Sr. Director, Technical Program Manager

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. The Senior Director, Technology Program Manager (TPMO) is a strategic leader responsible for shaping, scaling, and maturing the TPMO function and operational capabilities across the Early Warning Systems Technology Organization. This role drives enterprise-level alignment, execution excellence, operational efficiency, cross-team integration, and strategic programs across complex technical and business domains.  As the senior leader of the TPMO function, this role sets the vision for how work flows across the organization, ensuring dependencies are visible and managed, friction is removed, and teams are empowered to deliver with clarity and consistency. This role translates strategy into actionable plans, creates necessary transparency for leadership while improving mechanisms, and ensuring sustainable ways of working.  Key Responsibilities   Strategic Leadership & Operational Excellence   Establish and lead a scalable TPMO function that drives strategic clarity, operational rigor, and organizational alignment. Define and implement enterprise-wide program management standards, delivery frameworks, and operating mechanisms that improve predictability, throughput, and quality.  Partner with leadership to translate multi-year strategies into portfolios, roadmaps, and measurable execution plans.  Drive continuous improvement and organizational maturity by identifying systemic friction points and implementing mechanisms that simplify processes and enable teams to move faster.  Portfolio, Program & Change Management   Lead the planning and delivery of the most complex and cross-functional initiatives that span product, engineering, security, risk, compliance, and operations.  Oversee a portfolio of interdependent workstreams, ensuring appropriate resourcing, sequencing, risk management, and alignment with business priorities.  Establish clear, consistent reporting mechanisms that provide insight into business outcomes, delivery health, dependencies, and risk-mitigation plans for executive audiences.  Partner with the technical organization to ensure project alignment with budgetary commitments  Serve as an escalation point and unblocker for critical initiatives, driving clarity, removing obstacles, and ensuring decisions are made quickly.  Cross-Functional Influence & Technical Acumen   Provide leadership that connects technical and business stakeholders, ensuring end-to-end solutions are well-designed, feasible, and aligned with long-term architectural strategies.  Collaborate with engineering leadership to shape high-level requirements and influence technical decisions where needed.  Influence organizational behavior and decision-making through data-driven insights, strong storytelling, and constructive challenge.  People Leadership & Organizational Development is a plus Build and grow a high-performance team of Program Managers; champion career development, role clarity, and best practices.  Nurture an inclusive, high-trust environment that fosters collaboration, accountability, and continuous learning.  Governance, Compliance & Risk   Ensure operational, engineering, and delivery processes comply with regulatory, audit, security, and risk frameworks.  Ensure alignment of delivery with SDLC and PDLC best practices  Establish clear governance mechanisms, ensuring transparency, accountability, and appropriate executive oversight.  Proactively identify risks across portfolio areas, develop mitigation strategies, and influence stakeholders to take timely action.  Annual Planning & Budget Alignment   Drive the annual planning process (inclusive of workforce planning) ensuring alignment to strategic priorities, capacity, and budget.  Partner with Finance and HR to ensure long-term resourcing, investment planning, and organizational scaling are well-managed.  Minimum Qualifications   Bachelor’s degree in business, engineering, project management, or related field.  15+ years of experience leading complex, cross-organizational technical and business programs.  10+ years of people leadership experience with proven success building and leading high-performing PMO organizations.  Strong understanding of technical concepts, system architecture, and engineering workflows sufficient to drive alignment and ask the right questions.  Demonstrated success leading large-scale transformation and organizational change in highly regulated or complex environments.  Exceptional communication skills: able to influence at all levels, and manage ambiguity with clarity and confidence.  Proven ability to architect processes and mechanisms that scale across teams and functions.  Strong strategic thinking, analytical ability, and operational leadership.  Preferred Qualifications   Experience in financial services, fintech, or similarly regulated industries.  Certifications such as Agile/Scrum, PMP, PMI-ACP, Lean Six Sigma, or equivalent.  Experience shaping and governing enterprise operating models. Experience building and supporting data lake, big data, and enterprise data platform programs within an AWS environment. Physical Requirements Working conditions consist of a normal office environment. Work is primarily sedentary an