Head of Department - Data Platforms (all humans)

Make a difference in the financial life of millions of people: At Erste Digital you are co-creating the digital future, in which better financial health is possible. #believeinyourself We are part of Erste Group – the largest banking group in Central and Eastern Europe with more than 2,500 branches and over 45,000 employees. Our more than 2,000 IT experts and enthusiasts are the bank's Digital Muscle. Job Description: Tribe SRE is looking for a Head of Department to lead the Data Platforms department, with a strong focus on Database Reliability Engineering (DBRE). As an enabling organization, Tribe SRE supports business tribes as internal clients by delivering reliable, secure, scalable, and efficient platform services across on-premises and AWS environments. In this role, you will be responsible for the strategy, delivery, and continuous improvement of data platform services while strengthening collaboration across teams and departments, reducing silos, and building a more resilient and shared engineering capability. The department’s scope includes Oracle Database, PostgreSQL, Exadata, MongoDB, and Hadoop during its transition and sustainment phase. Your mission is to increase platform reliability, expand self-service capabilities, reduce operational effort through automation, and enable business tribes to move faster through robust platform foundations. Team Scope: You will lead a department of 32 engineers, consisting of both internal colleagues and external partners. The department is organized into three teams across Vienna, Bratislava, and Košice. In this role, you will provide clear direction, strengthen collaboration across locations, develop leadership and engineering capabilities, and ensure that internal and external team members work together effectively toward shared platform goals. What to do: Lead the Data Platforms department with end-to-end ownership of strategy, delivery, service quality, operational excellence, and continuous improvement across database platform services. Represent Data Platforms within the broader SRE organization and build strong partnerships with business tribes as internal clients. Translate business needs into reliable, scalable, secure, and user-friendly platform services. Drive Database Reliability Engineering practices to improve reliability, resilience, security, performance, and operational maturity. Own and evolve the data platform landscape across on-premises and AWS environments, including Oracle Database, PostgreSQL, Exadata, MongoDB, and Hadoop. Lead the strategic evolution toward PostgreSQL as the target relational database platform while ensuring the stability and support of existing Oracle-based services. Increase automation, reduce operational toil, and expand self-service capabilities by leveraging modern engineering practices and platform thinking. Establish and strengthen Application DBA capabilities within Erste Digital by building knowledge, standards, and expertise where this capability is currently limited. Lead, develop, and grow a distributed department of internal and external engineers across Vienna, Bratislava, and Košice, fostering a culture of ownership, collaboration, continuous learning, and engineering excellence. Align with senior stakeholders and business tribes on priorities, roadmaps, adoption plans, and measurable service outcomes. You check these boxes: Extensive experience with enterprise database platforms, particularly Oracle Database, PostgreSQL, Exadata, and MongoDB. Strong expertise in Database Reliability Engineering, including reliability, availability, performance, security, resilience, and operational excellence. Experience operating and modernizing database services in AWS environments. Proven track record of driving automation, standardization, and self-service capabilities within complex platform organizations. Demonstrated leadership experience managing engineering teams and delivering large-scale platform initiatives in complex environments. Experience working in an enabling or shared-service operating model, partnering effectively with internal customers and engineering organizations. Good understanding of Infrastructure as Code (IaC), CI/CD practices, observability, and operational automation. Strong stakeholder management, communication, and influencing skills across technical and non-technical audiences. Fluent English and a university degree in Computer Science, Information Technology, or a related field, or equivalent practical experience. Professional Skills: You are someone who: Builds highly reliable systems and proactively addresses risks before they impact users or services. Takes ownership end to end and collaborates effectively to achieve the best outcomes for customers and stakeholders. Simplifies complexity, focuses on what matters most, and drives pragmatic solutions. Prioritizes effectively, adapts quickly to changing circumstances, and continuously learns from feedback and experience. Leads by example, empowers others, and creates an environment where individuals and teams can thrive. Embraces change, learns quickly, and continuously seeks opportunities for improvement. Delivers measurable results while raising the performance and effectiveness of the wider organization. Contributes to a positive, inclusive, and high-performing culture through openness, respect, constructive feedback, and accountability. Balances strategic thinking with a hands-on understanding of technology and operations. Beyond your qualifications, the right attitude towards leadership is equally essential to us. How we live leadership: Out of Comfort Zone Servant Leadership Performance Impact Future Orientation Client Orientation Click here to learn more about our Leadership Dimensions. Why you will like us: Possibility to benefit and learn from our international, talented and passionate community at Erste Interest groups and clubs: Take part in discussions and get involved in projects. Numerous interest groups invite you to engage with a topic Health Centre – The Erste Campus operates a fully equipped health center that offers all employees a high standard of medical services during working hours. Employee benefits – Benefit from special conditions for financial services and insurances, supermarkets, clothing stores and many more. Employee Referral Program – Become a talent scout for career opportunities in IT. We are rewarding every successful referral for Erste Digital A competitive and performance-related salary dependent on your professional and personal qualifications is granted - the minimum wage for this position in accordance with the respective collective agreement is EUR 4.500,- gross per month. But this is just a formality, we are more than happy to discuss your actual expectations. The way we are: Erste Group considers the diversity of its employees as key to innovation and success. As employer we are proud to offer everyone equal chances, irrespective of age, skin colour, religious belief, gender, sexual orientation or origin. Interested? We would like to fill this position as soon as possible - please apply until 23.8.2026!