System Manager (Payments & Monetary Management) (Contract)

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  Lead release planning and delivery activities during major enhancement releases (semi-annual). Coordinate with product owners, development teams, testing teams, and vendors to establish release scope, timelines, and deployment readiness criteria.

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  Manage release communication to all stakeholders. Provide status updates, escalate blockers, and maintain stakeholder alignment on release objectives and timelines throughout the cycle.

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  Own release governance and quality standards for MEPS+. Define the release readiness criteria and test governance framework that the Software Engineer executes against. Review and sign off on test outcomes, patch verification results, and release readiness reports before production deployment.

• Own operational delivery outcomes for the MEPS+ application portfolio across interbank payments, government securities management, and domestic market infrastructures. Make and recommend strategic decisions on application rationalisation, consolidation, or decommissioning to optimise portfolio efficiency.

• Coordinate release management and delivery cycles with product owners, ensuring timely and quality deployment of enhancements, patches, and security updates across major (semi-annual) and monthly patch cycles.

• Own Service Level Objectives (SLOs) for applications under management. Review SLI and SLO performance reports produced by the SRE team, identify trends and deviations, and escalate or drive remediation as appropriate. Set requirements for monitoring coverage and alert quality; hold the SRE team accountable for outcomes.

• Coordinate verification of monthly and quarterly system patching with the SRE team. Ensure patch outcomes are documented and meet compliance requirements.

• Own the incident management framework for MEPS+. Define and maintain incident escalation paths, SLO targets (P1, P2, P3), and communication protocols. During major incidents, lead stakeholder communication and coordinate the response — software engineers provide technical investigation and resolution support.

• Drive root cause analysis and post-mortems following significant incidents. Own the documentation of lessons learned and track implementation of preventive measures to reduce recurrence.

• Own vendor governance for outsourced components and services. Chair vendor performance reviews, monitor SLA compliance, and make escalation decisions when vendor performance falls short. Coordinate with software engineers for detailed technical review of vendor-delivered code and fixes.

• Lead MAS's participation in procurement activities for outsourced services, including defining tender specifications, evaluating vendor proposals, and contributing to contract negotiations.

• Coordinate RFI responses across the team, ensuring accurate and timely submission of supporting documentation.

• Plan and lead resiliency exercises including Disaster Recovery drills, manual contingency procedures, and CyberEx participation. Validate system failover and recovery capabilities. Maintain compliance with ICT Governance policies and standards specific to government financial infrastructure.

• 8+ years of progressive experience in managing, operating, or delivering complex mission-critical systems. Minimum 3–4 years in a delivery management, operations management, or technical programme management role with clear accountability for system reliability or release outcomes. Experience with payment systems, securities settlement, or financial infrastructure is advantageous but not required.
• Demonstrated ability to lead incident response at an organisational level — owning stakeholder communication, driving post-mortems, and implementing systemic improvements. Track record of managing high-stakes operational environments.
• Proven experience managing vendor relationships, chairing performance reviews, and holding vendors accountable to SLAs. Experience contributing to procurement or contract management activities.
• Strong experience coordinating release cycles across multiple teams — development, testing, operations, and compliance — with accountability for release readiness decisions.
• Excellent communication skills. Able to explain technical risks, operational decisions, and compliance requirements clearly to senior leadership, business stakeholders, and regulators. Strong written communication for incident reports, post-mortems, audit RFI responses, and governance documentation.
• Comfortable working across technical domains without requiring deep hands-on expertise in every platform. Able to engage credibly with software engineers and SRE colleagues, ask the right questions, and make informed decisions based on their input.
• Proven ability to manage multiple concurrent workstreams — incident response, release coordination, compliance activities, vendor management — without losing attention to detail or governance rigour.

• Familiarity with Java/J2EE application environments, Linux/RHEL systems, or SQL — sufficient to engage meaningfully with engineering teams and understand technical risk, without necessarily being a hands-on practitioner.
• Experience with containerisation technologies (Docker, Kubernetes) or cloud platforms (OpenShift, OpenStack) at a conceptual or governance level.
• Experience with CICD pipelines, release automation, and test management frameworks.
• Familiarity with observability and monitoring platforms (e.g. Grafana, ELK stack) from an operational governance perspective.
• Familiarity with government IT environments and regulatory compliance frameworks (CCoP, CSP, AGO, IM8).
• Agile delivery experience and comfort collaborating with product teams and development teams.
• Relevant certifications (e.g. ITIL, PMP, AWS Solutions Architect, or equivalent).

As part of the shortlisting process for this role, you may be required to complete a medical declaration and/or undergo further assessment.

This is a 2-Year Contract. All applicants will be notified on whether they are shortlisted or not within 4 weeks of the closing date of this job posting.