Lead, Automation Platform

JOB SUMMARY A talented and passionate senior individual to join Standard Chartered as a Lead for our Automation Platform. In this role, you will be driving the DevOps engineering strategy of the platform teams under Technology & Architecture. This role will play a critical part in helping shape and guide the future growth and development for Infrastructure automation and will be responsible for the creation and transformation of the capabilities that will define how we manage our on‑prem infrastructure. This includes leading the design and delivery of certain platform automation capabilities on how we empower platform teams to run their automation, finding the balance between good engineering experience and governance. In addition, you will lead a team of platform engineers to continuously improve this capability. Your work will directly reduce environment setup time from days to minutes, allowing teams to focus on business logic instead of infrastructure. You’ll embed security, compliance, and cost‑optimization into every layer of the platform while fostering a culture of automation‑first excellence. Transformation, Technology & Operations (TTO) is a global organisation providing Cloud, Data, End User, Infrastructure, Integration, IT Service Management, Network and Security capabilities to all our clients and colleagues globally with an operating budget of $500mil USD and $200mil USD of change. RESPONSIBILITIES Strategy Design and Build Self‑Service IaaS: Design and deploy automated pipelines for provisioning secure, compliant on‑prem environments (Kubernetes, VMs, networks, storage) using IaC (Puppet, Ansible). Design and Implement JIT Access: Develop zero‑trust security models with dynamic, time‑bound access controls (e.g., HashiCorp Vault). Automate Lifecycle Management: Enable 1‑click environment creation, scaling, and teardown via CI/CD and GitOps workflows (e.g. Jenkins, Azure DevOps). Embed Compliance: Integrate banking‑grade security (RBAC, secrets management, auditing) into all provisioning processes. Optimize Developer Experience: Create intuitive interfaces (CLI/UI) for developers to request, manage, and monitor resources. Lead & Guide: You will lead a team of platform engineers to deliver business value to other platform and engineering teams. Collaborate & Evangelise: Partner with app dev teams to understand pain points and drive adoption of the IaaS platform. Continuous Improvement: Monitor system performance, reduce toil, and iterate using data‑driven insights (Prometheus/Grafana). Business Develop and maintain strong relationships with internal and external stakeholders. Deliver new solutions and new practices to ensure the organisation capitalises on industry learning and growth. Contribute to new business initiatives and projects. Appraise and interpret complex requirements to understand the impact of the organisation's ability to deliver change. Processes Realise the end‑to‑end delivery practice and its associated list of processes. Responsible for delivery processes. Be responsible for the risk management of change. Drive the optimisation of delivery by reviewing and optimising data pertaining to the effectiveness of change. People & Talent Exceptional communication, problem‑solving, and organisational skills. Ability to influence and lead diverse teams. Lead through example and build the appropriate culture and values. Set appropriate tone and expectations from their team and work in collaboration with risk and control partners. Risk Management Own the risks linked to the delivery of code into production. Own the risks linked to the maintenance of code in production. Own the end‑to‑end risks associated with the dev/test environments and the requisite tooling. Drive for the closure of risks, operational events and audit findings on time, once and done. Educate the team on risk management and continual mitigating of risk. Comply with organisation risk management framework. Find automated solutions to reduce risk and prevent human and manual solutions. Governance Awareness and understanding of the regulatory framework, in which the Group operates, and the regulatory requirements and expectations relevant to the role. Regulatory & Business Conduct Display exemplary conduct and live by the Group’s Values and Code of Conduct. Take personal responsibility for embedding the highest standards of ethics, including regulatory and business conduct, across Standard Chartered Bank. This includes understanding and ensuring compliance with, in letter and spirit, all applicable laws, regulations, guidelines and the Group Code of Conduct. Effectively and collaboratively identify, elevate, mitigate and resolve risk, conduct and compliance matters. Take personal responsibility for embedding the highest standards of ethics, including regulatory and business conduct, across Standard Chartered Bank. This includes understanding and ensuring compliance with, in letter and spirit, all applicable laws, regulations, guidelines and the Group Code of Conduct. Key Stakeholders TTO Management Team T&A Management Team Software Engineering Platform Teams Engineers Business, Regional & Country CIOs & COOs CISRO, CISO CDO Group and Country Compliance & Regulators Group Internal Audit Operational Risk Other Responsibilities Stakeholder management and education sessions to clarify complex topics into digestible sound bites. Be an example of great engineering leadership in terms of ownership, accountability, and practices. Perform other responsibilities assigned under Group, Country, Business or Functional policies and procedures. Responsible for building a culture of good conduct. Nice‑to‑Haves Experience with platform engineering (Backstage, internal developer portals). Knowledge of hybrid cloud (AWS/Azure/GCP integrated with on‑prem). Contributions to open‑source infrastructure projects. Financial services or highly regulated industry experience. Why Join Us? Impact at Scale: Your work will directly accelerate innovation for thousands of developers. Cutting‑Edge Tech: Build a mission‑critical platform using cloud‑native principles on‑prem. Culture of Change: We reward calculated risk‑takers who challenge “how it’s always been done.” Growth: Access to conferences, certifications, and mentorship from industry leaders. Benefits: Competitive salary, bonuses, healthcare, and flexible/hybrid work. Qualification Bachelor’s degree in computer science or equivalent, and at least 8 years’ experience in Software Engineering, DevOps, or related fields. Role Specific Technical Competencies On‑prem infrastructure (VMware, or bare‑metal) One IaC tools configuration management tools (Puppet, Ansible) Container orchestration (Kubernetes, Docker) and networking (Calico, Istio) Automating security (JIT access, secrets management, policy‑as‑code) Scripting/coding skills (Python, Go, Ruby Shell Bash) Fundamentals pertaining to software engineering, containers, databases, networks, and infrastructure Any CI/CD pipeline, preferably Azure DevOps (ADO), managing Boards, pipelines and integrating workflows Test driven development 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. #J-18808-Ljbffr