Associate Director, Software Engineering

Some careers have more impact than others.

If you’re looking for a career where you can make a real impression, join HSBC and discover how valued you’ll be.

We are currently seeking an experienced professional to join our team in the role of Associate Director, Software Engineering.

Business: IWPB Technology

Principal responsibilities

Lead AI adoption across Channels engineering

• Define and execute an AI adoption plan for Staff Channels engineering (aligned to enterprise guardrails), covering use cases such as:
• AI coding assistance and secure prompt patterns
• Test generation and test maintenance automation
• Documentation automation and knowledge search (e.g., RAG over internal docs/runbooks)
• Incident triage support, root-cause analysis assistance, and operational runbooks
• SDLC automation (PR reviews, quality gates, release notes, change summaries)
• Identify high-value opportunities, prioritise with measurable outcomes, and drive delivery from pilot to scaled rollout.
• Establish repeatable playbooks, templates, and “golden paths” so teams adopt AI consistently and safely.
• Track adoption and impact (e.g., cycle time reduction, defect reduction, improved MTTR, developer satisfaction)

Responsible AI, security and risk-by-design

• Ensure AI usage complies with data privacy, IP protection, secure SDLC, and model risk requirements.
• Partner with Cyber Security, Risk, Compliance and Legal to define approved usage patterns, tooling, and controls.
• Implement governance for prompts, datasets, outputs, and human-in-the-loop review where required.
• Drive team training on safe AI usage, limitations, and evaluation practices.

Delivery leadership & execution excellence

• Own delivery outcomes across multiple squads: planning, execution, dependencies, and release readiness.
• Drive predictable delivery through strong engineering management practices (prioritisation, estimation, risk management, and transparent reporting).
• Remove blockers and manage cross-team dependencies across channels, platform, and shared services.
• Ensure solutions meet non-functional requirements (performance, resilience, security, scalability).

Engineering excellence & continuous improvement

• Champion modern engineering practices and show how AI amplifies them: DevSecOps, CI/CD, automated testing, trunk-based development, SRE, and platform engineering.
• Improve quality and reliability via automation, quality gates, and observability.
• Define and track metrics such as lead time, change failure rate, MTTR, defect escape rate, test coverage, and operational stability.

People leadership, coaching & capability uplift

• Lead, coach and develop engineers and tech leads; build career pathways and succession plans.
• Foster a culture of accountability, learning, and continuous improvement—encouraging responsible experimentation with AI.
• Build a strong talent pipeline through hiring, onboarding, performance management, and engagement.
• Run enablement sessions (workshops, office hours) and build communities of practice around AI in engineering.

Stakeholder management & influence

• Partner with Product Owners, Architecture, Security, Risk/Compliance, and Operations to align priorities and delivery plans.
• Communicate clearly to technical and non-technical audiences; influence without authority across teams and regions.
• Balance pace of delivery with safety, governance, quality, and long-term maintainability.

Requirements

• 8–12+ years in software engineering, with proven experience leading engineering teams (people management and delivery ownership).
• Strong experience delivering digital/channel platforms (web/api) and associated backend services/APIs in a regulated environment.
• Demonstrated success improving engineering productivity and quality through modern practices, standards, and developer tooling.
• Hands-on understanding of AI/GenAI applications in software engineering (e.g., copilots, RAG/knowledge search, test generation, incident support, SDLC automation).
• Strong knowledge of secure SDLC, privacy-by-design, and operational excellence (observability, incident management, SRE practices).
• Excellent communication, coaching, and stakeholder management skills.

You’ll achieve more when you join HSBC.

HSBC is an equal opportunity employer committed to building a culture where all employees are valued, respected and opinions count. We take pride in providing a workplace that fosters continuous professional development, flexible working and, opportunities to grow within an inclusive and diverse environment. We encourage applications from all suitably qualified persons irrespective of, but not limited to, their gender or genetic information, sexual orientation, ethnicity, religion, social status, medical care leave requirements, political affiliation, people with disabilities, color, national origin, veteran status, etc., We consider all applications based on merit and suitability to the role.

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***Issued By HSBC Software Development (GuangDong) Limited***