SVP, Data Platform Services Engineering Lead, Technology Group

About the organization

GIC is among the world’s largest sovereign wealth funds, with a workforce of more than 2,000 people spread across 11 global offices. The firm invests in over 40 countries and across a wide range of asset classes and businesses. Joining GIC means working alongside globally recognized industry leaders and contributing to Singapore’s financial future as well as the communities in which the firm invests.

Technology Group

The Technology Group operates a round-the-clock global environment that underpins core capabilities in asset management, trading, investment operations, and risk management. The team focuses on building secure, dependable, and well-integrated solutions while also evaluating new and emerging technologies.

Infrastructure & Cybersecurity Resilience

The Infrastructure & Cybersecurity Resilience function is responsible for designing, building, and protecting the technology foundations that support GIC’s worldwide investment operations. The objective is to provide resilient, scalable, and secure infrastructure that helps the organization work efficiently and effectively.

Role overview

This position serves as the strategic, technical, and engineering lead for databases, data platforms, middleware, and web services across the global environment. Reporting to the Head of Infrastructure & Cybersecurity Engineering, the role will shape the long-term direction for data and platform services, guiding the evolution from legacy relational technologies such as Oracle and SQL Server toward cloud-native, open-source, and AI-enabled platforms including Snowflake, Databricks, and data mesh approaches. The successful candidate will need strong technical depth, executive-level leadership, and the ability to work closely with application, AI, analytics, and operations teams. Over the next five years, the mandate is to turn GIC’s data infrastructure and middleware into clear advantages in speed, scale, flexibility, and insight.

What you will do

• Set and maintain a multi-year roadmap for databases, data platforms, middleware, and web services, covering technologies such as Oracle, SQL Server, PostgreSQL, Snowflake, Databricks, data lakes, data mesh, message brokers, application servers, and API gateways.
• Drive the transition from monolithic and legacy setups to cloud-native architectures that support streaming, operational analytics, and AI/ML readiness.
• Apply AI and AIOps concepts to improve automated tuning, detect anomalies, enable predictive maintenance, and support self-healing capabilities across data, middleware, and web services.
• Oversee the SWIFT environment and the evolution of financial messaging, including standards such as ISO 20022, while ensuring engineering strength, security, and regulatory adherence.
• Lead geographically distributed engineering teams responsible for building, integrating, and protecting data and service layers.
• Promote DevOps and SRE practices, including infrastructure as code, CI/CD automation, test automation, and strong observability.
• Work with application teams to reduce latency, maintain data consistency, and fit solutions into existing operating models.
• Evaluate technologies, run proofs of concept, and manage vendor engagement across platforms such as Snowflake, Databricks, open-source databases, and middleware tools.
• Build security, privacy, compliance, and audit needs into solutions from the outset, including support for data residency and regulatory requirements.
• Implement access controls, encryption, vulnerability management, and ongoing monitoring, while maintaining secure baselines through automated validation and configuration management.
• Act as the global decision-maker for database and middleware architecture governance across cloud environments and regions.
• Present strategy, trade-offs, funding requirements, and progress updates to executive stakeholders.
• Coordinate with security, risk, compliance, and operations teams to support risk management and operational excellence.
• Share expertise externally through conferences and forums to strengthen GIC’s visibility in data and platform engineering.
• Create a collaborative, automation-led, and innovation-oriented culture that emphasizes knowledge sharing and continuous learning.
• Define and track performance measures such as throughput, latency, cost efficiency, and time-to-market, and enable teams to deliver against those targets.

What we are looking for

• A bachelor’s or master’s degree in Computer Science, Engineering, Data Science, or a closely related discipline.
• At least 15 years of progressive leadership experience managing global, cross-functional teams in database, data engineering, middleware, or platform engineering.
• A strong record of moving legacy relational systems into cloud-native or hybrid data platforms.
• Deep knowledge of database technologies such as Oracle, PostgreSQL, and SQL Server, along with data orchestration, analytics and AI tooling such as Snowflake and Databricks, and advanced AIOps-oriented frameworks for predictive and self-healing systems.
• AWS Solutions Architect Associate certification is preferred; Professional-level certification is an added advantage.
• Hands-on familiarity with modern DevOps, SRE, infrastructure as code, container orchestration using Docker and Kubernetes, and advanced middleware/web services such as message brokers, REST, SOAP, and API gateways.
• Substantial experience with SWIFT infrastructure, including engineering practices, security, regulatory expectations, and operational standards.
• Strong background in security, including authentication, authorization, encryption, and vulnerability management, plus a solid grasp of networking fundamentals, load balancing, and high availability for distributed systems.
• Business acumen with experience handling budgets, vendor agreements, and standardization across multiple regions.
• An innovative and change-oriented mindset suited to large-scale, regulated environments with a focus on continuous improvement.

Work environment and culture

GIC encourages an ambitious, agile, and diverse workplace where people are empowered to challenge assumptions, explore new ideas, and contribute their perspectives. The firm’s PRIME values—Prudence, Respect, Integrity, Merit, and Excellence—guide everyday decisions and the broader long-term strategy.

Office arrangement

The organization values collaboration in person and typically expects teams in the office four days a week. At the same time, employees have flexibility in deciding which days to work from home, with adjustments made when business needs require it.

Equal opportunity

GIC is committed to equal opportunity and values the unique perspectives that diverse teams bring. An inclusive environment is seen as essential to strong performance and meaningful contribution.

Additional information

The PRIME values framework stands for Prudence, Respect, Integrity, Merit, and Excellence. These principles guide how the organization behaves, makes decisions, and works with clients, partners, and employees.