Job Description
Reporting To:
Director, Head of Sales & Marketing TechShift:
EMEA (1:30 pm - 10:30 pm IST) (India)About Russell Investments, Mumbai:
Russell Investments is a leading outsourced financial partner and global investment solutions firm providing a wide range of investment capabilities to institutional investors, financial intermediaries, and individual investors around the world. Building on an 90-year legacy of continuous innovation to deliver exceptional value to clients, Russell Investments works every day to improve the financial security of its clients. The firm is “Top 12 Ranked Consultant (2009-2024)” in P&I survey 2024 with $962 billion in assets under advisement (as of December 31, 2025) and $376.9 billion in assets under management (as of December 31, 2025) for clients in 30 countries. Headquartered in Seattle, Washington in the United States, Russell Investments has offices around the world, including London, New York, Toronto, Sydney, Tokyo, Shanghai – and has opened a new office in Mumbai, India in June 2023.
Joining the Mumbai office is an incredible opportunity to work closely with global stakeholders to support the technology and infrastructure that drives the investment and trading processes of a globally recognized asset management firm. Be part of the team based out of Goregaon (East) and contribute to the foundation and culture of the firm’s growing operations in India. The Mumbai office operates with varying shifts to accommodate time zones around the world.
For more information, please visit https://www.russellinvestments.com.
Job Description:
We are seeking a senior COO / Technology Transformation Lead, India – Global Technology to drive operational discipline, enterprise Agile maturity, global program management, technology-finance alignment, and transformation execution across the India technology organization.
This is a senior individual contributor role. The successful candidate will not be primarily accountable for direct people management but will be expected to operate with significant influence across a complex global matrix. The role serves as a transformation execution partner to the Head of India Technology & Application Development and works closely with the Global Head of Technology Transformation to ensure India technology initiatives are aligned to enterprise priorities, global transformation roadmaps, financial plans, delivery commitments, and measurable business outcomes.
The role will act as the execution engine for India technology transformation—bringing structure, transparency, governance, and delivery discipline across a growing India technology footprint. This includes responsibility for global program management, enterprise Agile execution, portfolio governance, capacity planning, cost transparency, benefits tracking, operating model maturity, and cross-functional dependency management.
This role carries a clear build vs. run mandate: supporting stable, efficient, and well-controlled technology operations while helping scale India into a strategic global technology capability hub. The role requires deep experience in Global Capability Center operating models, technology transformation, enterprise Agile, technology financial management, and matrix-based execution.
Operating within a global matrix organization, this leader will partner across engineering, application development, infrastructure, data, cybersecurity, finance, enterprise architecture, risk, and business stakeholders to ensure transformation initiatives are well-governed, properly funded, financially transparent, and delivered with strong execution discipline.
Key Responsibilities:
1. Global Program Management & Transformation Execution
Own global program management discipline for India-linked technology transformation initiatives, ensuring clear scope, milestones, dependencies, risks, financials, and outcomes.
Partner with the Global Head of Technology Transformation to translate enterprise transformation priorities into actionable India execution plans.
Establish integrated program plans across global and India technology teams, ensuring alignment to enterprise roadmaps, investment priorities, and delivery commitments.
Drive disciplined execution across complex, cross-functional programs involving application development, infrastructure, cloud, data, AI, cybersecurity, operations, and enterprise platforms.
Create transparency through executive-level reporting, program dashboards, RAID logs, dependency tracking, milestone governance, and benefits realization reporting.
Identify execution risks early, escalate effectively, and drive resolution across matrixed stakeholder groups.
2. Enterprise Agile & Delivery Governance
Drive adoption and maturity of Enterprise Agile practices across India technology teams in alignment with global technology standards.
Support scalable Agile operating models, including product-aligned teams, Agile release planning, quarterly planning, PI-style planning where applicable, backlog governance, dependency management, and value-stream alignment.
Partner with global delivery, product, and engineering leaders to improve delivery predictability, throughput, release cadence, and cross-team coordination.
Establish consistent Agile metrics and delivery health indicators, including velocity trends, cycle time, lead time, dependency aging, release predictability, and delivery confidence.
Ensure Agile practices are connected to enterprise portfolio management, technology finance, and business outcome tracking—not treated as a standalone delivery ceremony.
Promote a pragmatic Agile culture focused on business value, transparency, accountability, and continuous improvement.
3. Technology-Finance Alignment & Portfolio Governance
Own the operating connection between India technology execution, global portfolio priorities, and technology financial management.
Partner with Finance, the Head of India Technology & Application Development, and the Global Head of Technology Transformation to align funding, capacity, workforce plans, and delivery commitments.
Support budget planning, forecast management, cost tracking, chargeback or allocation models, and investment prioritization for India technology initiatives.
Establish transparency across technology spend, including labor, vendor, contractor, managed services, platform, and transformation costs.
Track value realization against transformation investments, including cost efficiency, productivity improvement, risk reduction, automation benefits, delivery acceleration, and capability growth.
Support business cases, funding requests, investment reviews, and executive portfolio forums with clear financial and operational insight.
4. Operating Model, Capacity & Workforce Planning
Support the design and operation of scalable India delivery models, including product-aligned squads, PODs, platform teams, shared services, and globally integrated delivery structures.
Own demand intake, capacity planning, resource allocation, and prioritization processes aligned to global portfolio and transformation priorities.
Partner with HR, Finance, and technology leaders to provide visibility into workforce plans, hiring demand, skill gaps, location strategy, and vendor leverage.
Support decisions on build vs. buy, employee vs. contractor, internal capability vs. managed service, and India vs. global team execution.
Ensure India capacity is aligned to the highest-value enterprise priorities and supports both operational stability and strategic technology transformation.
Create a consistent operating rhythm for reviewing capacity, demand, financial impact, delivery performance, and strategic capability build-out.
Improve the effectiveness of Communities of Practice (COPs) across engineering, architecture, Agile delivery, cloud, data, cybersecurity, and platform teams by establishing clear objectives, governance, knowledge-sharing mechanisms, and measurable outcomes.
Promote cross-functional collaboration, standardization, reuse of best practices, and continuous capability development through structured COP engagement.
5. Matrix Leadership & Global Integration
Serve as a senior IC integrator across India technology, global technology transformation, finance, delivery, and enterprise governance forums.
Operate effectively without direct authority by influencing leaders, aligning priorities, resolving dependencies, and creating execution clarity.
Act as a strategic execution partner to the Head of India Technology & Application Development and the Global Head of Technology Transformation.
Ensure India execution is fully integrated with global technology roadmaps, enterprise architecture standards, cybersecurity expectations, financial plans, and business priorities.
Reduce cross-geo execution friction by improving handoffs, clarifying ownership, strengthening governance, and creating shared accountability.
Promote a “one team” operating culture across India and global technology groups.
6. GCC Maturity & Continuous Improvement
Support the maturity of India from a delivery center into a strategic global technology capability hub.
Bring structure to the India GCC maturity roadmap, including governance, service cataloging, capability ownership, performance transparency, workforce strategy, and value contribution.
Increase the proportion of high-value work delivered from India across engineering, platform modernization, cloud, data, AI, cybersecurity, automation, and enterprise technology capabilities.
Implement continuous improvement practices across delivery and operations, including Lean, automation, AIOps, process simplification, and delivery optimization.
Establish site-level and portfolio-level dashboards covering performance, cost, risk, delivery, capacity, talent, and transformation outcomes.
Identify opportunities to improve unit economics, reduce duplication, eliminate manual effort, and increase reuse of platforms, processes, and capabilities.
Drive adoption of AI-enabled engineering, automation, and operational practices across the India technology organization to improve productivity, quality, scalability, and speed of delivery.
Identify opportunities to leverage Generative AI, intelligent automation, AIOps, and predictive analytics across software development, testing, support, operations, and enterprise workflows.
Partner with enterprise architecture, data, engineering, and business teams to operationalize AI use cases aligned to enterprise priorities and measurable business outcomes.
7. Risk, Governance & Compliance
Ensure transformation initiatives follow enterprise governance, security, privacy, compliance, and operational resilience standards.
Partner with Cybersecurity, Risk, Compliance, Finance, Legal, and Technology Operations to embed controls into delivery practices and transformation execution.
Track audit, risk, regulatory, and control-related dependencies across India technology transformation initiatives.
Support business continuity, disaster recovery, operational resilience, third-party risk, and local compliance requirements, including India-specific obligations where applicable.
Ensure program delivery, financial management, and operating model decisions are made with appropriate risk transparency and governance discipline.
8. Vendor Management
Drive strategic vendor management across technology partners, managed service providers, and contractors, including performance governance, cost optimization, SLA adherence, commercial reviews, and delivery accountability.
Establish governance mechanisms to ensure vendors align with enterprise transformation objectives, delivery quality standards, and financial targets.
Key Performance Indicators
Delivery of India-linked transformation programs against agreed scope, timeline, cost, and business outcomes.
Improved enterprise Agile maturity, delivery predictability, dependency management, and release confidence.
Clear alignment between technology execution, portfolio priorities, funding, capacity, and financial forecasts.
Improved transparency of India technology spend, workforce capacity, vendor leverage, and transformation value realization.
Reduction in cross-geo handoff friction, unresolved dependencies, delivery escalations, and execution ambiguity.
Improved program governance, executive reporting, risk management, and decision-making cadence.
Growth in India-based strategic capability across engineering, cloud, data, AI, cybersecurity, platform, and automation domains.
Improved stakeholder satisfaction across global technology, finance, risk, HR, and business partners.
Strong adherence to compliance, security, operational resilience, and audit requirements.
Increased adoption of AI-enabled engineering and operational capabilities across development, testing, support, and delivery functions.
Measurable improvements in productivity, automation, delivery efficiency, and operational optimization through AI and intelligent automation initiatives.
Candidate Profile
Experience
15–20+ years of experience in technology transformation, enterprise program management, technology operations, portfolio governance, or technology COO-style roles.
Experience operating as a senior individual contributor in complex, global, matrixed technology organizations.
Strong experience working with or within India-based Global Capability Centers, technology hubs, or globally distributed delivery organizations.
Proven track record supporting large-scale technology transformation programs across engineering, infrastructure, cloud, data, cybersecurity, operations, or enterprise platforms.
Experience partnering with senior technology, finance, business, risk, HR, and transformation leaders.
Experience with technology financial management, portfolio planning, capacity planning, cost transparency, and benefits realization.
Financial services, asset management, banking, insurance, consulting, or regulated-industry experience strongly preferred.
Skills & Expertise
Deep understanding of Enterprise Agile, scaled delivery models, Agile governance, product-based operating models, and technology portfolio execution.
Strong global program management capability, including integrated planning, dependency management, risk tracking, executive reporting, and benefits realization.
Strong understanding of technology finance, including budgeting, forecasting, workforce cost modeling, vendor cost management, chargeback/allocation models, and investment governance.
Strong knowledge of GCC operating models, including scaling, maturity evolution, service cataloging, governance, workforce planning, and transition from delivery center to strategic capability hub.
Ability to create executive-level dashboards, operating rhythms, transformation scorecards, and portfolio reporting.
Working knowledge of modern technology environments, including cloud, data, AI, cybersecurity, platform engineering, application development, infrastructure, DevSecOps, and automation.
Proven ability to influence senior stakeholders and drive alignment without direct reporting authority.
Leadership Attributes
Senior individual contributor with strong executive presence and high influence across matrixed teams.
Execution-focused, structured, and highly disciplined in managing complexity, ambiguity, dependencies, and trade-offs.
Strong commercial and financial orientation with the ability to connect technology execution to cost, value, capacity, and business outcomes.
Pragmatic Agile leader who understands how to scale delivery practices without adding unnecessary bureaucracy.
Strong communicator who can simplify complex transformation topics for executive stakeholders.
Strong problem solver with the ability to identify execution friction and drive practical resolution.
High ownership, sound judgment, and strong accountability for measurable outcomes.
Core Values
Strong interpersonal, communication, and collaboration skills across all levels of the organization.
High degree of ownership, accountability, and results orientation.
Ability to operate effectively in a fast-paced, evolving, globally matrixed environment.
Commitment to continuous improvement, innovation, operational discipline, and technology excellence.
Integrity, sound judgment, and respect for confidentiality.
Alignment with Russell Investments’ values of integrity, client focus, intellectual rigor, and enterprise partnership.