Sr. Director, Strategic Program & PMO - Digital Assets

At Early Warning, we've powered and protected the U.S. financial system for over thirty years with cutting-edge solutions like Zelle , Paze , and so much more. As a trusted name in payments, we partner with thousands of institutions to increase access to financial services and protect transactions for hundreds of millions of consumers and small businesses.

Positions located in Scottsdale, San Francisco, Chicago, or New York follow a hybrid work model to allow for a more collaborative working environment.

Candidates responding to this posting must independently possess the eligibility to work in the United States, for any employer, at the date of hire. This position is ineligible for employment Visa sponsorship.

Overall Purpose

The Sr. Director will oversee the execution and cross functional alignment of net-new initiatives to expand the Zelle offering globally. This role will be responsible for ensuring operational readiness, scalability, and excellence across the "enabler" workstreams, including communications, legal, finance, risk and compliance, and org / talent management

The Sr. Director will also enable strategic direction by implementing PMO policies, procedures and processes to ensure effective project execution in alignment with achieving company initiatives. Additionally, responsible for the annual planning processes and the daily leadership of the PMO team including leading key prioritized project(s).

Essential Functions

• Leading high-performance team:
  • Provides effective leadership and develops and manages a highly engaged, high-performance team ensures effective delivery of project/program outcomes in terms of cost, schedule, budget and quality.
• Service Excellence:
  • Develops and implements roles, responsibilities, processes, and procedures that are comprehensive from initial ideation through to in-market realization.
  • Proactively monitors project execution performance compared to target, anticipates emerging problems, identifies solutions, ensure effective resource utilization and prioritization, and actively engages team members to implement solutions.
  • Proactively mitigates issues and risks; creatively and analytically resolves problems by demonstrating teamwork, innovation, and excellence.
• Operational Effectiveness:
  • Evaluates resource capacity and constraints, builds program resource models, prepares estimates and detailed project plans for all phases of the project as well as status reporting to capture program milestones, success criteria, deliverables, dependencies, and risks.
  • Monitors project execution performance compared to target, taking corrective where necessary.
• Communication:
  • Owns the communication of program progress updates with executive leadership as well as cross-functional workstream leads.
  • Manages executive and board level communication and escalations across the organization related to the execution of programs.
• Strategic Partner:
  • Challenges partners to define realistic schedules and drive the process, ensuring deliverable owners are meeting their committed outcomes while looking ahead to identify emerging blockers and proactively manage risks.
  • Engages external partners to assess their schedules and constraints, integrating impacts and dependencies into overall planning to ensure success.

• Change management champion:
  • Drives and reinforces change within the team to better align the culture so that it is focused on repeatable, consistent execution of projects.
  • Establishes best practices, templates, policies, tools, and partnerships to expand, mature, and improve effectiveness in support of business objectives.

• Financial stewardship:
  • Monitors and ensures integrity of the business case financials to ensure alignment with the company's strategic goals.

Support the company's commitment to risk management and protecting the integrity and confidentiality of systems and data.

Minimum Qualifications

• Education and experience typically obtained through completion of a bachelor's degree in business, Project Management and/or Computer Science or related field.
• Typically, 15 or more years of progressive related experience.
• Prior experience related to product launch or large-scale product coordination.
• Proven leadership experience in managing large matrix teams on enterprise-wide initiatives.
• Demonstrated people leadership in business and technical environments.
• Effective relationship building and team collaboration skills leading diverse, cross-functional teams.
• Highly engaged, self-starter with ability to balance achieving results and fostering collaboration.
• Proactive in identifying and driving process improvements within the organization to achieve higher levels of organizational efficiency and effectiveness.
• Strong team player with ability to lead and coach program/project managers in the successful delivery of the developed framework.
• Possess excellent analytical and problem-solving abilities; able to deal effectively with ambiguity and change.
• Excellent oral, written, and inter-personal skills, as well as strong analytical skills.
• Proven experience presenting and influencing at the C-Suite level.
• Conflict resolution and negotiation experience.
• Background and drug screen

Preferred Qualifications

• Proven record of process transformation/improvement leveraging new technologies and AI

Tech Specific Preferred Qualifications

• Financial services or financial technology environment experience
• Agile or Waterfall methodologies experience
• Knowledge of all aspects of the System Development Life Cycle (SDLC) methodology
• Outsourcing experience.

The above job description is not intended to be an all-inclusive list of duties and standards of the position. Incumbents will follow instructions and perform other related duties as assigned by their supervisor.

Physical Requirements

Working conditions consist of a normal office environment. Work is primarily sedentary and requires extensive use of a computer and involves sitting for periods of approximately four hours. Work may require occasional standing, walking, kneeling and reaching. Must be able to lift 10 pounds occasionally and/or negligible amount of force frequently. Requires visual acuity and dexterity to view, prepare, and manipulate documents and office equipment including personal computers. Requires the ability to communicate with internal and/or external customers.

Employee must be able to perform essential functions and physical requirements of position with or without reasonable accommodation.

The base pay scale for this position in:
New York, NY in USD per year is: $226,000 - $282,000.
Additionally, candidates are eligible for a discretionary incentive plan and benefits.

This pay scale is subject to change and is not necessarily reflective of actual compensation that may be earned, nor a promise of any specific pay for any specific candidate, which is always dependent on legitimate factors considered at the time of job offer. Early Warning Services takes into consideration a variety of factors when determining a competitive salary offer, including, but not limited to, the job scope, market rates and geographic location of a position, candidate's education, experience, training, and specialized skills or certification(s) in relation to the job requirements and compared with internal equity (peers). The business actively supports and reviews wage equity to ensure that pay decisions are not based on gender, race, national origin, or any other protected classes.

Some of the Ways We Prioritize Your Health and Happiness

• Healthcare Coverage -Competitive medical (PPO/HDHP), dental, and vision plans as well as company contributions to your Health Savings Account (HSA) or pre-tax savings through flexible spending accounts (FSA) for commuting, health & dependent care expenses.
• 401(k) Retirement Plan -Featuring a 100% Company Safe Harbor Match on your first 6% deferral immediately upon eligibility.
• Paid Time Off - Flexible Time Off for Exempt (salaried) employees, as well as generous PTO for Non-Exempt (hourly) employees, plus 11 paid company holidays and a paid volunteer day.
• 12 weeks of Paid Parental Leave
• Maven Family Planning - provides support through your Parenting journey including egg freezing, fertility, adoption, surrogacy, pregnancy, postpartum, early pediatrics, and returning to work.

And SO much more! We continue to enhance our program, so be sure to check our Benefits page here for the latest. Our team can share more during the interview process!

Early Warning Services, LLC ("Early Warning") considers for employment, hires, retains and promotes qualified candidates on the basis of ability, potential, and valid qualifications without regard to race, religious creed, religion, color, sex, sexual orientation, genetic information, gender, gender identity, gender expression, age, national origin, ancestry, citizenship, protected veteran or disability status or any factor prohibited by law, and as such affirms in policy and practice to support and promote equal employment opportunity and affirmative action, in accordance with all applicable federal, state, and municipal laws. The company also prohibits discrimination on other bases such as medical condition, marital status or any other factor that is irrelevant to the performance of our employees.

Early Warning Services LLC is a proud participant in E-Verify, a federal program to help ensure a legal and authorized workforce. As part of our hiring process, we electronically verify the employment eligibility of all new hires through E-Verify. For more information on your rights and responsibilities under E-Verify please visit Home | E-Verify .