Applications Support Group Manager - Senior Vice President
Citi
IT, Customer Service
London, UK
The Global Financial Messaging / Payments Technology SVP (C14) is a senior Application Manager is responsible for end-to-end ownership of Global Financial Messaging (GFM) / Payments applications within the Production Support and Services organization. This role combines strategic leadership, deep technical expertise, and operational excellence to ensure high availability, resiliency, and performance of mission-critical, franchise payment platforms.
The role operates at a global level, driving stability, modernization, and transformation initiatives while partnering with business, product, and engineering teams. The SVP acts as a delegate to global leadership and is accountable for delivering best-in-class production support services and continuous improvement across the payments ecosystem
Key Responsibilities :
1. Strategic & Regional Leadership
Define and execute the strategy for GFM / Payments Production Support, aligned with global payments technology objectives
Build and lead high-performing global teams, including onshore, offshore, and vendor resources
Act as a senior escalation point and decision-maker for critical production and business-impacting issues
Partner with senior business stakeholders to align technology services with enterprise priorities
2. Production Support & Operational Excellence
Ensure 24x7 stability and availability of Global Financial Messaging and Payments applications
Oversee incident, problem, and change management processes aligned with ITIL best practices
Drive improvements in: Mean Time to Recovery (MTTR)
Incident reduction and root cause elimination
Service level adherence and operational KPIs
Lead release management and production deployments, ensuring minimal business disruption
3. Technical Leadership & Engineering Excellence
Provide hands-on technical leadership across: Observability (monitoring, logging, tracing)
Automation and self-healing capabilities
Resiliency, disaster recovery, and failover strategies
Champion modern engineering practices including: Infrastructure-as-Code
CI/CD pipelines
Automation and scripting (Python, Shell, etc.)
Guide teams on application stability, scalability, and performance optimization
4. Architecture & Platform Governance
Collaborate with architecture and engineering teams to embed: Supportability standards
Resilient system design principles
Define onboarding standards and governance for new applications into production
Influence platform modernization across messaging and payment systems
5. Stakeholder & Business Engagement
Engage with senior leadership, product partners, and clients to communicate: Platform health
Operational risks
Strategic initiatives
Translate technical capabilities into business value, ensuring alignment with customer expectations
Support audit, regulatory, and compliance engagements
6. Risk, Control & Compliance
Ensure all activities adhere to Citi risk and control frameworks
Proactively identify, escalate, and resolve operational and regulatory risks
Maintain strong governance over: Change management, Production controls, Application lifecycle management
7. Financial & Vendor Management
Manage budgets, resource planning, and cost optimization initiatives
Drive efficiencies through: Automation, Process improvements, Vendor optimization
Oversee third-party and managed service providers, ensuring SLA adherence
8. Talent & Organization Development
Lead, coach, and develop diverse global teams
Build strong succession pipelines and technical leadership bench strength
Foster a culture of: Accountability, Continuous improvement, Operational excellence, Qualifications & Experience
Core Experience :
Rxperience in Production Support / Payments Technology / Financial Messaging
Proven leadership experience managing large global teams in mission-critical environments
Strong domain expertise in: Payments systems (SWIFT, real-time payments, financial messaging)
High-volume, low-latency transaction systems
Technical Expertise
Strong experience with: Distributed systems, middleware (MQ, Kafka), and APIs
Databases (Oracle, MongoDB)
Linux/Unix environments
Hands-on knowledge of: Monitoring tools (AppDynamics, ELK, Geneos)
CI/CD pipelines and automation tools
Cloud/container platforms (OpenShift, Kubernetes – preferred)
Leadership & Behavioral Skills:
Exceptional communication and stakeholder management skills across all levels
Ability to operate under high-pressure, high-visibility environments
Strong problem-solving, decision-making, and prioritization capability
Strategic mindset with the ability to translate vision into execution
Education:
Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Engineering, or related field required
Master’s degree preferred
Success Metrics:
Application uptime and stability metrics
Incident reduction and faster resolution times
Successful delivery of production releases and transformations
Improved operational efficiency and cost optimization
Strong stakeholder and client satisfaction
Summary:
This role represents a high-impact leadership position within GFM / Payments Technology, combining:
Deep technical expertise
Global operational responsibility
Strategic influence
What we’ll provide you:
By joining Citi, you will not only be part of a business casual workplace with a hybrid working model (up to 2 days working at home per week), but also receive a competitive base salary (which is annually reviewed), and enjoy a whole host of additional benefits such as:
27 days annual leave (plus bank holidays)
A discretional annual performance related bonus
Private Medical Care & Life Insurance
Employee Assistance Program
Pension Plan
Paid Parental Leave
Special discounts for employees, family, and friends
Access to an array of learning and development resources
Alongside these benefits Citi is committed to ensuring our workplace is where everyone feels comfortable coming to work as their whole self, every day. We want the best talent around the world to be energized to join us, motivated to stay and empowered to thrive.
#LI-BH1
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Job Family Group:
Technology------------------------------------------------------
Job Family:
Applications Support------------------------------------------------------
Time Type:
Full time------------------------------------------------------
Most Relevant Skills
Please see the requirements listed above.------------------------------------------------------
Other Relevant Skills
For complementary skills, please see above and/or contact the recruiter.------------------------------------------------------
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