Major Incident Commander – Principal

About Northern Trust

As a global leader in innovative wealth management, asset servicing, asset management and banking services, Northern Trust (Nasdaq: NTRS) is proud to guide the world’s most successful individuals, families, corporations and institutions.

Since 1889, we have aligned our efforts with our three guiding Principles That Endure: Service, Expertise, and Integrity. Together, they reflect the three cornerstones of business conduct which we strive to instill in our employees, whom we call partners, and to provide to our clients and the communities we serve worldwide.

With more than 135 years of financial experience and over 24,000 partners, we serve the world’s most sophisticated clients using leading technology and exceptional service.

Senior Major Incident Commander

Job Summary

The Senior Major Incident Commander is a highly experienced IT Service Management (ITSM) professional responsible for leading the enterprise-wide response to critical technology incidents that impact business operations, client services, and regulatory obligations. This role serves as a central command authority during major incidents, coordinating cross-functional technical teams, senior technology leaders, business stakeholders, vendors, and executives to rapidly restore services while minimizing operational, financial, and reputational impact.

The successful candidate will demonstrate exceptional leadership under pressure, possess strong technical acumen across infrastructure and application domains, and drive disciplined execution of Major Incident Management processes in a global 24x7 environment. In addition to incident command responsibilities, the role will play a key part in driving operational excellence, resiliency improvements, automation initiatives, trend analysis, problem management integration, and continuous service improvement across the organization.

Key Responsibilities

Major Incident Leadership & Command

• Lead and command the end-to-end lifecycle of Major Incidents, Significant Incidents, and business-critical service disruptions.
• Assume Incident Commander responsibilities during crisis situations, maintaining ownership and accountability until service restoration and business stabilization are achieved.
• Facilitate and direct high-pressure incident bridge calls, ensuring effective coordination across technical support teams, engineering teams, vendors, business stakeholders, and executive leadership.
• Establish clear priorities, drive rapid decision-making, remove obstacles, and ensure timely execution of recovery actions.
• Continuously assess business impact, operational risk, and customer implications throughout the incident lifecycle.
• Ensure timely escalation and engagement of executive leadership, technology management, and external service providers when required.

Service Restoration & Operational Excellence

• Drive the restoration of services within agreed service levels while minimizing business disruption and client impact.
• Ensure adherence to ITIL-based Major Incident Management processes, governance standards, and operational controls.
• Coordinate activities across Infrastructure, Cloud, Network, Security, Database, Middleware, Application, and End User Computing teams.
• Facilitate effective communication throughout the incident lifecycle, providing concise, accurate, and executive-ready updates.

Continuous Improvement & Process Optimization

• Identify opportunities to improve incident response effectiveness, escalation models, communication practices, and operational procedures.
• Develop, document, and maintain standardized runbooks, operating procedures, and incident response playbooks.
• Drive automation, tooling enhancements, and workflow optimization initiatives to reduce Mean Time to Detect (MTTD) and Mean Time to Restore (MTTR).
• Partner with Problem Management teams to identify recurring issues, root causes, and preventive actions.
• Analyze incident trends and service performance metrics to proactively reduce recurring service disruptions.

Stakeholder Management & Governance

• Act as a trusted advisor to senior technology and business leaders during critical service disruption events.
• Provide executive-level communications, incident summaries, business impact assessments, and post-incident reporting.
• Ensure compliance with technology governance, audit, risk, regulatory, and operational resiliency requirements.
• Participate in crisis management, disaster recovery, cyber recovery, and business continuity exercises.

Required Experience

• 12+ years of overall Information Technology experience, with 9+ years in IT Service Management (ITSM) and Enterprise Operations.
• 6+ years of experience as a Major Incident Commander, Major Incident Manager, or Crisis Manager supporting complex global enterprise environments.
• Proven experience leading high-severity incidents and business-critical outages in a 24x7 mission-critical production environment.
• Strong understanding of Incident Management, Problem Management, Change Management, Event Management, and Service Operations processes.
• Experience supporting large-scale enterprise organizations, preferably within Financial Services, Banking, Capital Markets, or other highly regulated industries.
• Demonstrated success in managing incidents requiring coordination across global teams, vendors, and executive stakeholders.

Technical Expertise (Advatage)

Working knowledge across multiple infrastructure and technology domains, including:

• Cloud Platforms (Azure, AWS, Google Cloud)
• Linux and Unix Operating Systems
• Windows Server Infrastructure
• Enterprise Networking
• Firewalls, Load Balancers, VPN Technologies
• Identity & Access Management (LDAP, Active Directory, Entra ID)
• Database Platforms (Oracle, SQL Server, PostgreSQL, MySQL)
• Storage and SAN Technologies
• Virtualization Platforms (VMware, Hyper-V)
• Messaging and Collaboration Services
• Enterprise Monitoring and Observability Platforms
• ServiceNow ITSM Platform
• Middleware and Application Platforms
• Cybersecurity Operations and Threat Response

Subject Matter Expertise in one or more infrastructure or application domains will be considered a significant advantage.

Qualifications & Certifications

• Bachelor's Degree in Computer Science, Information Technology, Engineering, Business, or a related discipline.
• ITIL v4 Foundation Certification required.
• ITIL Managing Professional (MP) or Strategic Leader (SL) certification preferred.
• Certifications in Cloud Platforms, ServiceNow, Cybersecurity, Site Reliability Engineering (SRE), or Agile methodologies are highly desirable.

Core Competencies

• Exceptional crisis leadership and decision-making abilities.
• Strong executive presence with the confidence to engage senior business and technology leaders.
• Excellent verbal, written, and presentation communication skills.
• Strong analytical and problem-solving mindset with a focus on business outcomes.
• Ability to remain calm, organized, and effective during high-pressure situations.
• Strong stakeholder management and influencing skills across global organizations.
• Proven ability to lead without direct authority.
• Experience working within geographically distributed and culturally diverse teams.
• Strong focus on operational resiliency, service reliability, and customer experience.

Preferred Experience

• Financial Services industry experience.
• Experience supporting Enterprise Command Centers or Network Operations Centers (NOC).
• Knowledge of Disaster Recovery (DR), Cyber Recovery, Business Continuity Planning (BCP), and Operational Resilience frameworks.
• Experience with AI-driven Operations (AIOps), automation platforms, observability tools, and predictive analytics.
• Experience leading enterprise-wide incident review boards and driving service improvement programs.

Working with Us

As a Northern Trust partner, you will be part of a flexible and collaborative work culture, which has a strong history of financial strength and stability. Movement within the organization is encouraged, senior leaders are accessible, and you can take pride in working for a company committed to an inclusive workplace and assisting the communities we serve.

Philanthropy is deeply rooted in Northern Trust’s history and is an essential element of our culture. Employees around the world give their time and talent to work for the greater good of their communities.

Reasonable Accommodation

Northern Trust is committed to working with and providing adjustments to individuals with health conditions and disabilities. If you need a reasonable accommodation for any part of the employment process, please email our HR Service Center at [email protected], or alternatively you can discuss your individual requirements with the recruiter you are working with.

About Our Pune Office

The Northern Trust Pune office, established in 2016, is now home to over 3,000 employees. The office handles various functions, including Operations for Asset Servicing and Wealth Management, as well as delivering critical technology solutions that support business operations across the globe.

Our Pune team takes our commitment to service to heart. In 2024, they volunteered more than 10,000+ hours into the communities where they live and work. Learn more.