Director of Implementation

About the role

We are looking for a Director of Implementation to lead and scale Bankjoy's implementation organization as we grow our footprint across community banks and credit unions nationwide. This is a senior leadership role — not an individual contributor position.

Responsibilities

• Team Leadership & Performance
  • Build and develop a high-performance implementation team — setting a high bar for delivery quality, accountability, and professional growth across Implementation Managers and Specialists
  • Lead through presence and example — you understand every process your team runs, from project kickoff to go-live, and can step in to coach or cover when needed
  • Set clear performance expectations and hold team members accountable to delivery standards, professional conduct, and client outcomes
  • Conduct structured 1:1s, performance reviews, and coaching conversations that develop your team's capability and career growth over time
  • Identify skill gaps on the team and proactively address them through coaching, hiring, or process improvement
  • Hire and onboard implementation talent as Bankjoy's client portfolio grows
  • Build a team culture of urgency, ownership, and continuous improvement
• Hands-On Delivery & Blocker Removal
  • Stay close to active client implementations — maintaining real-time awareness of project status, risk indicators, and team workload across the full portfolio
  • Proactively identify blockers — whether client-side, cross-functional, or internal — and drive resolution before they impact timelines
  • Work directly with Product, Engineering, and Operations to unblock your team on technical issues, integration dependencies, and product gaps
  • Define, document, and continuously improve Bankjoy's implementation methodology, playbooks, and project templates — grounded in firsthand knowledge of what works in the field
  • Build and maintain reporting that gives leadership visibility into portfolio health, at-risk projects, and team capacity
• Escalation Management
  • Serve as Bankjoy's senior point of escalation for implementation issues — engaging directly with client executives and internal leadership when situations require it
  • Handle escalations with composure, speed, and decisiveness — de-escalating client concerns while driving internal accountability to resolve root causes
  • Establish clear escalation protocols so your team knows when and how to surface issues, and what to expect when they do
• Cross-Functional Leadership
  • Partner with Sales to ensure smooth contract-to-kickoff handoffs, realistic scoping, and clear client expectations from day one
  • Work closely with Product and Engineering to surface implementation-blocking issues and feed client learnings back into the product roadmap
  • Coordinate with Customer Success on post-go-live handoff protocols to protect client relationships and retention
• Client & Stakeholder Engagement
  • Lead client-facing kickoff meetings, executive business reviews, and escalation calls with confidence and professionalism
  • Maintain working knowledge of core banking system nuances (Corelation Keystone, Jack Henry Symitar, Fiserv, and others) to ensure implementation plans are technically grounded
  • Build trusted relationships with client leadership that extend beyond individual projects
• Strategic Contribution
  • Partner with the COO to define the implementation team's organizational structure, headcount plan, and operating model as Bankjoy scales
  • Contribute to capacity planning, resource allocation, and implementation scoping assumptions in partnership with Sales and Finance
  • Identify opportunities to templatize and productize recurring implementation work to reduce delivery cost and improve consistency

Requirements

• 8+ years of implementation, onboarding, or professional services experience — specifically within fintech, digital banking, or core banking environments
• Deep understanding of how financial institutions operate, including familiarity with core banking systems, digital banking platforms, and the unique compliance and operational constraints of banks and credit unions
• 5+ years of people management experience leading a team of implementation managers or project managers — this is a required qualification, not a nice-to-have
• Demonstrated track record of building and developing high-performance implementation teams, not just managing existing ones
• Proven ability to identify and remove blockers — cross-functional, technical, and client-side — with speed and ownership
• Demonstrated track record of improving implementation delivery metrics (time-to-live, go-live rate, client satisfaction) at scale
• Exceptional project management fundamentals with the ability to manage a portfolio of complex, multi-stakeholder projects through your team
• Executive presence and communication skills — able to represent Bankjoy credibly at all levels of a client organization, including C-suite at financial institutions
• Proven track record of handling escalations directly and effectively — you don't pass the problem, you own the resolution
• Experience building or significantly improving implementation processes, playbooks, and team operating rhythms
• Comfort operating in a high-growth, resource-constrained environment where process-building is part of the job

Qualifications

• Familiarity with credit union core banking systems (Corelation, Jack Henry, Fiserv or similar)
• Experience with digital banking conversions or multi-product implementations
• Experience working with credit unions or community banks
• Experience managing multi-vendor implementation projects
• PMP, PMI, or equivalent project management certification