Director, IT

Job Description

Hilltop Holdings is looking for a Director of Application Development to lead application development and support for Hilltop Holding's investment bank (HilltopSecurities). Hilltop Holdings is a firm comprised of multiple financial services companies. This position will be primarily focused on the application development and application support needs specifically related to those applications and systems used at HilltopSecurities but also those used at Hilltop Holdings. The position will be focused on maturing the foundational technology delivery capabilities for employees and customers using reliable and repeatable processes. Candidates for this position must demonstrate strong leadership and mentoring skills, problem solving and communication skills, an ability to react to outages and user impacts with a sense of urgency, and have previously led development teams in a fast-moving enterprise environment.

Responsibilities

• Develop, maintain and continually improve relationships with executive leadership, business department leaders, technology team members and third-party vendors
• Stay informed on business strategy, goals, objectives and operational performance
• Provide leadership by establishing department and individual goals
• Assist employees in creating individual career development and training plans
• Act as the point of contact for applications and systems and facilitate the work request demand and prioritization process
• Escalate, assist and follow-through with resolution of issues related to delivery of technology solutions
• Plan, coordinate, and supervise all activities related to the design, development, and implementation of the firm's systems and applications
• Define the necessary roles, responsibilities, processes and deliverables required to ensure effective delivery of new technology solutions
• Manage multiple development teams supporting the firm's different products and lines of business
• Coordinate with Project Management Office (PMO) to review new project requests and provide input for preparing project timelines and costs
• Enforce industry best practices and develop, communicate and enforce technology standards for the organization
• Develop budgets for application development and application support needs
• Ensure technology solutions comply with architectural standards
• Communicate progress on projects to senior IT and business leadership
• Continually evaluate new technologies and incorporate those technologies when appropriate
• Perform other duties as assigned

Qualifications

• B.S. /B.A. in Computer Science, Engineering, Information Systems and/or equivalent formal training or work experience
• Prior leadership experience with demonstrated growth in job responsibilities, team leadership and organizational scope
• Must have solid understanding of the SDLC process and various SDLC methodologies
• Must have a solid understanding of DevOps concepts, practices and procedures
• Prior experience with Investment banks and/or Broker Dealer industry required
• Preferred experience with FIS Securities Processing Manager platform (P3)
• Provides strategic leadership and coaching for the teams with the ability to direct and mentor the technical and managerial development of the software development teams
• Delegates complex projects independently and exhibits a high degree of multitasking
• Advanced knowledge of technical/business environment. Successfully engages all customers without direction
• Excellent partnering, communication, and negotiation
• Ability to analyze and resolve multiple complex problems at the enterprise level
• Demonstrate advanced understanding of business processes across the enterprise
• Provide direction and leadership in key interactions with business customers to define, analyze, and deliver customer requirements
• Provide direction and leadership in driving resolution of complex or multiple problems at the enterprise level, coupled with timely publication of Root Cause Analysis of Incidents or Problems
• Provide metrics and trends indicating problem areas and make recommendations to prevent potential future problems
• Provide direction and leadership to insure a timely response to application and system problems
• Proven experience in coordinating work efforts across the information technology ecosystem
• Expert knowledge of software and/or systems engineering processes obtained through formal training and/or work experience
• Must have strong focus on internal and external customer requirements
• Must have excellent written, verbal, and interpersonal communication skills
• Must be comfortable making formal presentations to senior IT management and executive level audiences
• Ability to partner with vendors, external contacts and industry standards organizations to deliver technical solutions
• Must have appropriate skills with the standard workstation software utilized to perform daily duties, e.g., Microsoft Suite (Word, Excel, PowerPoint), Visio, etc.
• Working knowledge in technical programs such as MS SQL, .Net, C#, Azure DevOps

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