Head of Tech and Ops

Fnality is building the future of financial market infrastructure – creating regulated, blockchain-based payment systems to power tomorrow’s wholesale banking ecosystem. Backed by leading global banks and operating at the intersection of technology, finance, and regulation, we are powering the future of finance, together. There are no precedents for what we're doing. With you on our side, we'll be setting new ones every day. 

Working at Fnality   

Be your best:
We have a supportive culture that helps to bring the best out of each and every single one of our employees.  

Feel free to explore:
Bring your new ideas and help us to solve problems together by joining a community of experts. 

Be part of something bigger: We will support you by fostering an open, honest culture, that enables flexibility and wellbeing. Feel part of something bigger while being yourself.
  

Feel empowered:
We want you to feel empowered. The nature of our business can help make this a reality. We have the
agility, speed and innovation of a start-up, and a flexible working environment that enables this.    

Role Purpose 

Fnality Europe is a core part of the Fnality Global Payments ecosystem, delivering a next-generation, highly regulated, blockchain based wholesale payment system for the European market. Operating within a remote-first environment, this role requires regular in person engagement in Germany and across Europe as needed to support regulatory, participant, and group-level activities. 

In an increasingly complex digital and financial landscape, our ambition is to provide clarity, operational resilience, and positive change. As Head of Technology & Operations for Fnality Europe, you will guide the technical foundation and operational maturity of a new European payment system built on distributed ledger technology (DLT), ensuring compliance with EU regulatory frameworks and alignment with Fnality's global strategy. 

Strategic Technology & Operations Leadership 

• Develop and implement the technology, operations, and information security strategy for Fnality Europe, ensuring alignment with EU regulatory standards and the evolving requirements of European financial market infrastructures (FMIs). 

• Adapt and leverage group-level platforms, shared service providers, and international technology partners-including Fnality Services and Fnality International-to deliver secure, compliant, and scalable solutions. 

Operational Excellence & Risk Management 

• Oversee day to day operation of the Fnality Europe payment system, ensuring operational resilience, rapid incident response, robust risk controls, and strong alignment with European operational resilience regulations (e.g., DORA, EBA Outsourcing Guidelines, ESMA and ECB expectations). 

• Own and manage first line technology and information security risk for Fnality Europe, ensuring proactive mitigation and clear reporting to European regulators, participants, and the Fnality Europe governance structure. 

Collaboration & Influence Across the Group 

• Work closely with global technology peers, contributing to cross jurisdictional standards, architecture decisions, and best practices for DLT-based payment systems. 

• Maintain a dotted-line relationship with the Group CIO, ensuring transparency and alignment with global technology roadmaps, cyber standards, and group-wide operational risk frameworks. 

Key Responsibilities: 

Technology Strategy, Architecture & Delivery 

• Establish and maintain the European technology roadmap to support system growth, enhanced automation, and evolving participant requirements. 

• Design and implement technology standards for participants onboarding to the distributed payment system. 

• Drive continuous improvement in platform security, performance, scalability, and resilience. 

• Incorporate EU regulatory requirements across all technology and operational processes, including cybersecurity, outsourcing, data protection (GDPR), and operational continuity. 

Information Security & Cybersecurity 

• Build and embed a strong information security culture within Fnality Europe 

• Define and implement cyber risk management and cyber governance frameworks aligned to European standards 

• Ensure readiness and capability across cyber incident response, vulnerability management, and threat monitoring. 

Operations Leadership 

• Provide oversight and escalation support for day-to-day operations of the payment system 

• Manage and develop the technology and operations team within a lean, T shaped organisational model 

• Drive service excellence through the management of third-party providers and group shared services, ensuring strict adherence to SLAs and regulatory outsourcing obligations. 

Regulatory & Industry Engagement 

• Collaborate with the Head of Fnality Europe, Head of Risk, and relevant European regulators to ensure compliance with all operational and technical regulatory standards 

• Contribute to industry discussions and working groups to advance European regulatory and technical standards related to blockchain applications in wholesale payments. 

Required competencies: 

Strategic & Systems Thinking 

• Ability to translate regulatory, commercial, and participant requirements into pragmatic technology and operational strategies 

• Thinks holistically across architecture, risk, security, operations, and people to deliver durable solutions 

• Anticipates future regulatory, technological, and operational challenges and plans accordingly. 

Technology Risk Leadership 

• Able to balance innovation with resilience, security, and regulatory compliance 

• Demonstrates strong judgement when owning and escalating technology and cyber risks. 

Operational Resilience & Execution 

• Strong focus on service stability, recoverability, and operational excellence 

• Skilled at managing incidents, prioritising issues, and driving resolution under pressure 

• Ensures controls, monitoring, and processes are effective, tested, and continuously improved. 

Regulatory Acumen 

• Demonstrates a strong understanding of EU regulatory expectations impacting technology and operations of payment systems and FMIs 

• Able to engage credibly with regulators and auditors, articulating control design and operational effectiveness 

• Integrates regulatory compliance into day‑to‑day decision‑making rather than treating it as a separate activity. 

Leadership  

• Leads through clarity, trust, and accountability 

• Acts as a role model for collaboration, integrity, and continuous improvement. 

Stakeholder Influence & Communication 

• Communicates complex technical and operational matters clearly to non‑technical audiences 

• Builds strong relationships with internal stakeholders, group colleagues, delivery partners, and participants 

• Able to challenge constructively and influence outcomes without relying on hierarchy. 

Collaboration Across a Group Environment 

• Comfortable operating within a federated, global operating model 

• Balances local European accountability with global alignment via the dotted reporting line to the Group CIO 

• Actively contributes to group‑wide technology standards, communities of practice, and shared delivery outcomes. 

Required skills and experience 

Technical & Cyber Expertise 

• Proven experience developing and delivering technology strategies within regulated financial services or critical financial market infrastructures 

• Strong understanding of EU cyber and operational resilience regulations 

• Deep experience with cybersecurity best practices, security architecture, and incident response frameworks 

• Ability to make sound technical architecture decisions for complex, decentralised platforms 

• Experience applying Agile development methodologies and ensuring strong delivery capability. 

Operational & Leadership Competence 

• At least 10 years' experience in senior roles involving architecture, security, operations, or technology management. 

• Demonstrated ability to lead small specialised teams to high performance. 

• Excellent communication skills and ability to simplify complex technology topics for diverse audiences. 

• Strong stakeholder management capability-including with regulators, boards, participants, and global colleagues. 

• Ability to constructively challenge assumptions, resolve issues, and lead through ambiguity. 

Professional Certifications 

• CISSP and/or CISM (or equivalent) strongly preferred. 

Desirable Experience 

• Familiarity with distributed ledger technology (DLT) and its application in wholesale payments. 

• Knowledge of PKI management and identity lifecycle processes (e.g., JML). 

• Experience with FMI level operational and technical requirements. 

Why should you join Fnality?   

We employ curious individuals who thrive working in a fast-paced and constantly changing environment, who work best when empowered to drive their own work, and who are not afraid to fail fast and learn quicker.   

You will be an analytical thinker who is able to look at tasks and understand the most efficient way to achieve the desired outcome. You will be vigilantly outcomes-focussed and have an insatiable desire to learn, adept at picking up new challenges and giving anything a go. You will want to deliver as much as learn and you will understand how important the power of the team is.  

A bit more about us   

Digital transformation is changing our lives, work and businesses. While other sectors evolve, however, financial markets remain slow, fragmented and siloed. What the world needs now is a future-facing financial system for the digital age.   

At Fnality, we have been speaking – and listening – to the real users of today’s financial systems. From businesses to banks, there is a clear, collective ambition for a simpler, faster, safer and more resilient payment system; one that can move and settle money quickly and efficiently, with minimized risk and much more transparency.   

Fnality Global Payments   

We are building a network of new payment systems that will enable tokenised, peer-to-peer markets.   

Fnality Global Payments (FnGP) will comprise a series of national systems, each regulated in its home jurisdiction. We call each of these a Fnality Payment System (FnPS).   

In each payment system, a Fnality settlement asset will act as the settlement/payment asset for any Payment (P), Delivery v, Payment (DvP) or payment vs. payment (PvP) need.   

FnGP are underpinned by Distributed Ledger Technology (DLT). The nature of DLT is such that it enables FnGP to:   

• Operate a true peer-to-peer market   

• Allow for immediate settlement   

• Interoperate across business platforms and jurisdictions   

The key benefits of the above are:   

• Reduced counter-party and credit risk   

• Reduced operational risk   

• Efficient liquidity management   

• An ability to move resources from risk mitigation to business growth   

Eligibility 

This role is an Eschborn based role and you must be eligible to work in the EU. Please note we cannot sponsor visas for this role.  Please note this is a hybrid role with the expectation of working in the office 2-3 times per week. 

How will we use the information about you?  

We will use your personal information to process your application, to enable us to assess your suitability for a role and for other legitimate business purposes such as improving our sites and talent management practices. We may share your data with third parties to achieve these purposes. We will not use or share your information for marketing purposes.   

We will take appropriate security measures to safeguard your information in accordance with data protection legislation. If you would like further information about how your information may be processed by us, please contact us at [email protected].