In the role of Head of Site Reliability Engineering (SRE) and Engineering Excellence you will play a pivotal role in ensuring the reliability, scalability and performance of ING’s (critical) services and systems.  You will focus on developing best of class practices, and tools and deliver these as part of ING’s One Engineering Systems to your users (i.e., SRE and DevOps Engineering Practitioners). 

The team

In this role you manage both Product Area Leads, as well as IT Area Leads. You are expected to be hands-on, advocate, and coach on content. 

You work closely with your Chief Architect, and Change/Transformation Lead in defining, delivering and operating the product and services you provide. This is not done in isolation; you collaborate with your counterparts of Local Head of SRE to create an inclusive environment of collaboration and adoption doing so scale out SRE across the organization. 

Roles and responsibilities

You will be playing a crucial part in the success of the must win battles defined by CTO. You will be responsible for the international growth of the function and will need to build collaborations across countries and global domains. You have the challenge of bringing to life and embed the engineering culture throughout the global Tech organization. As defined in our Tech strategy we have the ambition to be recognized as the Tech Leader in the industry and this position is expected to play a pivotal role, embodying ING externally through events and other social media platforms. 

In this role, you will: 

Lead Site Reliability Engineering Enablement: Define, Build, Enforce and Scale standards of (site) engineering practices, such as Observability Engineering, Test Engineering, Conformity, Change and Release Engineering.  Ensure Reliability by Design: By focusing on conformity, software design and qualitive implementation, and well architected reviews.  Take ownership of ITIL Processes: Defining, implementing, and adherence of processes such as: Change and Release Management, Deployment Management, Monitoring and Event Management. Drive Engineering Excellence: Create a culture of Engineering Excellence and Professional Pride. Create a strong internal and external brand in retaining and attracting top talent, take a step forward in technology and developer advocacy.  

How to succeed

We hire smart people like you for your potential. Our biggest expectation is that you’ll stay curious. Keep learning. Take on responsibility. In return, we’ll back you to develop into an even more awesome version of yourself.

This function requires a comprehensive skill set to effectively lead the implementation of site reliability engineering and engineering excellence across the organization. 

Strategic Vision: 

Strategic: Ability to develop a vision (think big) and implement strategies that enhance site reliability engineering. Ability to look beyond the short-term-gains and focus on the long-terms objectives and overall direction and strategy of the organisation. Innovation and Creativity: Forward-thinking mindset to stay abreast of emerging technologies and industry trends. Finding new ways to solve problems and improve processes that align with future goals and objectives. Product Management: Ability to create a purpose, roadmap, set objectives and key results to effectively drive the delivery of purposeful products and services.  Market, Domain and Industry Awareness: Understand the Business Goals, and Industry dynamics. Keep-up with industry trends (technology, user behaviors, concepts.) 

Cross Functional and Cultural Leadership: 

Collaboration and Influence: Excellent communication skills, to lead cross functional, multi-disciplinary distributed teams, including product management, engineering, operations. Leadership Skills: Strong leadership skills to guide and inspire the engineering community that include both engineers, and peer IT and Area Leads globally. Change Management: Leading organizational change efforts to adopt new practices, tools, and cultural shifts, while managing resistance and buy-in across teams and individuals.  Diversity and Inclusion: Commitment to nurture an inclusive environment where diverse perspectives are valued.  

Technical Leadership and Knowledge: 

Understanding Complex Systems: Experience in managing large-scale, distributed systems with focus on reliability, performance and scalability.  Site Reliability Engineering: Advanced knowledge of observability, capacity management, incident and response, testing, change and release practices and tools and the principles behind these. DevOps: Deep understanding of DevOps principles and practices, and supporting tools such as Pipelines, Test Automation, Iterative and Continuous Development and Integration.  Automation and Process Optimisation: Experience in automating routine tasks using tools and scripting languages like Python, Bash, or Ruby. And experience in Process Optimization using Lean and/or Six Sigma methodologies, or alike.  Cloud: Understands Cloud Infrastructures, and Cloud Native Concepts, such as Infra Structure as Code, Containerization, Virtualization, etc. Engineering Excellence: Proven track record by defining high-quality standards of code, design and operational practices at scale. Operations: Knowledge on operational practices such as SLO/SLIs, IT Risk, RCAs, etc. 

Analytical and Critical Thinking: 

Problem-Solving Skills: Proficiency in identifying issues, analyzing complex systems, and devising effective solutions. Hypothesis-Driven: Takes a scientific approach in solving problems.  Data Driven Decision Making: Ability to analyze data, trends and make informed decisions, that align with strategic goals. 

Attention to Detail: 

Meticulous attention to detail to ensure high-quality outcomes and system reliability. Extreme eye for quality 

Communication Skills: 

Excellent verbal and written communication skills to articulate vision, strategies, and technical concepts to diverse stakeholders Excellent command of the English language in writing and verbal. Cross-Cultural Communication: Ability to effectively communicate and collaborate with teams across different cultures and regions. Advocacy: Strong advocate e.g. presenting on stage, conferences, convey a story and message to larger audience, is seen as an authority in his/her field of expertise. 

Collaboration: 

Interdepartmental Collaboration: Ability to work collaboratively with other departments, teams, in an international matrix organization. Work in triangle of Product - Engineering – Architecture. Stakeholder Management: Skills in managing relationships with internal and external stakeholders. Community of Practice: Building and maintain a culture that promotes collaboration, shared responsibility and continuous learning, focused on craft and excellence. 

Innovation and Adaptability: 

Staying up to date of emerging technologies and industry trends to drive continuous improvement and innovation. Keeps track of latest development in SRE discipline. 

These skills collectively enable the Head of SRE & Engineering Excellence to create an environment that enhances reliability and promotes craftsmanship, engineering excellence across various aspects of software development and operations life cycle throughout the organization.  

Rewards and benefits

We want to make sure that it’s possible for you to strike the right balance between your career and your private life. You can find out more about our employment conditions at https://www.ing.jobs/netherlands/Why-ING/benefits.htm

The benefits of working with us at ING include:

 A salary tailored to your qualities and experience 24-27 vacation days depending on contractPension scheme13th month salaryIndividual Savings Contribution (BIS), 3.5% of your gross annual salary8% Holiday paymentHybrid working to blend home working for focus and office working for collaboration and co-creationPersonal growth and challenging work with endless possibilitiesAn informal working environment with innovative colleagues

About us

With 60,000 employees and operations in approximately 40 countries, there is no shortage of opportunities for people with initiative who want to help people take a step ahead in life and in business. Do you want to work at the cutting edge of what’s possible and at the same time ensure you work with integrity and hold the customer’s interests at heart? Do you want to be surrounded by progressive, inspiring, diverse and supportive colleagues? Then there is no better place to invest your talents than at ING. Join us. Apply today.

Questions?

Contact the recruiter attached to the advertisement for more information. Want to apply directly? Please upload your CV and motivation letter by clicking the “Apply” button.

Please note, multiple interview steps involving various business stakeholders will be part of the selection process.