Software Program Manager | Ods Openbank México

Santander; Xico; On-site; MXN 1,800,000 - 2,400,000; Full time

Job summary

Openbank México seeks a Software Program Manager based in Mexico City to lead Core Banking and Digital Channels platforms within Open Digital Services. You will balance local market needs with Santander's global technology ecosystem, driving secure, scalable, and high-quality banking technology while partnering with Openbank Mexico, ODS, and global teams.

You bring deep engineering leadership, experience with regulated environments, and a product mindset to identify stability risks early, manage

Qualifications

• 5+ years of software engineering leadership experience in large engineering organizations.
• Experience delivering mission-critical, highly available transactional systems.
• Experience in global matrix organizations with constrained resources.
• Experience in financial services or highly regulated industry; digital banking is preferred.

Responsibilities

• Define and execute engineering strategy for global platforms aligned with Openbank Mexico priorities.
• Lead end-to-end engineering from discovery to production deployment and stabilization.
• Establish engineering excellence with modern software development practices and AI-enabled tooling.
• Lead adoption of global Core Banking and Digital Channels capabilities; manage migrations and technical debt.
• Ensure security, resilience, regulatory compliance, and incident management readiness.
• Develop engineers and managers; build high-performance culture and leadership pipelines.
• Serve as principal engineering counterpart to technology and operations leaders; report risks and performance.

Skills

Software engineering leadership

Backend/Core platforms

Digital channels

Distributed systems

Executive communication

Tools

Cloud platforms

DevSecOps

CI/CD

Observability

Job description

Software Program Manager | ODS Openbank MéxicoCountry: Mexico

Santander () 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 elevate 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

• + 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.