Head of Technology Operations

About us

Vida Bank provides competitive savings products through Vida Savings and specialist mortgage solutions through Vida Homeloans.

Our mortgage business supports Buy to Let (BTL) and residential borrowers (ROO) who find themselves underserved elsewhere. Our mortgage customers range from Buy to Let investors, to the self-employed and customers with multiple jobs.

Our savings proposition is delivered online via our website, and is focussed on providing savers with fair, transparent and competitive rates. Our typical customers are active savers, who tend to look beyond their current account provider for savings accounts.

Our business model and strategy are underpinned by our core purpose to ‘Help More People Find a Place to call Home’.

We are here to help the under-served, especially those with more nuanced personal circumstances or borrowing needs who are not able to access a mortgage from a mainstream mortgage lender. Working exclusively with intermediary partners, we combine cutting-edge technology with skilled and caring underwriting expertise to solve complex customer problems.

As a fully regulated UK based bank with ambitious growth aspirations, we recognise the importance of having a clearly articulated culture strategy and the need to actively manage how it embeds in the business together with the behaviours which exemplify it.

As a recognised Best Companies Top 100 mid-sized company to work for in the UK and a finalist at the Financial Reporter Women’s Recognition Awards, we take pride in our diverse workforce, championing both ethic and gender diversity through our EDI commitments.

Having met the target set by being a member of the HM Treasury Women in Finance Charter we have 50% of senior management roles filled by women.

With offices in London, Newcastle and Skipton, we bring our teams together regularly to collaborate and empower our colleagues to have more choice around when and where they work on the days they are not in the office, with colleagues working remotely in various locations across the UK.

Our Culture

We are proud to have built a culture founded on an ethos of caring, and that sits at the heart of our Vida Values, driving the way we run our business, support our customers and other stakeholders on a daily basis.

We genuinely care about delivering the right outcomes for all our stakeholders who we consider through the cultural framework as our customers, colleagues, company and communities that we operate in.

By Joining Vida you will have a sense of belonging in what is a diverse and collaborative environment, where you will be empowered to take responsibility for driving delivery.

We embrace a diversity of backgrounds and experiences in our people, in the deeply held belief that better outcomes are achieved for customers when our colleagues are better placed to empathise with and understand their unique circumstances. From application to interview, we place inclusion at the heart of all we do.

Role Overview:

As the Head of Technology Operations, you will be a key member of the technology team, playing a leading role in the successfully operation of Technology Services within the Vida. You will be accountable for the delivery of operational services that are consistently measured and evaluated to ensure operational excellence and regulatory compliance.

A strong opportunity to combine operational service ownership with cross-team collaboration and stakeholder management in a collaborative, forward-thinking environment.

Key Responsibilities:

• Prioritise and manage operational deliverables to support overall business targets, collaborating closely with the Managing Director of Technology & AI and COO.

• Provide strategic direction and oversight across a variety of internal and external support services in a complex environment, including applications, core infrastructure and security services in a multi-site, fast paced, multi-product environment.

• Introduce and evolve appropriate service transition processes and tools to successfully deliver business services end-to-end.

• Oversee service desk, end-user computing, and internal IT support functions, ensuring SLAs are defined, measured, and consistently met.

• Manage third-party technology vendors and outsourced service providers, monitoring contractual performance and maintaining compliance with FCA SYSC rules and EBA outsourcing guidelines.

• Engage with the Solutions Architect, Cloud Platform Lead, to ensure platform decisions support operational requirements, service resilience and business continuity.

• Oversee and coordinate on annual and one-off audits, working with both the Managing Director of Technology & AI and the internal Audit function.

• Own the availability, performance, and resilience of production systems (on-prem, cloud, or hybrid), including incident, problem, and change management aligned to ITIL or equivalent frameworks.

• Own and maintain the technology Run the Bank (RTB) operational metrics, ensuring performance indicators are accurate, consistently reported, and aligned to the firm's risk appetite and operational risk thresholds.

• Act as the operational escalation point for major technology incidents, coordinating cross-functional response and post-incident review.

• Lead technology disaster recovery and business continuity planning, including regular recovery testing and maintenance of RTO/RPO commitments.

• Develop and build strategic relationships with external parties (software vendors, research companies, industry bodies, and strategic partners) to ensure the management of our technology operation is future-proofed and in line with industry best practices.

• Provide strategic direction and mentoring of staff members, ensuring they can be the best version of themselves and can excel in their role, identify areas for development and setting core priorities.

Requirements:

• Prior relevant industry experience within the banking and /or financial services sector in a Head of IT or Head of IT Operations management role.

• Prior experience in transitioning services into live operation, understanding the requirements and ensuring appropriate processes, training and controls are in place.

• Detail-orientated with strong time management skills combined with the capacity to lead and work on multiple initiatives, as well as dynamically prioritise and pivot based on changing business needs.

• Prior experience with the management of key incidents/errors and the ability to synthesize data, conceptualize and get to the root cause of processes that created the risk.

• Background of working in a hybrid in-house/outsourced IT environment, with a demonstrable track record of supplier engagement and ensuring delivery to contract.

• Strong understanding of IT service management frameworks and operational processes, including technology operations, business continuity, incident management, problem management and change management (ITIL).

• Minimum - ITIL Foundation Qualification

• Understanding of endpoint management, identity and access management (IAM), and security tooling appropriate to a regulated financial services environment.

• Knowledge of regulatory controls, customer conduct & successful outcomes, mortgage products.
  

Our Values

Our values are well established and recognised throughout our organisation. They provide a frame of reference for the behaviours expected from our colleagues every day.

We find ways to break old conventions, especially those which cause exclusion or customer harm. We look for these qualities when hiring new talent into the organisation, and they underpin our approach to personal development and performance management for all our people. At the heart of this is the fact we care about our Customers, Our Colleagues and our Communities. We are:

Visionary - We innovate and break old habits, thinking big and pushing boundaries together as one team

Inclusive - We value each other’s differences and work to see people for who they really are

Dynamic - We are flexible and fast, cutting through complexity and never accepting second best

Authentic - We are honest and genuine, what you see is what you get

Benefits

We offer a comprehensive benefits package to support our employees’ professional and personal needs. Further details can be provided upon application.