Director, Middleware Platforms — Hybrid & Automated Resilience

SMBC Group; Greater London; Hybrid; GBP 108,000 - 162,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Hybrid and flexible working

Competitive leave days

Private medical & life insurance

Mental wellbeing support

Learning & development opportunities

Job summary

SMBC Group is seeking a Middleware Platforms Support Director to own the messaging, integration and workload automation services across EMEA. You’ll lead cross-functional teams, shape platform strategy, and drive modernisation and automation while ensuring reliability and production readiness.

The role reports to the Head of Production Management & Service Delivery. You will influence governance, manage major incidents and collaborate with global colleagues and third-party providers to deliver

Qualifications

• Proven leadership of middleware, production management or technology support within financial services.
• Experience accountable for IBM MQ and AutoSys or comparable workload automation services, including resilience, performance and lifecycle management.
• Strong people leadership, senior stakeholder influencing and risk-based decision-making, supported by experience in service governance and major incident management.

Responsibilities

• Shape the future of middleware services and drive strategy and roadmaps.
• Own service performance, availability, capacity and lifecycle management across IBM MQ, AutoSys and related middleware.
• Develop managers and technical specialists through coaching, cross-skilling and succession planning.
• Lead during major incidents, driving recovery and clear communication.
• Drive root-cause resolution, strengthen recovery arrangements and address technical debt.
• Govern changes to ensure production readiness and supportability.
• Build partnerships across business and technology teams to align priorities.

Skills

Leadership

People leadership

Stakeholder influence

Decision making

Tools

IBM MQ

AutoSys

Middleware platforms

Job description

SMBC Group is seeking a Middleware Platforms Support Director to own the messaging, integration and workload automation services across EMEA. You’ll lead cross-functional teams, shape platform strategy, and drive modernisation and automation while ensuring reliability and production readiness.

The role reports to the Head of Production Management & Service Delivery. You will influence governance, manage major incidents and collaborate with global colleagues and third-party providers to deliver