Head of IT Application Support

Bank ABC seeks to recruit a Head of IT Application Support in the Group Information Technology Department based in our Head Office, in Bahrain.

The Head of Application Support provides bank‑wide leadership and accountability for the stability, availability, resilience, and controlled change of the Bank's application and digital service landscape. This includes core banking platforms (e.g., Temenos), payments, digital channels, treasury & markets, CRM, trade finance, AML/KYC & sanctions, regulatory & finance reporting, data platforms, and enterprise integration.

The role owns the Run-the-Bank (RTB) and Change-the-Bank (CTB) operating model and plays a critical role in shaping the Run-and-Change interface between the Bank, IT vendors, and Managed-Service providers, ensuring that production services are delivered in a predictable, secure, compliant, and cost-effective manner across a hybrid cloud environment spanning on-premise, private cloud, and public cloud platforms.

As part of the Bank's technology transformation agenda, the role is responsible for supporting and executing the application support strategy for core banking and all associated ecosystems, including cloud-hosted deployments, vendor-managed services, and complex integration patterns.

The Job holder is expected to modernize and adopt AI-enabled capabilities across application support; this includes embedding disciplined ITIL-aligned service management in collaboration with other technology teams. Finally, the Head of Application Support acts as a senior contributor to the wider Group Technology Strategy, supporting technology governance, regulatory readiness, risk management, and architecture discipline

Responsibilities of the role:

The job holder will be responsible for:

Strategy and Governance

1. Define, own and continuously evolve the Application Support strategy aligned with business objectives and the wider Group technology strategy, witch clear roadmap around Temenos and its digital ecosystem.
2. Work with other technology partners and key stakeholders to establish and enforce a robust governance framework for RTB and CTB, ensuring clear accountability between internal teams, vendors, and managed-service providers.
3. Ensure the application support team comply with regulatory, risk, and internal control requirements, providing senior-level assurance for audits, regulatory reviews, and other examinations.
4. Support the GCITO in shaping and executing Group-wide technology governance, including policy adherence, architectural discipline, service standards, and technology risk management.
5. Sponsor and gradually adopt AI capabilities across application support, ensuring appropriate governance and measurable operational benefits.

Application Ecosystem Management

1. Lead the definition and execution of application lifecycle and obsolescence management, ensuring early engagement with systems owners to timely decommission, migrate, or consolidate systems in line with the Bank's core banking and digital transformation strategy.
2. Own and drive the rationalization and simplification of the application estate, with the Temenos core banking platform as the strategic foundation around which all supporting, adjacent and downstream systems are designed, integrated, and operated.
3. Ensure the application support model, service processes, and operational tooling are aligned to the Bank's technology roadmap, including cloud-hosted deployments, vendor-managed services, and complex integration landscapes.
4. As needed, lead major incident and problem management situations, ensuring timely resolution, executive communication, root-cause-analysis, and durable remediation.
5. Own and mature ITIL/ServiceNow-aligned service management practices (incident, problem, change, release, knowledge), ensuring consistent execution across the application support team.

Collaboration and stakeholder management

1. Act as the most senior point of contact for business stakeholders and business-technologist teams on application stability, integration, service performance, and operational risk.
2. Partner closely with Architecture, IT Delivery, Data Management, Service Management, Cyber Security, and Business technologist to ensure seamless transition of solutions into production and sustained service quality.
3. Build and maintain strong, outcome-driven relationships with vendors, system integrators, and managed-service providers, ensuring SLA compliance, performance transparency, accountability.
4. Provide clear, timely, and executive-ready communication during incidents, service issues, and material risk events.
5. Represent Application Support in senior management forums, governance committees, and steering groups, contributing informed, risk-based perspectives.

Leadership and People Management

1. Lead and develop a high-performance application support team, fostering a culture of accountability, professionalism, and continuous improvement.
2. Manage clear role boundaries and responsibilities across Tech Leads, support teams, business-technologist teams, and vendor resources, ensuring effective coverage and resilience.
3. Build and execute succession plans and capability uplift strategies, particularly in Temenos, cloud operations, service management, and AI-enabled application delivery and support. Promote modern ways of working, including SRE principles, automation and AI, and data driven decision-making.
4. Promote a culture of diversity, equality, and inclusion within the Application Support team, championship diversity initiatives and fostering a sense of belonging and respect for all team members.
5. Collaborate with GIT Management and HR to recruit and onboard top talent, ensuring the Application support team has the skills, capabilities, and resources needed to achieve its goals and objectives.

Areas of Knowledge, Qualification and Experience

• 20+ years of technology, digital or/and application support experience.
• 10+ years in a managerial and leadership role (mandatory).
• Extensive leadership experience in application support, production services, or technology operations within banking or regulated financial services.
• Proven accountability for the stability, availability, and resilience of large-scale, business-critical application estates.
• Hands-on experience supporting and operating core banking platforms, preferably Temenos, within complex, multi-vendor and integration-heavy environments.
• Experience leading and developing multi-disciplinary, geographically distributed teams, including succession planning and capability uplift
• Bachelor's degree or advanced degree in Information Technology, Computer Science, Engineering, or related field.
• Temenos banking platform (desirable) – formal training or certifications related to Temenos implementations, operations, or upgrades.
• Professional certifications in: IT Service Management (e.g., ITIL), Cloud Platforms (e.g., AWS, Azure), Project deliver/governance (e.g., Agile, PRICE 2, etc.).
• Banking application landscapes, including core banking platforms (particularly Temenos), payments, digital channels, treasury & markets, trade finance & cash management, regulatory and finance reporting, and enterprise integration patterns.
• Application support and service management frameworks, including ITIL-aligned practices, service lifecycle management, and the operation of multi-tier (L1–L4) support models across internal teams and managed-service providers.
• Hybrid cloud architectures and operating models, spanning on-premises, private cloud, and public cloud environments, with an understanding of operational resilience, availability, and recovery considerations.
• Non-functional requirements (NFRs) and operational controls, including availability, performance, security, scalability, observability, resilience, and recoverability.
• Modern reliability and operations concepts, including Site Reliability Engineering (SRE), automation, monitoring, and data-driven service delivery.
• Data platforms, and strong experience in data integration, ETL processes, and data management platforms and tools.
• knowledge of data lake architectures and experience in managing and integrating data lakes using platforms like AWS and Azure.
• Vendor and managed-service governance, including SLA/OLA models, performance management, and commercial oversight
• Technology risk management within regulated financial services, including audit, regulatory expectations, control frameworks, and cyber security & data protection.
• Knowledge of cloud computing technologies and implementing cloud-based solutions and services.
• Knowledge of API management and integration, facilitating data exchange between internal systems and external data sources.
• Understanding of machine learning and AI frameworks and platforms; including AI-enabled operational capabilities