Introduction Since 1973, East West Bank has served as a pathway to success. With over 110 locations across the U.S. and Asia, we are the premier financial bridge between the East and West. Our teams of experienced, multi-cultural professionals help guide businesses and community members on both sides of the Pacific looking to explore new markets and create new opportunities, and our sustained growth and expertise in industries like real estate, entertainment and media, private equity and venture capital, and high-tech help build sustainable businesses and expand our associates' potential for career advancement.
Headquartered in California, East West Bank (Nasdaq: EWBC) is a top-performing commercial bank with a strong foundation, an enterprising spirit and a commitment to absolute integrity. East West Bank gives people the confidence to reach further.
Overview The Director of IT Operations is responsible for ensuring the stability, resilience, and operational excellence of the bank's technology environment. This leader owns day-to-day production operations, incident and problem management, service availability, disaster recovery readiness, and operational risk management across infrastructure and applications.
The role balances run-the-bank excellence with modernization, driving improved observability, automation, vendor performance, and global operating models (including captive/offshore teams). The Director partners closely with Cybersecurity, Application Development, Digital, and Business leaders to ensure technology services meet regulatory, customer, and business expectations.
Responsibilities - Own 24x7 production operations across infrastructure, platforms, and applications.
- Ensure high availability, performance, and reliability of critical banking systems.
- Lead incident, problem, and change management, including executive communications for major incidents.
- Establish clear service ownership and operational accountability for all systems.
Operational Resilience & Risk - Own operational resilience, including:
- Disaster Recovery (DR) testing and readiness
- Business Continuity (BCP) coordination
- Reduction of single points of failure
- Mean Time to Detect (MTTD) and Mean Time to Restore (MTTR)
- Partner with Risk, Compliance, and Audit on:
- Regulatory exams and audits
- Issue remediation and control design
- Evidence and reporting
Service Management - Establish and mature ITSM practices (Incident, Problem, Change, Request).
- Manage IT services centered around operational KPIs and performance objectives:
- Availability and uptime
- Incident trends and root causes
- Change success rate
- Ticket volumes and aging
- Drive a data-driven operations culture focused on continuous improvement.
Application & Infrastructure Support - Oversee application support functions, including:
- L2/L3 support
- Release support and production readiness
- DR testing and failover support
- Oversee infrastructure operations, including:
- Compute, storage, network, and end-user platforms
- Data center and cloud operations
- Capacity and performance management
Vendor & Global Delivery Management - Manage strategic vendors and service providers, ensuring SLAs, cost discipline, and accountability.
- Build and scale global delivery models, including:
- Clear role definitions and RACI
- Knowledge transfer and runbooks
- Performance management and quality controls
- Reduce dependency on vendors through internal capability building where appropriate
Automation & Modernization - Drive increased automation across operations (monitoring, ticket triage, remediation).
- Improve observability and tooling to proactively detect and prevent issues.
- Partner with Engineering and Architecture to:
- Improve production readiness
- Shift left on operational concerns
- Reduce operational toil and technical debt
Leadership & Stakeholder Management - Lead, develop, and retain high-performing operations leaders and teams.
- Serve as a trusted partner to:
- CIO and executive leadership
- Business and product owners
- Cybersecurity and Risk
- Communicate clearly during incidents, audits, and executive reviews.
- May perform other duties as assigned
Qualifications - 12+ years of IT experience with significant leadership in IT Operations
- Experience in financial services or highly regulated environments
- Strong background in:
- Production operations
- Incident and problem management
- Disaster recovery and business continuity
- Experience managing large, hybrid environments (on-prem + cloud)
- Proven ability to manage vendors and offshore/captive teams
- Strong executive communication skills
Preferred - Experience supporting banks approaching or exceeding $50-$100B in assets
- Familiarity with regulatory expectations (e.g., FFIEC, FRB, OCC)
- Experience modernizing IT operations (automation, SRE, observability)
- ITIL or similar service management framework experience
Applicants must have legal authorization to work in the United States. We do not offer visa sponsorship at this time.
Compensation The base pay range for this position is USD $200,000.00/Yr. - USD $300,000.00/Yr. Exact offers will be determined based on job-related knowledge, skills, experience, and location.
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