Sr. Director, Technology Risk Management - Santander Holdings USA Inc

Boston, United States of America

USA Job Family Description:  Monitors activities to minimize the company's exposure to technology risks. Activities may include independent 2nd line of defense independent assurance over technical risk analysis, risk identification and remediation. The incumbent shall ensure that the oversight over technology risk management activities is adequate to minimize compliance and regulatory risk by resolving issues and ensuring adherence to industry good practice frameworks, company and legal standards. The Senior Director is responsible for ensuring that all of the company's activities adhere to the necessary rules and regulations, and that the company complies with legal/regulatory statutes and jurisdictions.

USA Job Function Description:

The Sr. Director, Technology Risk at Santander US and Santander Bank NA is responsible for all independent risk management and assurance activities over the assigned business area’s technology footprint as part of the second line of defense Technology and Information Risk organization.

The incumbent develops and maintains an effective Technology Risk Management program that enables the assigned business area to comprehensively identify, assess, mitigate, manage, monitor and report technology risk, including performing technical risk reviews of identified domains.

This role is established in the second line of defense and requires collaboration across CISO, Data Office, IT, Operational Risk, Internal Audit and other relevant functional stakeholders within the organization in the management of existing and emerging technology risks. An excellent understanding of the evolving regulatory landscape in the US and EU are vital for success in this role.

The day-to-day focus may vary depending on the requirements of the overall second line of defense program priorities directed by the Head of Technology Risk and may include: planned or ad-hoc technical risk reviews, review of Technology or Business initiatives, Review and challenge activities, Risk reporting, development of technical risk framework and methodologies.

The team to support the oversight of technology risks will comprise of individuals positioned as a center of excellence aligned against the core coverage areas noted above. Direct reports include leads assigned to core coverage areas.

Key Responsibilities:

• Establish themselves as the second line of defense subject matter expert for key stakeholders in the management of technology risks across all operating entities
• Prepare information to enable governance committees / working groups in the management oversight of technology risks
• Participate in relevant governance committees and working groups as a delegate of the Head of Technology, including the Operational Risk Committee, Technology Executive Working Group, Information Security & Data Management Committee, Architectural Review Board, AI Evaluation Forum
• Initiate timely escalations to the Head of Technology Risk and to the leadership team
• Identify and assess technology risks and counsel business units managers, IT GRC, CDO and/or CISO stakeholders on risk management issues to ensure awareness and accountability for technology risks
• Oversee ongoing oversight of the firm’s technology and information risk footprint through ongoing monitoring, formal review and challenge activities, targeted risk reviews, technology policy and standard assurance, and other activities e.g., transformation review and challenge.
• Develop and implement a technical risk management governance, framework to enable the strategic business direction of the organization
• Ensure the updating of existing policies and framework or develop new ones that steer the safe and sound adoption of technologies across the organization
• Participate in the independent and ongoing risk oversight of key technology components of the firm’s digital transformation initiatives. Additionally, participate in the oversight of key emerging technology risks
• Implement and sustain independent risk oversight coverage of the operating platform and vendor software development activities.
• Work across the lines of defense to recommend strategies that effectively treat risks within the risk appetite
• Monitor external trends and evaluate potential impacts to business strategy; provide documented analytical insights of the risk horizon, while ensuring a sound operational and compliance control environment through establishment of a system of effective and sustainable internal controls
• Participate in evaluation of new products / Business changes / projects and assess related information risks and impact to the technology risk profile
• Participate in the evaluation and management of technology risks related to third-party suppliers involved in technology and business projects
• Advises on remediation of regulatory findings, correction of any inconsistencies and monitors resolution.
• Manage, oversee and contribute to targeted risk reviews designed to evaluate technology risks and their effective and sustainable mitigation
• Perform review and challenge of first line of defense risk management processes, data and outcomes (e.g. risk assessments, control evaluations, risk metrics, mitigation plans, risk acceptances etc.) and communicate risk opinions at various levels of management
• Analyze risk data from various sources (e.g. external events, control deficiencies, risk register etc.) to identify and measure levels of risk, concentration, trends and patterns
• Participate in the review and challenge of scenario for crisis management exercises, especially where there is a technology component
• Support process for constructive engagement across the Lines of Defense regarding differences or conflicts in risk appetite, risk metric determination or evaluation, issue severity or other areas of dispute
• Manage delivery timelines and develop materials to ensure second line of defense independent opinion appropriately represented during committee meetings, external exams and internal audits.
• Ensure all activities and deliverables achieve their timeliness, quality and accuracy service levels.
• Collaborate with other second line of defense functions such as Operational Risk, Enterprise Risk, Model Risk, Data Privacy, Compliance etc. on common priorities and strategic initiatives
• Provides second line of defense leadership and subject matter expertise during response to major technology or cyber incidents and coordinate second line of defense engagement and response of incident / crisis managers
• Recruits, develops, and manages talent to create within the organization a culture of leadership, performance, and accountability.

Qualifications: To perform this job successfully, an individual must be able to perform each essential duty satisfactorily. The requirements listed below are representative of the knowledge, skill, and/or ability required. Reasonable accommodations may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform the essential functions.

Education:

Required:

• Bachelor's Degree in a technical discipline or equivalent work experience: Computer Science, Computer Engineering, Information Technology, Information Systems.
• Professional Certifications.

Preferred:

• Master's Degree in related technical disciplines.
• Professional Certifications in Cloud Infrastructure Management (AWS, Azure).

Work Experience:

• 15+ years overall professional experience in IT risk management roles in a matrix organization
• Practitioner and management experience in one or more areas of managing Technology risks across multiple technical domains of expertise
• Experience in IT risk consulting in the financial services sector, Technology audit, or in a similar first or second line of defense role is highly preferred
• Experience within a highly regulated environment such as the financial services industry and knowledge of the current and evolving regulatory landscape is necessary
• Experience leading high performance teams

Skills and Abilities:

• Strong understanding of technology infrastructure, application development and maintenance, IT service management and enterprise resilience
• Experience with developing and implementing Information Risk Management Programs
• Demonstrated leadership skills and ability to coordinate oversight activities across different teams
• Knowledge of current and evolving regulatory requirements and industry best practices in technology risk management
• Demonstrated strong Leadership Experience

Technical Skills:

• Technology Resilience
• Zero trust IT architectures
• IT Asset Management
• Software development lifecycle
• Obsolescence Management
• Datacentre Management
• Network and Communications Management
• Virtualization
• IT Service Management e.g. IT Change Management, Capacity Management, Configuration Management etc.
• Cloud infrastructure, service and deployment models
• End user computing

Competencies and Abilities:

• Demonstrated expertise and track record in technology risk management, and ability to perform at an advanced level of competence.
• Advanced knowledge of technical risk management best practices and how to implement them.
• Ability to engage effectively with both senior management and operational teams
• A keen sense of risk anticipation with attention to details and an ingrained ability to connect the dots and challenge status quo
• An execution and solution focused risk mindset with an ability to push the needle forward even with ambiguous or incomplete information
• Ability to direct, train and guide peers, subordinates and management.
• A team player who can coordinate and drive consensus among different teams and stakeholders having varying view points
• Ability to build relationships, influencing and negotiations across diverse stakeholders across the lines of defense, handle conflict resolution with other groups to ensure appropriate risk management decisions are made.
• Ability to adjust to new developments/changing circumstances.
• Ability to effectively communicate and build relationships with multiple levels of the organizational structure, including senior level management.
• Ability to collaborate with multidisciplinary teams.
• Ability to multi-task and adapt/adjust to multiple demands and competing priorities.
• Ability to maintain and report on confidential information in an appropriate manner.
• Ability to convey a sense of urgency and drive issues/projects to closure.
• Ability to effectively interact with the executive management and vendors.
• Ability to demonstrate sound judgement and critical thinking
• Excellent written and oral communication skills.
• Excellent analytical, organizational and project management skills.
• Strong leadership, supervisory engagement skills.
• Strong risk, process, and control validation and/or assessment skills.

Diversity & EEO Statements: At Santander, we value and respect differences in our workforce and strive to increase the diversity of our teams. We actively encourage everyone to apply.

Santander is an equal opportunity employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, genetics, disability, age, veteran status or any other characteristic protected by law.

Employer Rights: This job description does not list all of the job duties of the job. You may be asked by your supervisors or managers to perform other duties. You may be evaluated in part based upon your performance of the tasks listed in this job description. The employer has the right to revise this job description at any time. This job description is not a contract for employment and either you or the employer may terminate at any time for any reason.

Primary Location: Boston, MA, Boston

Other Locations: Massachusetts-Boston,Texas-Dallas,New Jersey-Florham Park,Florida-Miami,New York-New York

Organization: Santander Holdings USA, Inc.

The base pay range for this position is posted below and represents the annualized salary range. For hourly positions (non-exempt), the annual range is based on a 40-hour work week. The exact compensation may vary based on skills, experience, training, licensure and certifications and location.