Software Program Manager | ODS Openbank México

Santander Group; Ciudad de México; Remote; MXN 900,000 - 1,500,000; Full time

Job summary

Openbank Mexico, part of Santander Group, is seeking a Software Program Manager to lead Openbank Mexico's Core Banking and Digital Channels. You will balance local market needs with global platform strategy, guiding architecture, tech decisions, and debt management while collaborating with global teams.

You will drive end-to-end engineering execution, ensure security and regulatory compliance, and develop a high-performing engineering organization across Core and Channels teams.

Qualifications

• 12+ years of software engineering experience, incl. leadership of large engineering orgs.
• Experience delivering mission-critical, highly available transactional systems.
• Fluency in Spanish and English.

Skills

Distributed systems

Cloud-native

APIs

Event-driven

DevSecOps

CI/CD

Observability

Automated testing

Software reliability

Executive communication

Job description

Software Program Manager | ODS Openbank MéxicoCountry: MexicoSantander is evolving from **a global, high-impact brand** into a **technology-driven organization**, and our people are at the heart of this journey. **Together**, we are driving a **customer-centric transformation** that values bold **thinking, innovation**, and the **courage to challenge** what's possible.This is more than a strategic shift. **It's a chance for driven professionals to grow, learn, and make a real difference**.Our mission is to contribute to help more **people and businesses prosper**. We embrace a strong risk culture and all our professionals at all levels are expected to take a proactive and responsible approach toward risk management.**Openbank** is Santander Group's global digital consumer bank, bringing together retail banking, mobility finance and consumer lending solutions in one integrated digital platform.**THE DIFFERENCE YOU MAKE**Openbank is looking for a Software Program Manager based in Mexico City, within Open Digital Services (ODS) México. This is an opportunity to play a key role in building the technology platform behind Openbank Mexico, leading the evolution of Core Banking and Digital Channels while connecting local market needs with Santander's global technology ecosystem.**THE ROLE**Lead the engineering organization responsible for developing, evolving, and maintaining Openbank Mexico's Core Banking and Digital Channels capabilities, delivering secure, scalable, resilient, and high-quality banking technology that enables business growth, outstanding customer experience, regulatory compliance, and sustainable operational efficiency.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,