Payment project manager

Role Overview

The Core Payments Manager will lead the strategic direction, modernization, and day-to-day operations of the banks core payments infrastructure, including ACH, Fedwire, RTP, FedNow, push-to-card, and cross-border capabilities.

This role serves as the central point of accountability for ensuring seamless money movement across all rails—consumer, commercial, and treasury services—while maintaining compliance, resilience, and scalability of the core deposit and payment hub ecosystem.

You will partner closely with Treasury Operations, Technology, Risk, Compliance, and Product teams to drive operational excellence, introduce real-time payment innovations, and optimize cost, speed, and transparency across the bank’s payment value chain.

Key Responsibilities

1. Core Payments Operations & Governance

• Oversee daily operations of core clearing and settlement systems—ACH, Fedwire, RTP, FedNow, and card-based push payments.
• Manage payment hub integrations with the core banking system (e.g., FIS, Fiserv, Finastra, Temenos, Jack Henry).
• Ensure all inbound and outbound transactions (C2B, B2B, P2P, disbursements, etc.) are processed accurately and meet SLA and regulatory requirements.
• Monitor queue management, exception handling, and end-of-day reconciliation between payment rails and the core.
• Implement continuous process improvements to reduce rejects, returns, and latency across rails.

1. Modernization & Innovation

• Define the bank’s payment modernization roadmap, aligning legacy ACH/Fedwire operations with real-time rails (RTP, FedNow) and ISO 20022 migration milestones.
• Partner with technology teams to enhance the enterprise payment hub, ensuring API-driven orchestration, ISO-native messaging, and straight-through processing (STP).
• Introduce push-to-card and cross-border (SWIFT gpi / Visa Direct / B2B Connect) solutions to improve liquidity and global transfer efficiency.
• Evaluate emerging rails and third-party connectivity providers (The Clearing House, Volante, Finzly, ACI, Bottomline, etc.) for integration into the ecosystem.

1. Regulatory & Network Compliance

• Maintain compliance with NACHA, Federal Reserve, TCH, PCI-DSS, Reg CC, Reg J, and Reg E requirements.
• Coordinate audits, exam responses, and risk assessments for all payment systems.
• Ensure proper OFAC screening, fraud controls, and sanction compliance within payment flows.
• Oversee documentation and adherence to network mandates (RTP operating rules, FedNow participation policies, NACHA rules, etc.).

1. Treasury & Liquidity Management Alignment

• Support Treasury and Finance teams in intraday liquidity monitoring for Fed accounts, RTP prefunding, and settlement exposure.
• Align payment rail operations with cash positioning, correspondent banking, and nostro/vostro management.
• Ensure synchronization between ledger entries and payment confirmations for real-time balance updates.

1. Stakeholder & Vendor Management

• Manage vendor relationships with network operators, processors, and technology vendors (FIS, Fiserv, ACI, Volante, Bottomline, etc.).
• Collaborate with internal stakeholders—Operations, Risk, IT, and Product—for seamless cross-functional delivery.
• Provide executive-level dashboards and MIS on payment volumes, exceptions, failures, and trends.

1. Leadership & Team Development

• Lead a cross-functional team of payment operations analysts, systems administrators, and network specialists.
• Establish strong governance across incident management, change control, and release cycles.
• Mentor teams to build domain expertise in ISO 20022, RTP messaging, ACH settlement, and wire operations.

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s or Master’s degree in Business, Finance, Information Systems, or related discipline.
• 10+ years of experience in banking operations, payments infrastructure, or treasury systems management.
• Deep understanding of ACH, Fedwire, RTP, FedNow, push-to-card, and cross-border payment ecosystems.
• Proven experience managing or integrating with core banking and enterprise payment hubs.
• Prior experience in ISO 20022 migration projects or real-time payment adoption strongly preferred.

Skills

• In-depth knowledge of payment message formats (ISO 8583, ISO 20022, NACHA, SWIFT MT/MX).
• Proficiency in payment lifecycle management, settlement reconciliation, and exception handling.
• Familiarity with fraud monitoring, sanctions screening, and operational risk frameworks.
• Excellent leadership, analytical, and communication skills to drive cross-functional alignment.