IT Area Lead - Digital First

IT Area Lead – Digital First

Reports to IT Lead for Channels

Why this role matters

As IT Area Lead Digital First, you shape the digital journeys through which our customers interact with ING every day. From opening a product, to managing it, to eventually closing it, your area is responsible for delivering seamless, intuitive and reliable customer experiences across some of the bank’s most important products. You lead at the intersection of technology, business and customer value, ensuring that digital interactions remain simple for customers while navigating the complexity of an evolving banking landscape. This role combines people leadership, strategic influence, delivery accountability and technology leadership in a fast-paced environment where collaboration and shared ownership are key.

Your scope & domain

You lead the Digital First area, serving two key business lines: Daily Banking – Client First and Payments & Cards.

Daily Banking – Client First: Enabling customers to seamlessly open, manage and close their daily banking products through digital channels. Your teams continuously improve customer journeys, simplify processes and create experiences that customers trust and enjoy using.

Payments & Cards: Delivering digital experiences related to payments and cards, allowing customers to manage their financial interactions smoothly, securely and efficiently throughout the entire product lifecycle.

Across both business lines, your area owns and evolves the customer-facing journeys that connect ING’s digital channels with the underlying banking capabilities. A key part of your mission is to work closely with the IT Area Lead Core Banking to ensure solutions are aligned with today’s core banking landscape while preparing the organization for the New Banking Platform migration.

You’ll lead a team of 4 Chapter Leads reporting directly to you, and a total of 14 indirect reports plus 43 engineers in Hubs Philippines and 68 externals based in Belgium and India.

How we lead

You are part of a collaborative and supportive leadership team where accountability and partnership go hand in hand. As part of the Channels team, you join a group of leaders who represent the technology layer of how ING connects to its customers.

You lead the Digital First Management Team, helping define priorities, shape strategy and create alignment across domains. Success is achieved together: leaders challenge each other constructively, support one another when needed and jointly own outcomes for customers, employees and the bank.

You set the direction by translating strategy into clear architectural direction and making deliberate, transparent choices for ING. You lead by lifting others through trust, coaching and constructive challenge. You equip your team to win by setting clear outcomes, addressing root causes and taking ownership of architectural decisions.

What you do

• Lead multiple chapters and teams within the Digital First area, creating an environment where people can perform, grow and thrive.
• Translate strategic objectives into a clear technology and delivery roadmap aligned with ING Belgium and ING Group ambitions.
• Drive end-to-end ownership of customer journeys across Daily Banking and Payments & Cards.
• Build strong partnerships with business stakeholders, ensuring customers and business value remain at the center of decision-making.
• Collaborate closely with Core Banking and enterprise architecture teams to prepare the Digital First landscape for the New Banking Platform migration.
• Ensure delivery excellence while balancing innovation, risk management, resilience, compliance and operational stability.
• Create clarity around priorities, dependencies, risks and trade-offs in a complex stakeholder environment.
• Develop craftsmanship across the area through strong chapter leadership, coaching and continuous learning.
• Foster a culture of collaboration, ownership, simplicity and continuous improvement.
• Represent your area within Tech Belgium and towards senior business stakeholders, creating alignment across tribes, domains and functions.
• Set direction by translating strategy into clear architectural direction and making deliberate, transparent choices for ING.
• Lead by lifting others through trust, coaching and constructive challenge, fostering collaboration and open dialogue.
• Equip your team to win by setting clear outcomes, addressing root causes and taking ownership of architectural decisions.

What kind of leader thrives here

You do not lead alone, you lead together. You combine strategic thinking with a pragmatic mindset and know how to create momentum in a complex organization. You are energized by challenges and bring people together around common goals.

• Have proven experience leading large teams in a complex and fast-paced technology environment.
• Know how to build and sustain high-performing teams through trust, coaching, clear expectations and accountability.
• Are a strong team player who actively contributes to collective success rather than individual achievement.
• Can balance long-term strategic transformation with short-term delivery commitments.
• Are comfortable navigating organizational complexity and managing dependencies across multiple stakeholders and domains.
• Have experience translating business strategy into technology outcomes and roadmaps.
• Are an effective communicator who can connect executives, business experts, architects and engineers around a shared vision.
• Stay curious, challenge the status quo and continuously seek improvements for customers, employees and the organization.
• Bring 10+ years of people management experience, managing multi-site multinational teams.
• Have an engineering background and understanding of the ING software delivery process.
• Bring project management experience.
• Are proficient in English. Dutch and French are a plus.

Why join us?

Join a domain that sits at the heart of ING’s customer experience. As IT Area Lead Digital First, you will directly influence how customers interact with the bank every day while helping shape the future of our digital banking landscape. You will lead talented teams, work with engaged business and technology partners, and play a key role in shaping the future of the bank. This is a role where you can make a visible impact on customers, colleagues and the future of banking.