Director, Critical Services

BMO; Halifax; On-site; CAD 170,451 - 296,888; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Health insurance

Tuition reimbursement

Life insurance

Retirement savings plan

Job summary

BMO Financial Group in Halifax, Canada seeks a senior technology risk manager to lead delivery, risk, and resilience of critical applications. You will partner with technology, business, and vendors to balance priorities, manage incidents, and drive improvements across SDLC and DevOps practices.

The role emphasizes risk governance, control remediation, and strategic leadership with a focus on stability and operational excellence for on-prem, cloud, and hybrid environments.

Qualifications

• Experience in application support, production support, and technology risk management.
• Strong incident and problem management with urgency for high-severity incidents.
• Ability to communicate with senior leaders with clear status updates and data-driven decisions.
• Experience managing and developing teams including coaching and performance evaluation.
• Strong analytical and problem-solving abilities with ability to adapt to new technologies and systems.
• Independent, highly organized, proactive, detail oriented.
• Identify and assess complex IT risks and controls and relate them to the business environment.
• Knowledge of application security, privacy, privilege management, vulnerability management, cloud platforms, DevOps, and SRE practices is a plus.

Responsibilities

• Provides leadership for delivery, support, stability, and risk management of critical technology applications and services.
• Establishes goals, monitors results, and reports performance.
• Oversees technology risk, audit, compliance, and remediation activities.
• Tracks remediation for control gaps identified via control programs and audits.
• Maintains business continuity and disaster recovery plans for supported apps.
• Coordinates with teams for releases, upgrades, and production changes.
• Identifies opportunities to improve monitoring, incident response, and root-cause analysis.
• Oversees vendor engagement and ensures SLA adherence.
• Manages budgets for applications and vendor relations.
• Promotes risk culture and enterprise standards across the organization.

Skills

Financial services tech background

Incident management

Problem management

Executive stakeholder communication

Analytical writing

Team management & development

Analytical & problem solving

Self-starter & organized

IT risk & controls assessment

Application security & vulnerability

Job description

Provides leadership and direction for the delivery, support, stability, and risk management of critical technology applications and services supporting the assigned portfolio group. Accountable for ensuring operational excellence, maintaining system health, proactively managing technology risk and operational defects, strengthening control and prevention practices, and responding effectively to problems and incidents. Partners with technology, business, and vendor stakeholders to understand gaps, balance priorities, influence outcomes, and remove barriers to effective service delivery.

• Establishes goals and performance objectives that align with business and technology priorities. Monitors, measures, and reports results in a proactive manner.
• Works effectively with internal stakeholders and external partners to ensure objectives, service expectations, and delivery commitments are being met.
• Provides oversight and coordination for technology risk, audit, compliance, and remediation activities for key applications, including related exams, fieldwork, and review activities.
• Tracks the progress of remediation activities for control gaps identified through enterprise control programs, application security and vulnerability testing, Internal Audit, self-testing, or controls self-assessment.
• Creates, maintains, and regularly reviews business continuity and disaster recovery plans for supported applications and services, ensuring alignment with enterprise standards.
• Works closely with Technology Infrastructure, Development, Testing, and Engineering teams to support integrated and independent releases, software and hardware upgrades, server upgrades, and related production changes.
• Identifies opportunities to improve monitoring, application stability, incident response, and speed of root cause determination. Provides monitoring of the environment during releases or independent changes and tracks changes to production.
• Provides ongoing oversight for core vendor engagement and delivery. Ensures service level agreements are met and delivery occurs in accordance with agreed standards.
• Maintains oversight for application maintenance, operational, and vendor-related budgets within assigned areas of responsibility.
• Drives adoption of application security, technology privacy, privilege management, and vulnerability management controls as part of the Software Development Life Cycle (SDLC), site reliability engineering, and production management (DevOps) processes for on-prem, SaaS, and cloud native applications and services.
• Within the mandate of this role, promotes and supports the Bank’s risk culture by ensuring employees understand their accountabilities for risk‑taking activities, encouraging open communication and effective challenge, and leading by example.
• Complies with the Bank’s Risk Appetite Framework and ensures risk‑taking activities remain within agreed limits and comply with applicable regulatory requirements.
• Role models simplicity, productivity, and continuous improvement to optimize processes, strengthen controls, and improve key operational measures.
• Activates our winning culture, aligned with Purpose. Supports engagement by aligning the team’s work to strategy and enabling strong execution.
• Fosters creates an inclusive environment for all employees by helping eliminate barriers to inclusion.
• Develops talent, supports succession planning, and fosters a high‑performance culture.
• Supports talent acquisition and retention by building team capability and creating conditions for employee growth and engagement.
• Leads and mentors managers and professionals with diverse technology, risk, and business experience, skills, and orientation.
• Leads, promotes, and reinforces the Bank’s customer focus to support our vision.
• Personally role models customer focus.
• Supports sustainable improvements in customer loyalty, operational performance, and business outcomes.
• Adheres to and supports enterprise customer experience and brand standards.

Qualifications

• Prior financial services technology background with emphasis on application support, application management, production support, and technology risk management activities.
• Strong Production Support Services background, with demonstrated experience supporting critical technology applications and services.
• Strong Incident Management and Problem Management skills. Exhibits a strong sense of urgency for high‑severity incidents and escalations, and is able to assess customer impact and provide practical solutions.
• Comfortable interacting with senior leaders and executive stakeholders, providing clear status updates and supporting fact‑based decisions on sensitive issues.
• Strong analytical and writing skills for senior leader and executive‑level communications.
• Experience managing and developing teams, including coaching, career development, performance evaluation, engagement, and day‑to‑day leadership.
• Strong analytical and problem‑solving abilities, with the ability to quickly adapt to new technologies, methodologies, and systems.
• Independent self‑starter, highly organized and detail oriented, with a proactive approach and positive attitude.
• Ability to identify and assess complex IT risks and controls, relate them to the wider business environment, and express opinions and recommendations clearly to all levels.
• Knowledge of application security, technology privacy, privilege management, vulnerability management, cloud platforms, DevOps, and site reliability engineering practices is an asset.

Salary

$121,600.00 - $211,800.00

Pay Type

Salaried

The above represents BMO Financial Group’s pay range and type.

Salaries will vary based on factors such as location, skills, experience, education, and qualifications for the role, and may include a commission structure. Salaries for part‑time roles will be pro‑rated based on number of hours regularly worked. For commission roles, the salary listed above represents BMO Financial Group’s expected target for the first year in this position.

BMO Financial Group’s total compensation package will vary based on the pay type of the position and may include performance‑based incentives, discretionary bonuses, as well as other perks and rewards. BMO also offers health insurance, tuition reimbursement, accident and life insurance, and retirement savings plans. To view more details of our benefits, please visit: https://jobs.bmo.com/global/en/Total-Rewards

About Us

At BMO we are driven by a shared Purpose: Boldly Grow the Good in business and life. It calls on us to create lasting, positive change for our customers, our communities and our people. By working together, innovating and pushing boundaries, we transform lives and businesses, and power economic growth around the world.

As a member of the BMO team you are valued, respected and heard, and you have more ways to grow and make an impact. We strive to help you make an impact from day one – for yourself and our customers. We’ll support you with the tools and resources you need to reach new milestones, as you help our customers reach theirs. From in‑depth training and coaching, to manager support and network‑building opportunities, we’ll help you gain valuable experience, and broaden your skillset.

To find out more visit us at https://jobs.bmo.com/ca/en

BMO is committed to an inclusive, equitable and accessible workplace. By learning from each other’s differences, we gain strength through our people and our perspectives. Accommodations are available on request for candidates taking part in all aspects of the selection process. To request accommodation, please contact your recruiter.