Head of Production Support.
This mandate is run by SYMPHONI HR, a Mumbai-based executive search firm, est. 2003. Applications are email-verified and reach the search team running the role — confidentially, always.
About the organisation.
Our client is a prominent global financial services organization with a long-standing reputation for excellence in investment management and retirement services. They operate at a significant scale, leveraging advanced technology to support mission-critical financial platforms. The company fosters a culture of operational rigor, continuous improvement, and professional development.
About the role.
The Head of Production Support (India) will lead the regional L1 and L2 application support organization, ensuring the stability and availability of complex trading, operations, and data engineering platforms. This role is pivotal in driving operational excellence, maturing incident and problem management processes, and fostering a culture of automation and reliability. You will manage a large-scale, multi-layer team operating in a 24x6 environment to support global investment technology services.
What you will do.
- Own the end-to-end L1 and L2 operating model, ensuring effective monitoring, triage, and incident resolution.
- Establish and enforce support standards, SLAs, and SLOs while driving consistent use of operational runbooks.
- Oversee major incident management, including rapid mobilization of SMEs and conducting thorough post-incident root cause analysis.
- Mature problem management processes to reduce repeat incidents and enhance system observability.
- Drive automation and self-service initiatives to increase operational efficiency and reduce manual toil.
- Ensure robust change governance, operational risk controls, and audit readiness across all supported platforms.
- Build, manage, and develop a multi-layer organization of L1 analysts and L2 application support engineers.
- Manage workforce planning, shift design for 24x6 coverage, and performance management for the India team.
- Partner with global technology leadership and business stakeholders to align on reliability priorities and service expectations.
- Manage vendor and third-party support relationships to ensure service delivery standards are met.
What you bring.
- 20+ years of leadership experience in L1/L2 production support within the financial services sector.
- Deep expertise in ITIL-aligned processes including incident, problem, change, and knowledge management.
- Strong technical proficiency in supporting cloud-hosted services (AWS) and modern observability practices.
- Proven experience supporting complex financial platforms such as Charles River Development, Bloomberg AIM, Eagle, Murex, Electra, Snowflake, or Starburst.
- Demonstrated ability to lead large teams, mentor leaders, and influence stakeholders without direct authority.
- Exceptional communication skills with the ability to manage expectations at the C-level.
- Strong understanding of front-to-back investment lifecycle concepts and financial technology architecture.
- Experience implementing Six Sigma or Lean methodologies to drive operational improvements.
- Expertise in SRE and DevOps principles applied to production support environments.
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