Executive Director of Engineering - Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation

• Maintain significant hands-on involvement in development (50-70% coding expected), focusing on critical features and complex technical challenges
• Lead solution design for major initiatives, ensuring architectural consistency across your team's deliverables
• Review and guide technical designs, conducting architecture reviews for significant features
• Champion engineering best practices including code reviews, testing standards, and comprehensive documentation
• Design cloud-native solutions that balance immediate needs with long-term platform flexibility and scalability
• Act as the technical escalation point for complex problems across the engineering organization

• Manage and mentor an expert engineering team, fostering a culture of technical excellence and continuous learning
• Conduct regular 1:1s, performance reviews, and career development discussions with direct reports
• Create individual development plans and identify growth opportunities for team members
• Foster psychological safety and an inclusive environment that encourages innovation and healthy technical debate
• Partner with the Engineering Head on hiring decisions and talent development strategies

• Own delivery timelines and quality for multiple concurrent projects across your team
• Break down complex requirements into actionable sprints and deliverables, balancing technical debt with feature delivery
• Remove blockers and coordinate with cross-functional teams (product, QA, DevOps) to ensure smooth delivery
• Implement and maintain development practices supporting rapid, reliable deployments

• Represent your team in technical forums and leadership meetings
• Translate business requirements into technical roadmaps and communicate trade-offs clearly to stakeholders
• Build strong relationships with product management, QA, DevOps, and infrastructure teams
• Present technical initiatives and team achievements to senior leadership

Requirements:

Technical Expertise

Must demonstrate high proficiency in at least 3 of the following areas:

• Full Stack Development: 10+ years of hands-on experience with modern web technologies like React/Next.js, Node.js for front-end and/or Java/Spring Boot or similar for back-end technologies
• Cloud Architecture: Proven experience designing and implementing solutions on Azure (preferred) or AWS/GCP, including microservices and serverless patterns
• Mobile Development: Experience with React Native, Flutter, or native iOS/Android development
• DevOps Practices: Strong understanding of CI/CD, Infrastructure as Code, containerization (Docker/Kubernetes), and observability
• Database & Data Systems: Experience with both SQL and NoSQL databases, caching strategies, and event streaming (Kafka preferred)
• API Design: Expertise in RESTful API design, GraphQL, and API gateway patterns

• 8-10+ years of engineering management experience or technical leadership with direct reports
• Proven track record of hiring, developing, and retaining engineering talent
• Experience managing performance, including coaching underperformers and promoting high performers
• Demonstrated ability to balance significant technical contribution (50%+) with people management responsibilities
• Experience working with distributed teams across multiple time zones

• Strong technical judgment with ability to make pragmatic trade-offs between perfection and delivery
• Excellent communication skills - ability to explain complex technical concepts to varied audiences
• Growth mindset with continuous learning orientation
• Comfortable with ambiguity and able to drive clarity in uncertain situations
• Cultural sensitivity and experience working in global, multicultural environments

• Previous experience in banking, financial services, or regulated industries
• Experience with organizational transformation and change management
• Active participation in tech communities through speaking, writing, or open source contributions
• Experience building engineering teams from early stages