VP & Head of DevEx & DevSecOps
Job Description
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 SDLC enabling governed human‑and‑agent co‑delivery from requirements to production
- Deploy and govern specialist AI agents with bounded autonomy, full auditability, and human‑in‑the‑loop decision controls
- Drive universal adoption and measurable productivity gains, targeting 40%+ improvement in engineering throughput within 18 months
- Own the end‑to‑end CI/CD and deployment pipeline, embedding security, reliability, and automation at every stage
- Build a self‑service Internal Developer Platform 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 mandates
- Establish clear engineering standards and golden paths that reduce cognitive load and accelerate time‑to‑value
- Build and operate a single, authoritative developer portal for services, APIs, tooling, and operational knowledge
- Govern AI‑assisted development and engineering KPIs to continuously improve developer productivity, quality, and experience
- Define and enforce enterprise‑wide testing standards and coverage thresholds across all engineering squads
- Embed shift‑left and shift‑right quality controls, 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 leakage
- Build, lead, and develop a high‑performing engineering leadership team across platform engineering, DevOps, developer experience, and QA
- Represent the engineering capability agenda at the CTO leadership table and in cross‑functional forums with product, risk, compliance, and business stakeholders
- Own and manage strategic vendor relationships across the DevOps toolchain, AI developer tooling ecosystem, and developer portal platforms
- 15+ years in software, platform engineering, or DevOps, with at least 4 years in senior leadership roles building and scaling engineering capabilitied
- Proven experience designing and operating enterprise CI/CD platforms (OpenShift, Kubernetes, or equivalent) at scale
- Strong hands‑on background in DevSecOps tooling including SAST, DAST, SCA, container security, secrets management, and IaC policy enforcement
- Demonstrated leadership in Developer Experience initiatives, covering developer portals, engineering standards, and DORA‑aligned metrice
- Exposure to AI‑assisted development, agentic systems, or LLM‑powered engineering tooling, with the ability to translate technical depth into executive‑level business outcome
- Experience working in a regulated financial services environment (banking, fintech, or insurance
- Familiarity with CBUAE / UAE Central Bank technology, security, and operational resilience expectations.
- Prior hands‑on exposure to Java, Spring Boot, React, BPM, or Kafka‑based event‑driven architectures.
- Background in Site Reliability Engineering (SRE) or platform product management.
- Knowledge of Model Context Protocol (MCP), multi‑agent orchestration frameworks, or relevant certifications (CKA, AWS/Azure DevOps, TOGAF, SAFe
What we are not looking For:
❌ A theoretical or advisory‑only leader 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 profile limited to tools or team management, without enterprise‑scale CI/CD design, platform thinking, and embedded security ownership.
❌ A candidate uncomfortable with AI‑assisted or agentic delivery models, or who views AI as an experimental add‑on rather than a core part of modern software engineering.
❌ A leader without experience operating in regulated environments, who cannot balance speed, automation, and innovation with governance, security, and regulatory discipline.