VP & Head of DevEx & DevSecOps

About This Role

Job Purpose.

The Head of Developer Experience, DevSecOps, and Testing Governance is a high‑visibility leadership role created to support RAKBANK’s deliberate journey toward becoming an AI‑native bank, where software is delivered faster, more securely, and at lower cost through effective human–AI collaboration. Reporting to the CTO – Digital & AI, the role owns four enterprise‑wide capability domains—Agentic SDLC, DevSecOps, Developer Experience, and Testing Governance—and is accountable for establishing and scaling them across the engineering organisation. The focus is on embedding AI at every stage of delivery to drive measurable productivity, quality, and security improvements, while fostering a culture of engineering excellence. This is an execution‑oriented role that requires operating at the intersection of strategy and hands‑on delivery, defining clear frameworks and ensuring they are adopted and used in practice to create sustainable competitive advantage for the bank.

What You will Do

Agentic Software Delivery Lifecycle (SDLC

• Design and scale an enterprise‑wide AI‑driven SDL C enabling governed human‑and‑agent co‑delivery from requirements to production
• Deploy and govern specialist AI agent s with bounded autonomy, full auditability, and human‑in‑the‑loop decision controls
• Drive universal adoption and measurable productivity gains, targeting 40%+ improvement in engineering throughpu t within 18 months

DevSecOps

• Own the end‑to‑end CI/CD and deployment pipelin e, embedding security, reliability, and automation at every stage
• Build a self‑service Internal Developer Platfor m that removes infrastructure friction and accelerates autonomous squad delivery
• Deliver step‑change improvements in deployment frequency, MTTR, and cost efficiency while meeting CBUAE and internal security mandate s

Developer Experience

• Establish clear engineering standards and golden path s that reduce cognitive load and accelerate time‑to‑value
• Build and operate a single, authoritative developer porta l for services, APIs, tooling, and operational knowledge
• Govern AI‑assisted development and engineering KPIs to continuously improve developer productivity, quality, and experienc e

Testing Governance

• Define and enforce enterprise‑wide testing standards and coverage threshold s across all engineering squads
• Embed shift‑left and shift‑right quality control s, with automated, non‑negotiable gates across the delivery pipeline
• Govern AI‑enabled QA agents and automation frameworks to deliver predictable release confidence and reduced defect leakag e

Leadership & Strategy

• Build, lead, and develop a high‑performing engineering leadership tea m across platform engineering, DevOps, developer experience, and QA
• Represent the engineering capability agend a at the CTO leadership table and in cross‑functional forums with product, risk, compliance, and business stakeholders
• Own and manage strategic vendor relationship s across the DevOps toolchain, AI developer tooling ecosystem, and developer portal platforms

What You Will Bring

• 15+ years in software, platform engineering, or DevOps, wit h at least 4 years in senior leadersh ip roles building and scaling engineering capabilitied
• Proven experienc e designing and operating enterprise CI/CD platfor ms (OpenShift, Kubernetes, or equivalent) at scale
• Strong hands‑on background i n DevSecOps tooli ng including SAST, DAST, SCA, container security, secrets management, and IaC policy enforcement
• Demonstrated leadership i n Developer Experience initiativ es, covering developer portals, engineering standards, and DORA‑aligned metrice
• Exposure t o AI‑assisted development, agentic systems, or LLM‑powered engineering tooli ng, with the ability to translate technical depth into executive‑level business outcome

Desirable

• Experience working in a regulated financial services environme nt (banking, fintech, or insurance
• Familiarity wit h CBUAE / UAE Central Ba nk technology, security, and operational resilience expectations.
• Prior hands‑on exposure t o Java, Spring Boot, React, BPM, or Kafka‑based event‑driven architectur es.
• Background i n Site Reliability Engineering (SR E) or platform product management.
• Knowledge o f Model Context Protocol (MC P), multi‑agent orchestration frameworks, or relevant certifications (CKA, AWS/Azure DevOps, TOGAF, SAFe

What we are not looking For:

❌ A theoretical or advisory‑only lea der who defines frameworks and policies but does not stay close to execution or drive real adoption by engineering squads.

❌ A traditional DevOps or QA manager prof ile limited to tools or team management, without enterprise‑scale CI/CD design, platform thinking, and embedded security ownership.

❌ A candida te uncomfortable with AI‑assisted or agentic delivery mod els, or who views AI as an experimental add‑on rather than a core part of modern software engineering.

❌ A lead er without experience operating in regulated environme nts, who cannot balance speed, automation, and innovation with governance, security, and regulatory discipline.