Senior Director - Strategic Program Management

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.

Early Warning follows 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

Leads and ensures effective strategic program (projects) execution in alignment with deliverables. Creates and implements policies, procedures and processes to ensure effective program execution. Responsible for providing effective leadership, develop and manage team members to successfully deliver strategic deliverables, on-time and within budget.

About the Team

Paze's Strategic Program Management team shapes how the organization turns strategy into coordinated action. Working across the company and alongside senior leadership, the team connects enterprise priorities, investment decisions, capacity, risk, and execution so Paze can focus its resources on the work that matters most. The team creates the operating discipline and visibility needed to make timely decisions, manage cross-functional dependencies, and deliver complex initiatives in a way that supports Paze's growth, product performance, operational resilience, and long-term scale.

Essential Functions

• Drives, monitors, and manages the successful execution of technology-intensive products, ensuring the program stays on time and within budget.  
• Proactively monitors project execution performance compared to target, anticipates emerging problems, identifies solutions, and actively engages team members to implement solutions
• Establishes best practices, templates, policies, tools and partnerships to expand, mature and improve effectiveness in support of business objectives.
• Provides effective leadership and develops and manages a highly engaged, high-performance team ensuring effective delivery of program milestones and outcomes in terms of cost, schedule, budget and quality.
• Builds a team of like-minded practitioners who understand your values and methods
• Develops and implements roles, responsibilities, processes, and procedures that are comprehensive from initial ideation through to in-market realization
• Manages multiple aspects of interrelated project workstreams to ensure the overall program is aligned to and supports the achievement of strategic business objectives.
• Monitors project execution performance compared to target and reports on project results, metrics, tests and deployment activities.
• 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 managing risks.
• Engages external partners to assess their schedules and constraints, integrate impacts and dependencies into overall planning to ensure success.
• Evaluates resource capacity and constraints, build program resource models, prepare 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.
• Owns the communication of program progress updates with executive leadership as well as cross-functional workstream leads.
• Proactively mitigates issues and risks, creatively and analytically resolves problems by demonstrating teamwork, innovation and excellence.
• Supports 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, Program Management and/or Computer Science, or related field.
• Experience in financial institutions or similarly regulated industries and/or software development processes with experience in systems build and run phases of the product lifecycle.
• Minimum of 15 or more years of program/project management experience and proven people leadership experience in matrixed business and technical environments.
• Prior experience related to product launch or large-scale technical product coordination.
• 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 coach/mentor others within a PMO team.
• 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.
• Demonstrated experience with Agile and Waterfall methodologies and all aspects of the Software Development Life Cycle (SDLC) methodology and tools.
• Proven experience with modern B2B SaaS software development and product launch motions (sales, marketing, legal/compliance, operational readiness, customer engagement, etc.) - Paze specific qualification.
• Background and drug screen.

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:

Phoenix, AZ/ Chicago, IL / Washington, DC in USD per year is: $188,000 - $235,000.
New York, NY/ San Francisco, CA 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!

Pursuant to the San Francisco Fair Chance Ordinance, we will consider for employment qualified applicants with arrest and conviction records.

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.