Tech Lead, Core Banking System

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We are looking for Tech Lead to lead architecture work at Core Banking System Tribe (CBS) within our retail banking business area. Within OP Financial Group’s architecture leadership model, the Tech Lead is regarded as equivalent to a senior technical and technology architect role.

This position is located in Helsinki. Like the rest of OP, we work flexibly, combining both office days and remote work. 

What is this role about?

The CBS tribe is responsible for the end-to-end development and maintenance of core banking systems, ensuring seamless integration and functionality across various platforms. As the driving force behind the Valas program, the CBS tribe is focused on transforming and modernizing our core banking systems to enhance operational efficiency and customer experience. By leveraging cutting-edge technologies and best practices in software development, the tribe aims to build a more agile, scalable, and resilient banking infrastructure. In the Valas program, work in the CBS tribe relies on extensive collaboration with multiple teams across various organizations within OP Financial Group.

In addition to possessing deep expertise in IT architecture and insight into the financing business, your responsibility is to ensure that the CBS Tribe adheres to the group's enterprise architecture principles across various IT domains, such as cloud, data, integration, and security. This role requires extensive collaboration with tech leads and enterprise architects in other business domains within your line organization, Development and Technologies, beyond your home tribe. You belong to the tribe leadership but also collaborate frequently with all relevant teams within the tribe.

Given CBS's huge size and the vast number of related organizations, this Tech Lead position demands strong leadership capabilities to guide other architects while being responsible for overseeing the entire Valas architecture.

Your key areas of responsibility:
•    Accountable for ensuring each system within the tribe has a technical roadmap, including the appropriate cloud migration strategy (7R's) for public cloud adoption.
•    Accountable for managing and reducing technical debt and technology debt within the tribe.
•    Accountable for ensuring each system within the tribe has technical documentation that meets regulatory requirements and supports system operability.
•    Responsible for maintaining a holistic view of the tribe's IT systems' target state architecture, including a thorough understanding of the current architecture, and managing and steering the target state architecture to ensure alignment with the OP Financial Group’s enterprise architecture principles and guidelines. 
•    Responsible for providing clear guidance to each team on how to approach practical technical challenges.
•    Responsible for fostering and actively coordinating collaboration among technical personnel (developers, data engineers, data scientists, etc.) across the tribe.
•    Responsible for advising other tribe leadership roles on all technology-related matters.
•    Responsible for creating higher-level Architectural Decision Records (ADRs) for the tribe.
•    Consulted for strategic ICT planning within the business area.

Note that being accountable does not mean you must execute those tasks yourself; your role is to lead the teams within your tribe to accomplish these larger objectives.
 

What do we expect from you?

We are seeking a candidate with strong experience in IT architecture and financing business, as well as a deep understanding of technology and technical issues. Equally essential to success are excellent collaboration and communication skills with business management, as well as leadership and coaching abilities for guiding and mentoring developers. The ability to work independently and take initiative is crucial for thriving in this role.

More detailed list of technology knowledge and skills we are looking for:
•    Microsoft Azure, AKS, Microsoft Power Platform
•    Containers, Java
•    DevOps principles and modern cloud-based software development
•    Data platform concept and architecture
•    Information architecture
•    Integration architecture and technologies, specifically on an event-driven model
•    Experience (5+ years) in a relevant IT architecture role and preferably from a large-scale project or program
•    Experience from banking domain IT systems related to accounts, deposits, loans, cards and payments

Additionally, experience in the following is beneficial:
•    Regulation frameworks, such as Basel III, BCBS 239, DORA, GDPR and PSD2
•    Mainframe technology, CRM domain and Microsoft Dynamics CRM
•    Banking and financing business domain
•    Execution architecture

Mastering Finnish is an advantage, but not mandatory for this role.

Why OP?

In internal surveys at OP, our employees often cite the work community and their highly skilled colleagues as the most rewarding aspects of their work. We take great pride in this. As a member of OP, you will join a company that is dedicated to developing the best products and services in the industry.
 

As an employer OP offers you a stable environment where people come first. Our people value good work-life balance and opportunities to learn and grow in their role. Our 70-20-10 model gives you a chance to focus on your professional development on your work time – by utilizing our very own OP Tech Academy, for instance.
 

When you work for OP, you work with the best products and services in the field. In everyday life, it is, of course, very nice to work in an architecturally beautiful environment, in a location easily accessible from basically anywhere. As an OP employee, you are entitled to:
•    Structured model for professional career advancement
•    Possibility to enhance your own skillset while working with highly talented teams
•    Comprehensive occupational healthcare
•    Sport and cultural benefits
•    Benefits and discounts on OP’s own products  
 

Sounds like your future role?

We are excited to have you join our team as soon as possible. To apply, please submit your application along with your salary expectations by Monday 3.2.2025 through our recruitment system. For more details, feel free to contact Competence Lead Sami Sivunen (tel. +358 40 555 9089), on 22.1.2025 at 16-17 and on 3.2.2025 at 15-16.

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We operate in the financial sector and our business is founded on trust and accountability. For this reason, we will check the successful candidate's credit history, corporate connections and potential conflicts of interest. In addition, the successful candidate must take a drug test and will be subject to a security clearance vetting by the Finnish Security and Intelligence Service.

OP Financial Group – We have something in common

Diversity and equality are highly prized at OP Financial Group. We want everyone to feel welcome and valued, and we appreciate that diversity enriches us and brings new perspectives. We invite job applications from everyone, because we all have something in common. We’re thrilled that you want to join us on our shared journey.

Owned by our customers, we are the most attractive financial sector employer in Finland. Our Group employs more than 14,000 professionals. We have a mission – to promote the sustainable prosperity, security and wellbeing of our owner-customers and operating region. What we do matters, both to our employees and society in general. As the largest financial services group in Finland, we are building a better tomorrow; this has been our goal for more than 120 years.

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