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.
Job Title Major Incident Commander (Production Assurance Operations)
Role Summary
The Major Incident Commander (MIC) is an Accountable leader who is responsible for directing the end‑to‑end response to high‑severity, business‑impacting technology incidents. The role owns command, coordination, driving decision‑making, and executive communication during major incidents, ensuring rapid service restoration, minimal business impact, and disciplined post‑incident learning.
The MIC does not fix systems directly. Instead, they lead through influence, orchestrating cross‑functional technical teams (SRE, Infrastructure, Application, Network, Cloud, Security, Vendors) under intense time pressure while maintaining clear situational awareness and communication.
Key Responsibilities
1. Incident Command & Leadership
- Act as the designated Incident Commander for all declared Major / Severity‑1 / Priority‑1 incidents.
- Rapidly assess impact, scope, and severity; formally declare major incidents and activate response protocols.
- Establish and maintain clear command structure, roles, and accountability throughout the incident lifecycle.
- Drive incident progression from detection through mitigation, restoration, and closure.
2. Coordination & Execution
- Lead and control incident bridges / war rooms, ensuring focus, discipline, and forward momentum.
- Mobilize the right technical resources across infrastructure, applications, cloud, network, security, and third‑party vendors.
- Prevent duplicated effort, conflicting actions, and unmanaged escalations.
- Make time‑critical decisions (rollback, failover, isolation, degradation) based on technical input and business risk.
- Drive Incident Managers and Incident analysts for fire calling, stakeholder management, bridge and communication management
3. Stakeholder & Executive Communication
- Own all major incident communications end‑to‑end
- Translate complex technical situations into clear business impact statements for senior leadership.
- Have straight line communication with the CXO group on the impact, progress and status
- Provide structured, time‑bound updates to executives, service owners, and business stakeholders.
- Ensure consistency across incident bridges, leadership updates, and customer‑facing communications where applicable.
4. Governance, Process & Control
- Ensure incidents are managed in line with ITIL / SRE / internal Major Incident Management frameworks.
- Enforce escalation paths, decision rights, and incident classification standards.
- Coordinate emergency changes and risk acceptance where required during live incidents.
- Maintain accurate incident timelines, actions, and decisions for audit and review.
5. Post‑Incident Review & Continuous Improvement
- Integrate with post‑incident reviews (RCAs) for all major incidents.
- Contribute to high‑quality root cause analysis using structured methods (5 Whys, Fishbone, KT, FMEA).
- Flash system weaknesses, recurring patterns, and resilience gaps.
Operating Model
- Part of a Production Assurance/ Incident Management Operations function.
- Participation in on‑call or major incident rotation, including off‑hours and weekends.
- Works closely with Service Owners, Engineering, Architecture, Security, and Vendor Management teams
Required Experience & Skills
Core Experience
- Overall 18+ years of IT-BFSI Delivery
- Proven experience acting as Incident Commander or Major Incident Lead in complex, 24×7 enterprise environments.
- 10+ years in IT Operations, SRE, Incident Management, or Production Support roles.
- Hands‑on exposure to mission‑critical systems (cloud, infrastructure, applications, networks, identity, databases).
Technical & Operational Knowledge
- Strong understanding of modern distributed systems and failure modes.
- Familiarity with cloud platforms (AWS / Azure / GCP) and cloud‑native architectures.
- Working knowledge of monitoring, alerting, and observability tools (e.g., Dynatrace, Splunk, Prometheus, Grafana).
- Experience with ITSM tools (ServiceNow, Remedy, Jira Service Management, or equivalent).
- Strong understanding of Custody, Trade and Payments Operations will be an added advantage
Leadership & Behavioral Competencies
- Demonstrates strong situational control and composure during high-pressure, high-demand incidents.
- Leads decisively through effective delegation of authority and accountability.
- Exhibits assertive leadership by rapidly taking ownership and directing incident response actions.
- Drives war room operations with clear command, structured governance, and disciplined execution.
- Communicates clear, concise, and outcome-focused deliverables with confidence to senior executives, technical teams, and business service delivery leaders.
Certifications (Preferred, Not Mandatory)
- ITIL v4
- SRE or Cloud certifications
- Incident Command / Crisis Management training
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 Bangalore Office
The Northern Trust Bangalore office, established in 2005, is home to over 5,600 employees. In this stunning office space, we offer fantastic amenities which include our Arrival Hub - Jungle, the GameZone, and the Employee Experience Zone that appeal to both clients and employees. Learn more.
Skills Required
- 18+ years of IT-BFSI delivery experience
- Proven experience as Incident Commander or Major Incident Lead in complex 24x7 enterprise environments
- 10+ years in IT Operations, SRE, Incident Management, or Production Support
- Hands-on exposure to mission-critical systems (cloud, infrastructure, applications, networks, identity, databases)
- Strong understanding of modern distributed systems and failure modes
- Familiarity with cloud platforms (AWS, Azure, GCP)
- Working knowledge of monitoring, alerting, and observability tools (Dynatrace, Splunk, Prometheus, Grafana)
- Experience with ITSM tools (ServiceNow, Remedy, Jira Service Management)
- Participation in on-call or major incident rotation, including off-hours and weekends
- Strong stakeholder and executive communication skills during incidents
- Understanding of Custody, Trade and Payments Operations
- ITIL v4 certification
- SRE or cloud certifications
- Incident Command / Crisis Management training
Northern Trust Compensation & Benefits Highlights
The following summarizes recurring compensation and benefits themes identified from responses generated by popular LLMs to common candidate questions about Northern Trust and has not been reviewed or approved by Northern Trust.
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Retirement Support — Retirement offerings are positioned as a standout, with a 401(k) plus an additional employer-funded pension described as a differentiator. This combination is repeatedly framed as a meaningful offset within total rewards, especially for long-term financial security.
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Leave & Time Off Breadth — Time-off benefits are depicted as generous, spanning paid time off, holidays, and dedicated paid volunteer time. The breadth of leave options is highlighted as a consistent strength that supports work-life balance.
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Healthcare Strength — Health coverage is characterized as comprehensive, typically including medical, dental, vision, and mental-health support through an assistance program. The offering is portrayed as robust and family-supportive, with multiple plan options in some descriptions.
Northern Trust Insights
What We Do
As a global leader in innovative wealth management, asset servicing and investment solutions, Northern Trust (Nasdaq: NTRS) is proud to guide the world’s most successful individuals, families and institutions by remaining true to our enduring principles of service, expertise and integrity. A globally recognized Fortune 500 Company in continuous operation since 1889, we’ve built a legacy of empowering clients to reach their goals with confidence. Since our roots as a trust bank, we’ve grown to a global presence with more than 24,000 employees in more than 20 countries and across six core business units: Wealth Management Asset Management Asset Servicing Technology Corporate Functions Enterprise Operations Join a Team That’s Achieving Greater At Northern Trust, we refer to our employees as partners – with good reason. We understand that relationships are the key to our success. Here you’ll join a diverse and inclusive team of innovators with the drive to challenge the way things have always been done. Instead of choosing between a dynamic career and work-life balance, enjoy working with a team that supports your goals in the office and at home. We’ll help you get where you want to go without sacrificing what matters most to you. Delivering value and adhering to our enduring principles What are enduring principles? Since our founding, they have guided our strategy and success. Thanks to the dedication of our partners, Northern Trust continues to thrive by adhering to three enduring principles: service, expertise and integrity . What does this mean? Service Northern Trust has a relentless drive to provide exceptional service to our clients, our partners and our communities. We set new standards and go above and beyond in our commitment to delivering greater results. Expertise Expertise is at the core of who we are. We focus sharply on what we do well. From expanding our capabilities, to hiring talented professionals to developing innovative solutions, our expertise is why we continue to be a trusted advisor for generations of families and institutions. Integrity Operating with uncompromising ethics is central to Northern Trust’s heritage. As a result, our clients, partners and communities know they can rely on us. For more than 130 years, our integrity has been our guide – and that will never change.
Why Work With Us
At Northern Trust, we go further because we go together. We embrace flexibility, encourage balance, and prioritize inclusion at all levels, working together to keep you connected. We are committed to our employees—all 24,000 of them. Whether this is a first step or a bold new leap in your career, we’re here to help you move forward.
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