands end-to-end customer journeys and platform dependencies.
• Execution-focused: creates clarity, accountability, and predictable delivery across teams and vendors.
• People leader: attracts and develops strong leaders; sets a high bar for ownership and collaboration.

What Success Looks Like (First 6–12 Months)

• A durable operating model for DNA/Create Digital with measurable improvements in reliability, release quality, and transparency.
• Consistent operational controls and audit readiness embedded into engineering and vendor execution.
• Improved observability and automated operations capabilities, reducing time-to-detect and time-to-restore.
• A pragmatic modernization backlog (microservices/event-driven where beneficial) aligned to regulatory, security, and risk requirements.
• A strong leadership bench with clear succession, skills growth, and performance expectations.