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 banks 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 performanceestablish 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.
• Bachelors 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 612 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.