Overview

Manages the activities of several Engineering and/or Architecture Managers and/or Team Leaders responsible for building and operating M&T Bank’s enterprise AI platform. This team owns the Azure API Management gateway and Azure AI Foundry platform that enable the Bank to adopt and deliver AI solutions at scale.

Provides strategic and operational leadership for the AI platform, including gateway management, platform lifecycle environments, model onboarding, vendor oversight, observability, reliability and resilience. Oversees the infrastructure that supports AI solutions across the Bank and ensures the platform meets applicable security, risk, regulatory and operational requirements.

Responsible for the budget of cost center(s) spanning concurrent development streams and for providing long- and short-term strategic direction across multiple applications and technology domains. Serves as a primary contact for Engineering, Architecture and Technology leadership, business partners and third-party vendors.

This is a high-impact leadership role within a small, high-agency team. The position owns the platform operating model, oversees the transition of vendor-developed capabilities to internal teams and hires, develops and leads the engineering talent responsible for the platform’s long-term operation.

Primary Responsibilities

• Own the strategy, engineering and ongoing operation of M&T Bank’s enterprise AI platform, including the Azure API Management gateway, Azure AI Foundry platform, lifecycle environments and supporting cloud infrastructure.
• Oversee gateway traffic management, rate limiting, identity integration, model routing, capacity planning and platform performance.
• Establish and maintain platform service levels, operating procedures, runbooks, on-call practices, business continuity capabilities and incident response processes.
• Ensure the AI platform is reliable, resilient, scalable and capable of supporting the Bank’s growing portfolio of AI use cases.
• Oversee model onboarding and lifecycle management, including routing, provider integration, multi-provider resiliency and inference cost management.
• Build and manage platform observability capabilities, including OpenTelemetry, security information and event management integration, cost and token monitoring, and same-day queryable audit trails.
• Ensure platform controls support applicable AI safety and risk requirements, including content filtering, personally identifiable information interception, prompt shielding, access management and traceability.
• Partner with the teams responsible for the Bank’s agentic risk framework and AI delivery capability to ensure platform design and operations align with enterprise AI governance standards.
• Manage and participate in consultations with client management to analyze short- and long-range business requirements and recommend innovations that anticipate the future impact of changing business and technology needs.
• Build positive relationships with clients, business partners, Engineering and Architecture leadership, Technology leadership, Risk, Cybersecurity, Legal, Compliance and other key stakeholders.
• Monitor technology and industry direction related to AI platforms, API gateway infrastructure, cloud services, large language model serving and emerging vendor capabilities.
• Research and initiate changes to existing technologies, processes and operating models when needed. Lead vendor and product analysis and provide recommendations to senior leadership.
• Manage third-party delivery relationships and oversee the transition of vendor-developed platform capabilities to internal teams. Review statements of work, monitor milestones, hold partners accountable to deliverables and escalate delivery risks when appropriate.
• Oversee multiple application development, infrastructure, support, testing, implementation and project management efforts across the AI platform.
• Organize and direct the activities of engineering teams, assign personnel to initiatives and ensure the completion of schedules and deliverables.
• Develop short- and long-term staffing plans. Hire, retain and develop a strong platform engineering team capable of operating critical AI infrastructure in a regulated environment.
• Implement technology consistent with Division standards and long-range plans. Ensure adherence to all Department and Technology standards, procedures and documentation requirements.
• Oversee solution and platform designs based on business, technology, security, risk and regulatory requirements.
• Manage escalated platform issues and remain current on activities outside the team that may affect the platform, client environment or broader AI ecosystem.
• Develop and manage multiple cost center budgets, including vendor and cloud platform expenses. Support cloud cost management and FinOps practices at the platform level.
• Recommend and initiate policies and procedures that improve the performance, reliability, efficiency and effectiveness of the Department.
• Demonstrate a strong understanding of the business environment and needs within the area of responsibility. Understand the technical, business, operational and regulatory impacts of a project, platform decision or production issue.
• Communicate platform architecture, request flows, authorization controls, audit trails and operational processes clearly to senior management, auditors, regulators and other governance stakeholders.
• Support the job growth and career development of team members through coaching, training plans, feedback, guidance and knowledge sharing.
• Exercise the usual authority of a manager concerning staffing, performance appraisals, promotions, salary recommendations, performance management and terminations.
• Understand and adhere to the Company’s risk and regulatory standards, policies and controls in accordance with the Company’s Risk Appetite. Design, implement, maintain and enhance internal controls to mitigate risk on an ongoing basis. Identify risk-related issues requiring escalation to management.
• Promote an environment that supports belonging and reflects the M&T Bank brand.
• Maintain M&T internal control standards, including timely implementation of internal and external audit points and the resolution of issues raised by external regulators, as applicable.
• Complete other related duties as assigned.

Scope of Responsibilities

Oversees a team where the majority of employees are engineering and/or architecture individual contributors, Engineering Supervisors, Team Leads and/or Engineering and Architecture Managers. The team is responsible for the infrastructure and platform capabilities that support enterprise AI solutions across M&T Bank.

The position has broad accountability for platform strategy, engineering, delivery and operations, including vendor oversight, production reliability, risk and regulatory controls, and the ongoing transition of externally developed capabilities to internal ownership.

Key Skills and Success Indicators

• Platform ownership: Approaches the platform as an enduring product and operational capability, with a focus on service levels, reliability, runbooks, on-call coverage, capacity planning and continuous improvement.
• Engineering leadership: Provides clear technical and organizational direction while creating accountability across platform engineering, infrastructure and architecture teams.
• Vendor management: Reviews statements of work, monitors milestones, holds partners accountable to deliverables and escalates risks when commitments are not met.
• Regulatory awareness: Clearly explains how requests flow through the gateway, how access is authorized, where activity is logged and how platform controls support regulatory and audit requirements.
• Operational excellence: Anticipates production risks, establishes effective monitoring and incident response practices, and ensures the platform is resilient and supportable.
• Team building: Attracts, hires, develops and retains strong engineers while creating meaningful career opportunities within infrastructure and platform engineering.
• Strategic judgment: Balances speed, innovation, risk, cost and long-term platform sustainability when making decisions.
• Stakeholder partnership: Builds credibility with Technology, business, risk, control and vendor partners and communicates complex platform topics in a clear, actionable manner.

Supervisory/Managerial Responsibilities

10 to 20

Education and Experience Required

• A combined minimum of 11 years’ higher education and/or work experience, including a minimum of 4 years’ engineering and/or architecture experience and 5 years' leadership experience including people management
• Direct experience in platform engineering, infrastructure engineering, cloud architecture or a related technology discipline.
• Direct experience operating API gateway infrastructure at scale, such as Azure API Management, AWS API Gateway, Kong or an equivalent platform.
• Experience managing production gateway capabilities, including traffic management, rate limiting, identity integration and routing.
• Experience with Azure cloud services and technologies, including Azure AI Foundry, Microsoft Entra ID, Azure Monitor and Terraform or comparable infrastructure-as-code tooling.
• Experience managing vendor delivery relationships, reviewing contractual deliverables and overseeing the transition of vendor-developed capabilities to internal teams.
• Experience building and operating observability capabilities, including OpenTelemetry, security information and event management integration, and cloud consumption or cost monitoring.
• Experience designing or operating infrastructure that produces timely, queryable audit trails and supports regulatory, risk and compliance reviews.
• Experience working in a regulated industry, such as banking, insurance or healthcare.
• Proficiency with pertinent project management, word processing and spreadsheet applications.
• Capable of working on multiple projects and technology initiatives of a complex nature.
• Experience with large system enhancements, conversions, platform implementations and production problem resolution.
• Complete understanding of the system development life cycle.
• Excellent problem-solving skills to assist in issue resolution.
• Familiarity with application development software, cloud services, infrastructure technologies and hardware platforms.
• Excellent verbal and written communication skills.
• Excellent analytical and decision-making skills.
• Experience encouraging teamwork and serving as a role model when leading and directing others.
• Understanding of the technical, business, operational, risk and regulatory impacts of a project, platform decision or production problem.
• Confidence leading multiple teams, including teams and vendor partners located across different geographic locations and time zones.
• Experience defining and managing service levels, runbooks, on-call practices, capacity planning and production support processes.
• Prior experience presenting complex technology topics, recommendations and risks to senior management.

Education and Experience Preferred

• Bachelor’s degree.
• Minimum of 12 years’ technology management or large program leadership experience.
• Experience with large language model serving infrastructure, including model routing, multi-provider failover and inference cost management.
• Familiarity with AI safety and guardrail enforcement at the infrastructure layer, including content filtering, personally identifiable information interception and prompt shielding.
• Experience with FinOps or cloud cost management at the platform level.
• Experience establishing a platform engineering team or capability from an early stage and defining its operating model.
• Extensive application and product knowledge related to AI platforms, API management, cloud infrastructure and the technology area being led.
• Subject matter expertise in supported applications and platforms, with advanced knowledge of interfacing and integrated applications.
• Understanding of multiple business areas and their functions.
• Proven mentoring, people leadership and organizational development capabilities.
• Experience with the applications, technologies and functions of the area being led.
• Good understanding of the Bank’s application framework, technology standards and control environment.
• Awareness of the Bank’s business plan and strategic objectives, with the ability to influence and shape technology direction.
• Advanced knowledge of complex systems and experience supporting strategic initiatives outside normal business-as-usual operations.
• Self-motivated and able to motivate others.

Key Skills and Success Indicators

• Platform ownership: Approaches the platform as an enduring product and operational capability, with a focus on service levels, reliability, runbooks, on-call coverage, capacity planning and continuous improvement.
• Engineering leadership: Provides clear technical and organizational direction while creating accountability across platform engineering, infrastructure and architecture teams.
• Vendor management: Reviews statements of work, monitors milestones, holds partners accountable to deliverables and escalates risks when commitments are not met.
• Regulatory awareness: Clearly explains how requests flow through the gateway, how access is authorized, where activity is logged and how platform controls support regulatory and audit requirements.
• Operational excellence: Anticipates production risks, establishes effective monitoring and incident response practices, and ensures the platform is resilient and supportable.
• Team building: Attracts, hires, develops and retains strong engineers while creating meaningful career opportunities within infrastructure and platform engineering.
• Strategic judgment: Balances speed, innovation, risk, cost and long-term platform sustainability when making decisions.
• Stakeholder partnership: Builds credibility with Technology, business, risk, control and vendor partners and communicates complex platform topics in a clear, actionable manner.

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M&T Bank is committed to fair, competitive, and market-informed pay for our employees. The pay range for this position is $139,700.00 - $232,900.00 Annual (USD). The successful candidate’s particular combination of knowledge, skills, and experience will inform their specific compensation.

Location

Buffalo, New York, United States of America