SVP - Head of Product and Engineering

Sunwest Bank•Draper, UT

1d•Onsite

About The Position

The SVP - Head of Product and Engineering leads Sunwest Bank’s product management and software delivery functions within the technology organization. The position owns portfolio visibility and delivery across assigned digital, data, payments, operational, and internal platform initiatives, including product roadmaps, discovery, prioritization, requirements quality, launch readiness, and performance measurement. The leader builds accountable, delivery-focused teams responsible for the strategy and execution of the Bank’s internal and external customer software solutions. During the first year, the leader is expected to publish a three-year technical roadmap aligned with business priorities, regulatory commitments, and delivery capacity; establish a predictable delivery cadence with measurable throughput, quality, and commitment reliability; set software architecture and design standards; and assess and develop the organization, roles, and talent needed to meet the Bank’s needs. The role directs technical strategy and delivery, including software and data roadmaps, engineering practices, architecture, build-versus-buy decisions, and the integration of product and engineering into a unified operating model. It also leads the Bank’s data platform and AI initiatives toward governed production outcomes, manages organizational development, partners with business and control functions, incorporates governance and risk reviews into delivery, and oversees budgets, vendors, licensing, contractor spend, and capacity planning. The position reports directly to the Chief Information Officer. Work is onsite, Monday through Friday, 8:00 AM to 5:00 PM. Additional hours may be required for releases, incidents, or critical initiatives. Occasional travel of up to 10% is required. The work is generally sedentary, with limited activity, no lifting, and limited walking. Compensation is competitive and commensurate with experience, with a bonus opportunity and benefits.

Requirements

Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Software Engineering, Information Systems, or a related field, or equivalent professional experience.
12 or more years of experience in software engineering and delivery, including significant earlier hands-on experience as a full-stack software developer and experience shipping production code.
5 or more years leading software organizations at director level or above, including leading managers or directors.
Demonstrated ownership of a custom software portfolio delivered into production, with specific systems and delivery outcomes to show.
Deep expertise in full-stack development, modern application frameworks, API and service design, data modeling and storage, cloud infrastructure (Azure preferred), CI/CD, and automated testing.
Experience leading architecture and design direction without a formal architecture function, including integration architecture across internal systems, platform vendors, and third-party services.
Proven experience building and restructuring engineering and product organizations, including hiring, leveling, developing leaders, setting performance expectations, and making personnel and structural decisions.
Experience partnering with or leading product management, with a clear perspective on how product and engineering should work together.
Demonstrated ability to build a multi-year technical roadmap, defend it to executives, and deliver against it.
Strong build-versus-buy judgment, including vendor evaluation, technical diligence, and total-cost-of-ownership analysis.
Ability to work directly with non-technical business executives, explain constraints clearly, set expectations, and decline requests with a reason.
Excellent written and verbal communication, including executive-level reporting on delivery, risk, and spending.
Ability to meet the essential functions of the job, with reasonable accommodations where applicable.
Employment offer is contingent on Sunwest Bank’s review of criminal conviction history, including pretrial diversions or program entries, under Section 19 of the Federal Deposit Insurance Act.

Nice To Haves

Experience with commercial banking, treasury management, payments, lending, digital banking, core banking, CRM, data products, or internal workflow platforms.
Familiarity with core banking platforms and integration patterns, commercial banking, treasury management, payments, or lending systems.
Experience delivering software through mergers, acquisitions, or system conversions.
Experience taking AI and machine learning capabilities from prototype to governed production use.
Experience establishing a cloud platform foundation, including landing zones, governance, policy baselines, and platform engineering practices.
Experience operating without a mature DevOps or SRE function and building one.
Advanced degree or relevant technical certifications.

Responsibilities

Own and maintain a three-year roadmap for software and data capabilities, sequencing build, buy, and retirement decisions against capacity, dependencies, regulatory deadlines, and acquisition activity.
Establish a roadmap review cadence and communicate changes and rationale to executive leadership.
Own software organization throughput, quality, and delivery predictability; establish and uphold engineering practices for branching, releases, testing, code review, CI/CD, observability, incident response, and technical debt management.
Report delivery performance, including commitments, shipped work, slippage, and reasons, in terms understandable to business stakeholders.
Set architecture and design direction for custom software, application and data architecture, integrations with core banking and third-party systems, API and event standards, cloud platform design, and security-by-design practices in partnership with Information Security.
Review significant technical designs and make decisions spanning teams.
Lead build-versus-buy evaluations, including technical diligence, total-cost analysis, integration assessment, implementation planning, and business cases.
Unify product management and engineering processes for discovery, prioritization, requirements quality, estimation, release planning, and post-launch measurement, with clear roles and a single business intake path.
Direct data platform and AI initiatives toward production outcomes with appropriate model, data, and third-party governance.
Assess organizational structure, roles, and talent; hire, develop, and coach leaders; set performance expectations; address underperformance; and make structural and personnel decisions.
Partner with Commercial Banking, Treasury Management, Operations, Payments, Finance, Risk, Compliance, BSA/AML, Information Security, Legal, and Audit to understand needs, shape demand, set expectations, and resolve priorities.
Ensure software delivery includes required risk, compliance, information security, model and data, legal, change management, and third-party governance reviews.
Manage budget, vendor contracts, licensing, contractor spend, and capacity planning; contribute to the Bank’s technology total cost of ownership picture.
Perform additional duties as assigned in support of the Bank’s priorities.
Attend and complete required training and maintain awareness of and compliance with the Bank’s Code of Ethics and Conduct, applicable laws, regulations, policies, and procedures, including Bank Secrecy Act requirements.