Operating within Santander's global technology ecosystem, the Software Program Manager will balance local market requirements with global platform strategy and ensure effective collaboration between Openbank Mexico, ODS, and global technology teams. The role requires deep engineering expertise, strong executive leadership, product orientation, experience delivering complex technology initiatives in highly regulated environments, and a strong production mindset to identify stability risks early and lead effectively during incidents and contingency situations.
We’re shaping the way we work through innovation, cutting-edge technology, collaboration and the freedom to explore new ideas. To succeed in this role, you will be responsible for:
KEY RESPONSIBILITIES
Define and execute the engineering strategy for adopting global platforms in line with Openbank Mexico business priorities and ODS global technology direction; lead local Core Banking and Digital Channels teams; apply group engineering standards for scalability, security, maintainability, reliability, and reuse; and guide architecture, technical decisions, and technical debt management.
Lead end-to-end engineering execution from discovery and design through development, testing, production deployment, and stabilization; coordinate Core and Channels delivery; manage capacity, commitments, dependencies, and trade-offs with global teams; and improve predictability, throughput, and time-to-market without compromising quality or resilience.
Establish engineering excellence through modern software development practices and AI, including code quality, automated testing, CI/CD, DevSecOps, observability, release engineering, DORA and SPACE metrics, AI-assisted development, root-cause analysis, preventive improvements, and clear ownership of software quality.
Lead Openbank Mexico’s adoption of global Core Banking and Digital Channels capabilities; influence global platform roadmaps; promote reusable, configurable, API-first, modular solutions; assess local solutions when global capabilities cannot meet critical needs; and manage migration, modernization, compatibility, regression, integration, stability, fragmentation, and technical-debt risks.
Ensure solutions meet security, resilience, auditability, and regulatory requirements; partner with SRE, Infrastructure, CISO, Risk, Compliance, and Operations; strengthen incident resolution, problem management, root-cause remediation, controlled deployments, regression testing, quality gates, technical ownership, disaster recovery, and business continuity readiness.
Lead and develop engineering managers, technical leads, and software engineers across Core and Channels; build a high-performance culture of ownership, collaboration, accountability, technical excellence, and learning; develop leadership pipelines, succession plans, career paths, skills, team structures, and capacity; and strengthen local capability, knowledge sharing, and use of global expertise and reusable assets.
Serve as the principal engineering counterpart to Openbank Mexico’s Head of Technology & Operations, Product leadership, and relevant ODS executives; translate priorities into engineering requirements; negotiate capacity, sequencing, and trade-offs; resolve local and global priority conflicts; report transparently on performance, risks, dependencies, and remediation; foster One Team across Product, Engineering, QA, Architecture, and Operations; and escalate material risks with alternatives and recommendations.
WHAT YOU’LL BRING
Our people are our greatest strength. Every individual contributes unique perspectives that make us stronger as a team and as an organization. We’re enabling teams to go beyond by valuing who they are and empowering what they bring.
The following requirements represent the knowledge, skills, and abilities essential for success in this role. Reasonable accommodations may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform the essential functions.
Professional Experience & Qualifications
12+ years of software engineering experience, including significant experience leading complex engineering organizations, backend/core platforms, and customer-facing digital channels.
Experience delivering large-scale, mission-critical, highly available transactional systems and leading engineering transformation, developer productivity, and software delivery quality.
Experience operating in complex global matrix organizations with shared ownership and constrained resources, and managing technology modernization, legacy integration, and large-scale platform migrations.
Experience in financial services or another highly regulated, transaction-intensive industry; digital banking experience strongly preferred.
Hard Skills
Strong understanding of distributed systems, cloud-native architectures, APIs, event-driven integration, and modern software engineering practices.
Strong knowledge of DevSecOps, CI/CD, automated testing, observability, and software reliability practices.
Strong executive communication, negotiation, and stakeholder management capabilities.
Language
Fluency in Spanish and English.
Leadership Competencies
Deep technical judgment and business acumen, with the ability to translate strategic objectives into engineering execution.
Customer and product orientation, systems thinking, architectural discipline, prioritization, trade-off management, and evidence-based decision-making.
Ability to challenge assumptions constructively, resolve complex cross-functional dependencies, develop talent and engineering culture, and remain accountable for results, quality, and long-term sustainability.
SUCCESS MEASURES
Business delivery: committed strategic engineering milestones, production delivery predictability, and time-to-market.
Engineering quality and operational resilience: production defect leakage, rework, automated testing maturity, release reliability, incidents, recovery performance, recurring failures, and remediation effectiveness.
Engineering productivity: lead time for changes, deployment frequency, flow efficiency, and measurable improvements from engineering automation.
Platform sustainability: global convergence, technical debt reduction, architectural standardization, and reuse.
Organization and talent: engineering capability development, retention of critical talent, leadership succession, and effective cross-team collaboration.
Targets and baselines will be agreed during the initial operating period.
WE VALUE YOUR IMPACT
Your contribution matters, and it’s recognized. You can expect a fair, competitive reward package that reflects the impact you create and the value you deliver. But we know rewards go beyond numbers.
We offer more than just a paycheck—our benefits are designed to support your life, your goals and your well-being, now and into the future.
Your health is our priority. Through BeHealthy, our global wellness programme, we promote Holistic wellbeing
We know family is everything. That’s why we offer parental leave, childcare support and family-friendly programmes tailored to each life stage.
We’re enable our teams to go beyond through global opportunities and broad career paths.
We believe in the power of helping. You can dedicate part of your working hours to volunteering
We’re here to keep you motivated, help you reach your goals, and celebrate your progress, every step of the way.
Openbank is an equal opportunity employer. All applicants will be considered as equal without paying attention to gender identity, sexual orientation, ethnicity, religion, age, political orientation, union membership nor disability status.
We make recruiting decisions based on your experience and skills. We value your passion to discover, invent, simplify, and build.
The personal data you provide as well as any data generated during the selection process are confidential and will be processed by Open Bank, S.A. with registered office at Avenida de Cantabria, n/n, 28660 Boadilla del Monte (Madrid), for the sole purpose of managing your participation in the selection processes and, where appropriate, to formalise your recruitment.
For further information about your rights and data protection, please read the Openbank Privacy Policy applicable to this type of data processing here
READY TO TAKE THE NEXT STEP IN YOUR JOURNEY?
