Job Summary

This role could be based in the UK or SG. When you start the application process you will be presented with a drop down menu showing all countries, Please ensure that you select a country where the role is based.

Standard Chartered is uplifting the financial markets technology estate to a modern architecture to provide solid foundations for its business growth. The “Head of S2BX Engineering” is accountable for defining and delivering the end-to-end technology strategy, platforms and services that support Standard Chartered’s Straight2Bank Exchange (S2BX) - SCB's multi-asset electronic trading platform.  This role is at Band 4 level (equivalent to Executive Director). The role leads the critical technology estate that delivers pricing, market connectivity and analytics for FX, NDF, MM, Precious metals & Digital Assets to external clients and Internal Sales & Trading across the SCB footprint.

The role provides senior technology, engineering and organisational leadership across a globally distributed S2BX Engineering organisation, partnering closely with Markets business, Product, Operations, Risk, Finance, Infrastructure and control functions to ensure that platform continues to lead low-latency pricing, execution, algorithmic trading capabilities and market making operations.

As a member of the ‘Markets Pricing, Connectivity & Analytics’ Engineering Team, the role balances strategic transformation with platform stability and service resilience, while driving simplification, modernisation, control uplift, cost discipline and execution excellence across the S2BX estate.

Key Responsibilities

Strategy
•    Set and own the end-to-end technology strategy for S2BX Engineering, covering multi-asset trading, real-time pricing, execution algorithms, market making technology and client connectivity, ensuring platforms are ultra-low latency, highly scalable, well-controlled and aligned to Markets business priorities and regulatory obligations.
•    Define and maintain a coherent S2BX technology roadmap, translating enterprise, Markets and client objectives into prioritised investments that balance platform modernisation, regulatory commitments, performance optimisation, service resilience and business growth.
•    S2BX Core Platform – Responsible for the strategy, design, delivery and resilience of end-to-end technology capabilities across the trading platform estate, ensuring ultra-low latency execution, real-time risk management, strong data integrity, effective risk mitigation and scalable platforms that support global market making operations.
•    Drive platform simplification, architectural consistency and reuse across the S2BX estate to reduce fragmentation, strengthen controls, improve performance and enhance long-term maintainability.
•    Provide decisive leadership on material strategy, delivery or performance issues across S2BX platforms, making timely trade-offs and escalation decisions to protect trading continuity, client experience and execution quality
•    Maintain a forward-looking modernisation roadmap that reduces technology obsolescence, improves execution performance, enhances algorithmic capabilities and ensures long-term supportability of mission-critical S2BX platforms.
•    Drive a performance, control and resilience agenda across the software development lifecycle, reducing latency, improving execution integrity and delivering measurable improvements in trading performance and client outcomes.
 

AI & Innovation
•    Provide senior leadership for AI engineering across S2BX platform, acting as an SME for AI-enabled software delivery across pricing, trading and automated risk management, ensuring consistent adoption of approved patterns, standards and secure delivery practices.
•    Support innovation in algorithmic trading, client execution optimization and automated market making through advanced analytics, machine learning and AI-driven trading strategies
•    Deliver tangible AI-enabled productivity gains and enhanced trading capabilities, translating innovation into measurable execution performance, client experience and operational outcomes
•    Support business teams in understanding the 'art of the possible' for AI in electronic trading, supporting the design and delivery of coherent, scalable solutions that enable trading innovation and client differentiation.
 

Business
•    Acts as a senior technology partner to Markets and client-facing leadership, shaping platform strategy, priorities and investment decisions in line with trading performance, client outcomes and competitive positioning.
•    Promote a platform-led operating model across S2BX Engineering, building reusable and well-governed capabilities that support multi-asset trading, algorithmic execution and market making while reducing fragmentation and operational dependency.
•    Lead investment planning, prioritisation and resource allocation for the S2BX estate, balancing strategic enhancement, performance optimization, platform health and service performance against agreed business and client priorities.
•    Influence and challenge senior stakeholders across Business, Sales, Trading and Client Management to translate strategic and client requirements into high-performance platform outcomes.
•    Oversee strategic vendor and third-party relationships across the S2BX estate to secure sustainable commercial, service, performance and risk outcomes across critical trading platforms and market data services.

 Processes
•    Ensure S2BX platforms operate with the highest standards of performance, availability and operational readiness, supporting time-critical trading, real-time pricing, algorithmic execution and market making workflows.
•    Embed disciplined engineering, Agile and DevOps practices across the organisation, with particular focus on low-latency development, performance testing, controlled releases, real-time monitoring and operational resilience.
•    Ensure compliance with defined engineering, testing and release disciplines, using automation and tooling to support efficient, repeatable and well-controlled execution of S2BX deliveries without impacting trading performance.
•    Define and enforce engineering standards covering ultra-low latency development, real-time data processing, execution integrity, performance monitoring, disaster recovery and end-to-end controls across critical S2BX processes.
•    Ensure S2BX platforms support regulatory compliance and supervisory expectations, including strong controls for trade reporting accuracy, best execution, client protection and data governance.
•    Drive automation and industrialisation across S2BX processes to reduce manual intervention, improve execution efficiency and enhance trading performance at scale.

Risk Management
•    Seek regular assurance that S2BX Engineering is operating to acceptable risk, control and performance standards, taking prompt action to address weaknesses and ensuring timely remediation of any trading or client impact
•    Operational Resilience Capability - Strengthen service resilience, disaster recovery and operational integrity for time-critical, high-volume S2BX platforms through disciplined engineering and continuous performance improvement.
•    Act quickly and decisively when performance, risk or control weaknesses become apparent, ensuring root-cause resolution, clear accountability and appropriate escalation through relevant governance forums.
•    Balance business delivery, performance optimization and transformation objectives with risk and control requirements to ensure platform decisions remain within the Group's risk appetite while maintaining competitive execution quality. 

 People and Talent
•    Set direction and drive high performance by translating strategy into clear direction, aligning individual goals to team outcomes and providing regular, constructive feedback.
•    Develop talent and capability through coaching and career conversations that build critical skills, stretch potential and prepare individuals for future opportunities.
•    Lead by example by role-modelling the Bank’s valued behaviours, upholding strong risk and conduct standards, exercising sound judgment, and creating an inclusive team culture that supports wellbeing, values diverse perspectives, and drives accountability.
•    • Provides executive leadership for a large, globally distributed S2BX Engineering organisation, setting direction, standards and expectations across low-latency engineering, algorithmic development and mission-critical platform operations.
•     Attract, retain and develop high-calibre engineering talent with expertise in C++14/17, Java, python, low-latency systems, network programming, distributed architectures and financial markets technology.
•    Build and maintain strong leadership and engineering depth through effective talent development, succession planning and capability building across critical S2BX platforms and trading technologies.
•    Build a diverse and inclusive organisation through inclusive hiring practices, objective talent decisions and an environment where different perspectives drive innovation in trading technology.
•    Lead through example, setting the tone for a culture of engineering excellence, performance optimization, collaboration and constructive partnership with trading and client-facing teams.
•    Ensure ongoing development of technical and domain capabilities across the organisation, including low-latency programming, algorithmic trading, market microstructure, DevOps, cloud and engineering excellence.

Qualifications

Key Experiences
•    Extensive senior leadership experience within Global Markets Technology, with deep expertise in areas such as FX, Electronic Trading, Market Pricing, Connectivity, Execution Platforms, Market Data, and Analytics.
•    Proven track record of leading large, globally distributed engineering organisations, driving strategic transformation initiatives, and delivering mission-critical, control-sensitive technology services that operate at scale.
•    Demonstrated ability to shape and execute technology strategy, platform modernisation, and engineering excellence agendas, balancing innovation, resilience, regulatory requirements, and business growth objectives.
•    Strong domain expertise in building and operating high-performance, low-latency trading platforms, with experience across pricing, execution, risk management, market connectivity, and client-facing trading capabilities.
•    Recognised leader in driving modern engineering practices, cloud adoption, AI-enabled development, platform simplification, automation, and operational resilience across complex enterprise environments.

Certifications / Qualifications 
•    Master's degree or equivalent in engineering, Computer Science, Mathematics, Quantitative Finance, Data Science, or a related quantitative discipline preferred, complemented by substantial practical leadership experience in delivering large-scale technology platforms.

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.