The job in short
Position Overview:
Shape the Future of AI-Driven Banking Solutions at Backbase
Backbase is looking for a visionary and technically strong leader to build and lead our Professional Services practice focused on bringing AI driven solutions to our Financial Services customers. In this role you will be responsible for developing the vision, strategy and execution power for delivering high impact client engagements that harness the power of data and AI to create meaningful business value for our customers. Along with a commercial peer, you will be responsible for generating revenue opportunities with existing and new clients.
You will have the opportunity to leverage the full suite of capabilities in the Backbase platform, and to innovate with new and experimental technologies to create truly compelling solutions. With the learnings and experience from these engagements we expect you to be a significant contributor to Backbase’s overall vision for enhancing its products and services with AI.
This is a critical leadership position for someone who is results driven, focused and has extensive experience engaging with senior C-level executives at financial institutions on high profile, professional services engagements. You are a compelling and influential communicator who is quickly able to adapt their style to different audiences, technical and non-technical. You are also an experienced engineering leader who knows how to build a team and steer and support them to deliver high quality software and systems.
Meet the job
Key Responsibilities
1. AI Technology Leadership
- Act as a visionary and challenge the status quo, while using your experience and judgement to make sound choices about leading and bleeding edge technologies in the AI/ML space;
- Research, evaluate and communicate a viewpoint on the opportunities for AI/ML in Financial Services, incorporating input from Backbase customers, prospects and the wider FS industry;
- Collaborate internally with senior technology and product leads in developing and communicating thought leadership on the impacts of AI in financial services and on the wider technology and customer experience landscape;
- Build and lead a high-caliber team of engineers specialising in AI, data science and ML who will work on POCs, Customer Labs, and bespoke engagements with leading financial institutions;
- Foster a technology-driven culture of innovation, experimentation, and rapid prototyping.
2. AI Innovation
- Stay ahead of the curve on GenAI, large language models, agentic systems, and advanced machine learning techniques;
- Translate emerging AI capabilities into practical, production-grade solutions that enhance customer engagement, operational efficiency, and decision intelligence;
- Champion internal AI adoption by driving innovation labs, technical workshops, and cross-functional AI initiatives.
3. Cross-Functional Collaboration
- Collaborate with Product leadership to productize repeatable, high-value AI use cases, bringing real world feedback from the field to influence decisioning a prioritisation (e.g., financial coaching, behavioral nudges, anomaly detection, automated servicing);
- Partner with Engineering to ensure robustness, scalability, and performance of AI-powered services in production environments;
- Align with Data & Platform teams on data governance, feature engineering, and AI model lifecycle management.
4. Technology Evangelism & Thought Leadership
- Represent Backbase’s AI vision internally and externally through conferences, client engagements, and industry thought leadership;
- Help position Backbase as a fintech innovation leader through AI-enabled digital banking capabilities.
How about you
Key Qualifications:
1. Technical & Academic Background
- 10+ years experience in leading high performance engineering and architecture teams in a product development and/or professional services environment;
- 5+ years of experience leading AI, ML, or data science teams in a product or technology-driven environment;
- Strong experience with AI/ML frameworks (e.g., TensorFlow, PyTorch, Hugging Face), cloud AI platforms (e.g., AWS Sagemaker, Azure ML), and MLOps best practices;
- Proven track record of embedding AI/ML into real-world digital products at scale, preferably in fintech or SaaS environments.
2. Leadership & Execution
- Experience leading multidisciplinary teams focused on AI product development, from strategy to hands-on delivery;
- Deep understanding of modern software development practices and cloud-native architecture;
- Strong communication skills to influence executive stakeholders, cross-functional partners, and technical contributors alike;
- Strategic mindset with the ability to balance long-term vision and short-term delivery.
Why Join Backbase?
This is your chance to build the future of AI-powered digital banking at one of the most innovative companies in fintech. As Head of AI Technology & Strategy, you’ll have the platform, resources, and executive support to make a tangible impact—on our products, our customers, and the industry at large.
Apply now and help us shape the intelligent financial experiences of tomorrow.
