Job Summary

The Head of Payments Foundation and Core Technology is responsible and accountable for driving the strategic direction and delivering a scalable, resilient, and future ready payment platform. Organisation will be structured to formulate and deliver an end-to-end technology strategy in collaboration with the other domain leads, Cash product, and COO teams for all current and future technology requirements of the organisation. Consider multiple levers in the development and execution of the technology strategy including client value, client experience, time to market, stability, resilience, scalability, cost efficiency, cloud adoptability, build & maintain etc. 

The role will provide critical leadership in the development and implementation of the technology plans to ensure the ongoing ability of cash payments product to achieve their business objectives effectively and efficiently. 

• Lead end to end business solutioning across payments domain.
• Drive solution architecture for key transformation program.
• Own design authority for payment solutions ensuring reuse of foundational capabilities, avoidance of fragmented solutions.
• Role expects deep subject matter knowledge and awareness of emerging issues, including regulations, industry practises and new technologies.
• Manage technology strategy for Foundation and Core domain, provide architecture direction, guiding principles, guardrails, and roadmaps that are aligned to both Business and Group’s Tech strategy.
• Collaborate with business partners and play a key role to increase commercialisation of the SCPAY platform for cash payments products (Domestic, Cross Border, etc.)
• Manage overall program backlog and achieve agreement on key program deliverables in partnership with various stakeholders and in alignment with business goals. Review and adjust direction and approach in collaboration with business stakeholders to keep programme on track.
• Interface with global business, Ops & technology leaders of other SCB interfacing systems for collaborative design, planning and end-to-end delivery.
• Challenge the status quo and champion a new culture of collaboration, innovation, agility, productivity, increased adoption, and continuous improvement.
• Build and sustain a strong and trusted relationship with COO and Cash Business partner.

Product Delivery

• Responsible for executing the domain's product vision together with the CPO and working with the CPO and Hive Tech Leads to communicate the Technology vision and roadmap for the domain working closely with relevant Architects and Engineering Leads
• Drive technology strategy, technology stack selection, and implementation for a future-ready payments platform, utilising architectural patterns such as microservices architecture, to achieve outcomes of highly scalable, robust, resilient, designed for failure, etc.
• Ensuring that the payment platform is designed and built on a stable and highly scalable infrastructure based on latest technologies and best practice, such as Cloud, DevOps, and Chaos Engineering.
• Provide an evolutional architecture that is rule based and flexible to keep up with the fast-changing landscape and capture flows by enhancements in real time payments, volume throughput, availability & processing time.
• Accountable for governance of all technology decisions in collaboration with other domain leads across payments future portfolio, balancing business objectives with business drivers against implementation speed, risk, and cost.
• Optimise business alignment and maximize value on investments by aligning technology decisions with business imperatives leading to cost optimisation through cost avoidance and cost reduction.
• Manage all system changes effectively and efficiently during the project delivery with all the agreed controls. Project execution – Speed and simplicity. The efficiency/ timeliness/ quality of the specific projects executed in the payment space.

Partnering and Innovation Culture

• Drive an ecosystem of innovation and enabling business through technology to improve the client experience and create an environment that strives for continuous improvements of the current functionality of the systems/platforms.Enable consistent quicker availability of sandbox environments to encourage innovation and experiments to help breakthrough business problems with future ready solutions
• Support Strategic Initiatives and Partnerships, become a trusted advisor to the business.
• Work hand in hand with product and COO partners and manage business partner expectations from timelines and quality perspectives
• Application of a broad and current industry perspective on technology trends/opportunities, alternate solution providers, leading practices, and our relative position
• Demonstration of technology thought leadership, foster productive business relationships, and build strong sponsorship of our technology architecture and roadmap.
• Understanding and influencing business strategy, ensuring it’s informed by current and emerging technology capability and supported by our architecture and roadmap
• Evaluate vendors to find solution that best fit our functional and technical architecture
• Incubation of various technology solution together with stakeholders from business to constantly search for opportunities to increase sales, optimize processes and mitigate risk.

Key Responsibilities

Strategy

• Define Cash Technology strategy & roadmap aligned to Business, Technology, Digital Agenda & portfolio priorities
• Advise leadership on emerging technologies & transformation trends; maintain current market & technical knowledge
• Build engineering excellence culture (fast feedback, simplicity, repeatability, clean code, high-quality delivery)
• Drive thought leadership, evangelism & upskilling (cloud, architecture, APIs, open banking)
• Align portfolio to Cloud, AI & future capabilities with optimal cost delivery
• Enable process efficiency, STP, zero-touch, risk reduction & controls in payments
• Remove delivery bottlenecks (e.g, optimized development pipeline)

Business

• Act as trusted advisor, leading programs from investment → design → delivery → operations
• Provide domain leadership & technical expertise to achieve outcomes
• Ensure resilience, obsolescence management & feature balance across platforms
• Manage stakeholder expectations (time, cost, quality)
• Drive innovation ecosystem & technology-enabled business growth

Processes

• Define standards for scalable, resilient, high-performance applications
• Enforce development best practices & governance frameworks
• Ensure alignment to group standards via training, oversight & support

People & Talent

• Attract, retain & develop high-quality, diverse talent (skills, background, gender, race)
• Foster innovation, transparency, accountability & business-first mindset
• Lead by example; enable collaboration across product, operations & interface teams
• Define clear roles, expectations & continuous feedback
• Maintain succession planning & continuity for key roles

Risk Management

• Own end-to-end risk management & controls across domain initiatives
• Monitor risk, control effectiveness & compliance standards
• Act on risk/control gaps with timely escalation & resolution
• Serve as risk control owner under group framework
• Balance risk, cost, quality & productivity
• Eliminate non-standard processes/systems reducing operational risk

Governance & Regulatory Conduct

• Embed values, ethics & code of conduct in culture
• Ensure compliance with regulatory, legal, AML & internal standards
• Maintain governance, oversight & control effectiveness
• Ensure awareness of regulatory expectations
• Take accountability for ethical conduct & compliance adherence
• Proactively identify, escalate, mitigate & resolve risk/compliance issues

Skills and Experience

• Expertise in Payments Domain
• Expertise in Business Solutions Architecture
• Advanced capabilities in Integration & Ecosystem Engineering
• Advanced capabilities in Platform Engineering
• Advanced experience in Large-Scale Transformation Initiatives
• Proven ability to design scalable, resilient, high-performance systems
• Strong focus on enabling business growth through technology-driven solutions
• Expertise in Application Design & Architecture
• Strong knowledge of Data Architecture
• Proficiency in IT Architecture
• Experience in Platform Architecture
• Expertise in Transitional Architecture
• Strong knowledge of Change Management
• Experience in product delivery lifecycle using Agile Ways of Working (Scrum, Kanban, Lean, etc.)
• Knowledge of Customer Support Policies, Standards, and Procedures
• Strong knowledge of Cash Management
• Excellent leadership and team management capabilities
• Effective communication and stakeholder management skills
• Familiarity with Payments regulatory requirements and industry standard

Qualifications

• University degree in Computing Science, Engineering, or a related field
• 20+ years of experience in large-scale technology programs within the banking or financial services industry
• Proven experience in a senior managerial role within technology or banking

Competencies

About Standard Chartered

We're an international bank, nimble enough to act, big enough for impact. For more than 170 years, we've worked to make a positive difference for our clients, communities, and each other. We question the status quo, love a challenge and enjoy finding new opportunities to grow and do better than before. If you're looking for a career with purpose and you want to work for a bank making a difference, we want to hear from you. You can count on us to celebrate your unique talents and we can't wait to see the talents you can bring us.

Our purpose, to drive commerce and prosperity through our unique diversity, together with our brand promise, to be here for good are achieved by how we each live our valued behaviours. When you work with us, you'll see how we value difference and advocate inclusion.

Together we:

• Do the right thing and are assertive, challenge one another, and live with integrity, while putting the client at the heart of what we do
• Never settle, continuously striving to improve and innovate, keeping things simple and learning from doing well, and not so well
• Are better together, we can be ourselves, be inclusive, see more good in others, and work collectively to build for the long term

What we offer

In line with our Fair Pay Charter, we offer a competitive salary and benefits to support your mental, physical, financial and social wellbeing.

• Core bank funding for retirement savings, medical and life insurance, with flexible and voluntary benefits available in some locations.
• Time-off including annual leave, parental/maternity (20 weeks), sabbatical (12 months maximum) and volunteering leave (3 days), along with minimum global standards for annual and public holiday, which is combined to 30 days minimum.
• Flexible working options based around home and office locations, with flexible working patterns.
• Proactive wellbeing support through Unmind, a market-leading digital wellbeing platform, development courses for resilience and other human skills, global Employee Assistance Programme, sick leave, mental health first-aiders and all sorts of self-help toolkits
• A continuous learning culture to support your growth, with opportunities to reskill and upskill and access to physical, virtual and digital learning.
• Being part of an inclusive and values driven organisation, one that embraces and celebrates our unique diversity, across our teams, business functions and geographies - everyone feels respected and can realise their full potential.