Head of Infrastructure

Job Purpose:The Head of Infrastructure will serve as an elite executive leader driving Zand Bank’s core technology operations, infrastructure strategy, and organizational transformation. This role requires an inspiring, battle-tested technology veteran with exceptional, commanding leadership and masterful people-management skills to oversee cloud environments, enterprise networks, database systems, daily production stability, and application support. The incumbent must possess a proven track record of building and managing massive, highly complex human capital footprints, steering top-tier engineering cultures across onshore and offshore delivery centers while optimizing key vendor partnerships. Blending masterful Enterprise Architecture, Cloud Engineering, and Application Support oversight with deep experience in multi-payment gateways, massive payment volumes, and digital assets, this leader will pioneer the integration of Artificial Intelligence (AI) to revolutionize operational support monitoring and automated incident resolution, while maintaining the absolute executive presence required to formally deputize for the CTO.Key Responsibilities:1. High-Impact Leadership & People ManagementDepartmental Governance: Build, scale, and command a world-class infrastructure and support engineering department; instill a culture of absolute accountability, transparency, high performance, and relentless execution.Talent Development & Mentorship: Drive comprehensive career pathing, succession planning, and performance management structures; actively coach senior engineers, managers, and architects to build a highly resilient leadership pipeline.Onshore/Offshore Orchestration: Serve as the central leadership anchor synchronizing distributed teams, bridging cultural gaps, and driving identical engineering standards across all geographic locations.CTO Backfill: Stand in for the CTO during absences, decisively leading executive-level technology forums, steering committees, and corporate operational reviews.C-Suite Advisory: Act as a trusted strategic advisor to the executive team, translating complex technical infrastructure risks, performance metrics, and digital asset strategies into clear, actionable business vectors.2. Team Management, Support Operations & Vendor GovernanceHigh-Performance Team Culture: Manage day-to-day team allocations, balance workloads across critical streams, eliminate burnout, and ensure 24/7/365 coverage for business-critical functions without compromising team morale.Offshore Team Command: Direct and optimize offshore engineering and support teams, ensuring complete cultural alignment, high delivery velocity, and strict adherence to banking performance benchmarks.Vendor & Partner Alliances: Lead complex, multi-million-dollar negotiations and build strategic, long-term relationships with critical technology partners and offshore vendors, maintaining tight oversight on SLAs and performance deliverables.3. AI-Driven Application Support & AIOps InnovationIntelligent Support Automation: Architect and execute the integration of AI/ML tools within L2/L3 support to drive automated anomaly detection, root-cause analysis (RCA), and self-healing systems.Predictive Incident Management: Leverage advanced AI models and predictive analytics to identify infrastructure degradation and potential payment bottlenecks before they impact production.AI Tooling for SRE: Deploy LLMs and AI agents to assist support engineering teams with real-time log analysis, automated runbook generation, and accelerated incident resolution workflows.4. Enterprise Architecture & Tech StrategyTarget State Blueprinting: Define and maintain the enterprise-wide infrastructure blueprints, ensuring cohesive integration between core banking systems, AI monitoring fabrics, middleware, and external networks.Tech Stack Evolution: Evaluate emerging technologies, govern architecture standards, and aggressively eliminate technical debt to support rapid scaling.Digital Asset Architecture: Architect and secure infrastructure supporting digital assets, cryptocurrencies, tokenization, and distributed ledger technology (DLT).5. Cloud Engineering, Infrastructure & Payment ModernizationCloud-First Delivery: Drive the strategy, governance, and engineering of highly resilient multi-cloud architectures (AWS/Azure) tailored for regulated banking.Core Systems Integration: Oversee enterprise networking, distributed database systems, and data layer performance ensuring 99.999% uptime.Payment Rails Navigation: Architect and support robust connectivity infrastructure for multi-payment gateways, local clearing systems, and real-time payment settlement networks.Production Stability: Own the 24/7/365 availability of production environments, guaranteeing zero-downtime tolerance for foundational banking services.Disaster Recovery: Establish robust Site Reliability Engineering (SRE), Business Continuity Planning (BCP), and Disaster Recovery (DR) protocols across all core systems.Regulatory Command: Serve as the primary technical liaison and authoritative voice with the Central Bank of the UAE and regional financial regulators regarding infrastructure resilience, data sovereignty, ethical AI guardrails, and digital asset compliance.Required Qualifications & Skills:Experience & EducationMinimum of 15 years of continuous experience directly within IT infrastructure roles inside commercial, investment, or digital banking environments.At least 7+ years of experience operating at a Director or Head of Department level, with a proven history of successfully managing massive, multi-layered global teams (50+ engineers/contractors) and deputizing for C-level executives.Demonstrated expertise in modern agile management, resource forecasting, conflict resolution, performance optimization, and running high-turnover offshore models with elite retention rates.Proven track record spanning across Enterprise Architecture, Cloud Engineering, and Application Support domains within the financial sector.Proven experience managing infrastructure for high-volume transaction processing systems, clearing houses, or multi-payment gateways.Bachelor’s or Master’s degree in Computer Science, Information Technology, or a related field.Technical & Strategic CompetenciesExceptional situational leadership skills with a proven ability to lead human capital through high-pressure production crises, large-scale structural reorgs, and rapid digital transformation phases.Demonstrated experience implementing market-leading AIOps tools, machine learning pipelines for log/telemetry analysis, or AI-powered helpdesk automation.Deep knowledge of Enterprise Architecture methodologies (e.g., TOGAF) and bank-wide tech governance.Mastery of multi-cloud engineering (AWS, Azure) and container orchestration within production-scale environments.Practical understanding of blockchain infrastructure, smart contract deployment nodes, and institutional cryptographic custody frameworks (e.g., Fireblocks, MPC technology).Exceptional negotiation, conflict resolution, and communication skills tailored for regulators, auditors, and executive leadership.