Dir Strategic Implementations (Finance)

Job Purpose

The Director of Strategic Implementations reports to the Head of Onboarding and Enablement (VP) and this role requires a visionary leader with a deep understanding of FinTech, the payments industry, competitive market insights, and customer experience (CX) functionality. This executive will build and lead a team of Project Managers (PMs) and Business Analysts (BAs) to ensure seamless migrations and/or new implementation processes onto our enhanced and constantly evolving ACI Speedpay biller platform. This role is responsible for directing strategic onboarding initiatives and coordinating the integration of affiliates and partnerships. This Director provides competitive insights to enhance CX, ensure smooth implementations and migrations, resulting in reduced onboarding complexity, risk and cost, improved resource allocation, and meets revenue expectations.

Essential Functions and Responsibilities

Integration Strategy & Execution:

• Develop and Deploy Migration Strategy: Innovate and implement strategies to transition existing Clients to our enhanced payments platform.
• Drive Microservice Architecture Implementation: Lead the implementation of microservices architecture and the payment orchestration hub to ensure the platform's functionality and scalability meets Biller's transition expectations.
• Integrate Strategic Affiliates and Partnerships: Lead integration of strategic affiliates and partnerships intended to boost product offerings, operational efficiency, and improved business outcomes, fostering innovation and improving customer experience.
• Ensure Data Transfer Integrity: Ensure timely, accurate, and secure data migration to the target platform, minimizing customer experience disruptions.
• Maintain Compliance Standards: Ensure data migration adheres with PCI, Nacha, CFPB, and other relevant regulations, maintaining data security and integrity throughout the process.

Team Building & Leadership:

• Build and Lead Specialized Teams: Build, mentor, and lead a high-performing migration team of Project Managers focused on platform migrations, as well as specialized efforts resulting from innovative affiliate and partnership arrangements
• Foster Collaboration and Innovation: Create a collaborative and inclusive team environment that supports creativity and innovation.

Product Strategy and Customer Experience:

• Align with Cross-functional Teams: Partner with Solution Consultants, Customer Success, Finance, and IT teams to align on evolving customer expectations, technical requirements, and platform capabilities and performance, to drive product adoption, while ensuring operational efficiencies, proper billing capabilities and interchange management requirements.
• Maintain a Market Pulse: Stay current with industry trends and best practices to continuously improve migration and onboarding strategies and processes.

Operational Improvements, Cost Reduction and Reporting

• Optimize Performance: Develop and execute strategies to optimize Onboarding operational performance and scalability, to reduce manual intervention, improve automation, and lower overall operational costs.
• KPI Tracking: Track and perform against operational key performance indicators to drive efficiencies and improve financial performance.
• Executive Reporting: Monitor and report to the Speedpay Biller executive team on migration strategy, onboarding insights, risk mitigation plans, and performance against operational and financial goals.

Qualifications (Education, Experience, Knowledge, Skills, and Abilities)

• Minimum 8 years' experience in a leadership role within a FinTech or technology-driven company, with a focus on platform migration and project management.
• Bachelor's degree in computer science, Information Technology, Business Administration, or a related field. Advanced degree preferred.
• Strong understanding of both legacy and modern platform architectures, including microservices and payment orchestration.
• Excellent leadership and team-building skills, with a track record of successfully managing and developing high-performing teams.
• Exceptional analytical and problem-solving abilities, with a keen eye for detail and a strategic mindset.
• Strong communication and interpersonal skills, with the ability to collaborate effectively with cross-functional teams and stakeholders.
• Visionary thinker with the ability to bring innovative ideas and competitive insights to the table.
• Experience with customer experience (CX) functionality and a passion for delivering exceptional client experiences.
• Deep understanding of leading CIS and billing systems, customer experience management, and process optimization.

Preferred Qualifications (Education, Experience, Competencies)

• Ability to innovate and drive strategic initiatives, with a focus on the FinTech and payments industry.
• Deep understanding of FinTech, payments industry, competitive market insights, and customer experience (CX) functionality.
• Expertise in managing complex projects, particularly those related to platform migrations and implementations.
• Skill in building, mentoring, and leading high-performing teams, fostering a collaborative and innovative environment.
• Passion for delivering exceptional customer experiences, with experience in customer experience functionality.
• Ability to stay current with industry trends, provide competitive insights, and continuously improve strategies and processes.
• Proficiency in monitoring and reporting on strategy, insights, risk mitigation, and performance to stakeholders/senior leadership.

Licenses and Certifications

• List if any

Work Environment:

• Standard work environment
• Majority of time spent on PC (Phys. Req.)