Life as a Senior Technical Specialist in Standard Chartered India’s SCPay team

Rishabh Singhal is a member of Standard Chartered India’s SCPay team. Alongside his talented colleagues, Rishabh utilises the newest technologies to develop digital payment services for his clients in his role as a Senior Technical Specialist and Chapter Lead. Today, he tells us about the exciting projects that he has worked on and what life is like on his team.

What attracted you to join the Standard Chartered technology team?

Whilst I was working for another organisation, I made a POC for Standard Chartered. Whilst working on this project I had the opportunity to meet with Standard Chartered’s technology team and get a feel for the team’s culture and the working environment. Working with the experienced and talented team excited me, as I could see how well they collaborated whilst taking advantage of the latest technology that Standard Chartered adopted. After spending time with the team, I regularly checked for job openings so that I could join them. To my delight, in 2020 an opportunity arose and I successfully applied for my role as a Senior Technical Specialist at Standard Chartered. Being a part of the technology team has been an incredible experience with a perfect balance of responsibility and learning, and I haven’t looked back since!

What exciting projects have you worked on since joining Standard Chartered?

My team and I are currently working on developing an exciting new platform to reinvent digital banking called SCPay. The platform will streamline the onboarding process for my customer-facing colleagues, making the entire process quicker and more reliable. During the project, we adopted cutting-edge technology such as Microservices and container platforms on the Cloud to reduce the downtime experienced by my colleagues and our clients. By utilising the latest technology, we have developed a flexible platform to keep up with the fast-changing landscape of the financial world.

What is your proudest achievement in your career with Standard Chartered?

As the Chapter Lead for more than seven microservices and libraries at Standard Chartered, I have worked tirelessly to lead the implementation of end-mile connectivity at the Bank. Despite not having much experience in the subject, Standard Chartered trusted me to take on the role of the Chapter Lead and I am incredibly proud of that. Since starting this role, I have moved from strength to strength and I have even developed multiple services from scratch.

What do you love the most about your job?

My role as Senior Technical Specialist has given me the freedom to think independently. I love how Standard Chartered trusts in my abilities enough to allow me to perform my role in a way that aligns with my strengths. By utilising the latest technologies, I am able to find the very best solutions to the issues experienced by my colleagues and our clients. Having the freedom to write the code in a way that aligns with my ways of working has allowed me to develop a well-rounded understanding of how the code impacts the different aspects of the services that we are providing to the client and there is no better feeling for a developer.

What’s the biggest challenge you’ve faced in your role with Standard Chartered?

When I first joined the SCPay team, I entered a team that was already halfway through its first project. I was freshly out of college and I was given the responsibility of developing the Microservices from scratch. The client that we were working with was very high-profile and we were processing very sensitive and high-volume transactions. I was very new to this kind of responsibility, so it was both exciting and challenging at the same time. My colleagues in the SCPay team supported me throughout the project and gave me the confidence to trust in my abilities. I am very proud of how I overcame the initial challenges and I still utilise the lessons learnt during this time to this day.

How would you describe the culture in your team?

My team truly embodies Standard Chartered’s value of being better together. We support one another not only as a collective but on an individual level too. The success of every individual is important to all of us and we work together to efficiently achieve our common goals. I believe that the supportive nature of the team is genuinely exemplified when new members join, as we all go above and beyond to help them to understand the workings of our projects and Standard Chartered’s strategies as a whole. Despite the challenging nature of the critical and time-bound projects that we work on, they are enjoyable as we are motivated by working together. Working with my colleagues inspires me to be innovative, as our work with cutting-edge technology drives us to think outside of the box - ingenuity is embedded in our culture.