Ari Datta

01

About

I am a senior technology and transformation leader with more than ten years delivering complex, large-scale change across Commercial Banking and enterprise technology.

I work from strategy through to execution — translating strategic ambition into executable roadmaps, then orchestrating delivery across business, product, engineering, architecture, operations and third-party partners. Today I lead SRE within the Commercial Bank, with direct accountability for a large engineering and operational organisation supporting critical banking services. That means shaping technology strategy, establishing operating models, leading platform transformation, managing significant financial portfolios and navigating dependencies, risk and regulatory requirements at the same time.

What I am known for is combining strategic thinking with genuine technical credibility and the organisational influence to make things land. The track record includes establishing Lloyds' first Agile Engineering Lab, pioneering direct-channel API technology, leading major Trade transformation and client migration programmes, delivering the Group's first workload on public cloud and its first multi-region GCP cluster for critical payments, and embedding enterprise-grade resilience across cloud and hybrid platforms.

I am an Executive MBA graduate of Henley Business School and a Chartered Manager. My leadership style is built on clarity, accountability, high performance and continuous improvement — and on holding full ownership of an enduring team rather than renting capability in.

02

Experience

Four roles, one through-line: taking on the parts of the estate that are hardest to run, and leaving them more resilient than I found them.

Feb 2021 – Present

Lloyds Banking Group
Commercial SRE Lab Lead

Technical Service Specialist Line

Accountable for service reliability, technology resilience, engineering capability and operational delivery across critical Commercial Banking services.
- Lead a 40+ person organisation spanning SRE, DevOps, production support and live service, built around accountability, resilience and measurable outcomes.
- Delivered the Group's first Embedded SRE operating model, aligning engineering and live-service capability to the Group's 2.0 and AI strategy.
- Delivered the Group's first multi-region GCP cluster for critical payments — enhanced resilience and failover for Important Business Services, and support for ISO 20022.
- Own financial governance of a £10m technology and infrastructure portfolio, covering both technology cost and people, aligned to strategic outcomes and value.
- Built a predominantly permanent organisation (85%) with strong retention and engagement, reducing reliance on partner resource.
Own technology and infrastructure strategy across Azure, GCP and hybrid environments, turning strategic priorities into executable roadmaps and investment decisions.

Embedded enterprise-grade resilience across cloud platforms: recovery planning, failover, observability, SLOs, error budgets and operational readiness.

Established operating models and governance connecting change, incident, risk, resilience and service management, improving organisational alignment and operational readiness.

Lead a complex ecosystem of strategic partners — Wipro, Sapient, Contino, Confluent, Harness, Microsoft and Google among them — on delivery performance, commercial accountability and resilience.

Trusted by TPL/CIO-level technology and business stakeholders for clear insight into delivery progress, risk, service performance and strategic trade-offs.

Drive continuous improvement through automation, engineering metrics, post-incident learning and data-led performance management.
Jan 2019 – Feb 2021

Lloyds Banking Group
Technical Program Manager Chapter Lead

Division Head

Established and led the Group's first Agile Engineering Lab following a major technology restructure, integrating engineering, SRE, DevOps and platform capability across Commercial Banking propositions.
- Created Lloyds Banking Group's first Agile Engineering Lab — the operating model, governance and organisational capability that brought SRE, DevOps and platform engineering together.
- Led a £5m technology portfolio and a 30+ person engineering organisation across UK and offshore locations, delivering platforms for Payments, Asset Finance and Business Accountancy.
- Owned the end-to-end delivery roadmap, translating enterprise strategy into priorities, milestones and backlogs across complex cross-platform dependencies.
- Embedded reliability-by-design into new platform development, including failover automation, capacity planning and 24×7 service continuity.
- Drove adoption of DevOps, CI/CD, Infrastructure-as-Code and observability, improving engineering velocity, service stability and recovery performance.
Led governance across engineering, operations, product and business stakeholders, creating clear accountability for delivery, risk, resilience and outcomes.

Recruited and developed high-performing teams across multiple locations, setting clear accountability, performance expectations and technical leadership capability.

Managed strategic third parties including Finastra, OneUp and WTSS — procurement, onboarding, SLA performance and operational risk.

Partnered with senior technology, architecture and business leaders on strategic priorities, delivery risk, platform performance and investment decisions.
Jun 2016 – Jan 2019

Lloyds Banking Group
Technical Program Manager — Trade

Trade Services

Led major transformation and migration programmes across Trade Services, coordinating technology, product, operations, business and third-party teams through complex regulatory and client-facing change.
- Programme Manager for the £80m Trade Transformation programme, spanning Finastra Trade Innovation and Lloyds Online Trade across Edinburgh, Birmingham and London.
- Directed the £1.3bn Bank of Scotland Professionals migration, moving approximately 1,300 clients to a strategic platform while holding client retention, financial integrity and delivery commitments.
- Led a multi-disciplinary team of 50+ migration managers, product owners and business analysts against strategic objectives and measurable outcomes.
- Coordinated resolution of 1,500+ critical defects across legacy platforms, strengthening production stability and reducing delivery risk.
Managed programme financial governance across significant investment portfolios, maintaining control of budgets, risks and benefits.

Established business continuity and contingency strategies for high-risk regulatory and client migration activity, including fallback procedures, manual workarounds and rapid recovery models.

Established enterprise governance and reporting covering programme milestones, risk posture, regulatory compliance and delivery performance.

Built strong relationships across Trade Services, SME Relationship Management and Client Money, aligning strategic priorities and complex dependencies.
Apr 2014 – Jun 2016

Center for Innovative Leadership Navigation
Director

CILN

Ran international programme delivery, digital initiatives and commercial growth.
- Delivered 15+ international academic conferences and three management and leadership training programmes, securing contracts with universities and corporate institutions.
- Directed IT initiatives including web applications and workflow tools, improving operational efficiency and client engagement.
- Managed a £1m+ budget, with accountability for hiring, line management and building high-performing teams.
- Partnered with a software development team in India, overseeing product delivery alongside business development and sales growth.

03

Selected achievements

Firsts for the Group, and the programmes that were not allowed to fail.

Organisation design

The Group's first Agile Engineering Lab

Built the operating model, governance and capability that brought SRE, DevOps and platform engineering under one roof across Commercial Banking.

Payments resilience

First multi-region GCP cluster for critical payments

Enhanced resilience and failover for Important Business Services, delivered in support of ISO 20022 requirements.

Operating model

First Embedded SRE operating model

Aligned engineering and live-service capability to the Group's 2.0 and AI strategy, closing the gap between building and running.

Cloud adoption

The Group's first workload on public cloud

Delivered the proof point that opened the door to enterprise-wide public cloud adoption.

Transformation

£80m Trade Transformation programme

Finastra Trade Innovation and Lloyds Online Trade, transformed across Edinburgh, Birmingham and London.

Client migration

£1.3bn Bank of Scotland Professionals migration

Approximately 1,300 clients moved to a strategic platform with client retention and financial integrity held throughout.

04

Areas of expertise

Enterprise Platform & Technology
Technology Leadership
Organisation & Talent Leadership
Strategic Integration & Delivery
Supplier Management
Governance & Executive Reporting
Executive Stakeholder Management
Operational & Technology Resilience
Programme & Financial Management
Commercial & Financial Management
Complex Change & Dependency Management
Commercial Banking Transformation

05

Education & credentials

Apr 2020 – Oct 2022 · Reading, UK

Executive MBA

Henley Business School

Completed via the Lloyds Level 7 Senior Managers apprenticeship programme. I took it on to apply new skills, learning and management models directly in a working environment — and it sharpened my understanding of my leadership strengths and how to use them to maximum effect.

Professional credential

Chartered Manager

Recognised professional standing in management and leadership.

06

Beyond work

Apr 2021 – Present

Master Skills Builder

The School for Social Entrepreneurs, City of London

A Lloyds Banking Group partnership with Skills Builder, whose mission is to help children develop eight essential skills through their school years, so that by 18 they move into the world of work with the skills employers say they need.

Feb 2019 – Aug 2025

Director & Franchisee

Energie Fitness, London

Owner and franchisee of Energie Fitness gyms, providing facilities to local communities across the UK. The business was sold in August 2025.

07

Get in touch

For executive roles, advisory conversations, speaking invitations, or a serious exchange about resilience and enterprise technology.

Email hello@example.com
LinkedIn linkedin.com/in/…
Based in London, United Kingdom