Senior Program Manager – Payments Operations (contract)

Responsibilities

• Lead end-to-end project and program management across one or more strategic Payments Operations initiatives.
• Develop and manage project plans, milestones, and interdependencies to ensure successful execution.
• Oversee defect tracking, issue resolution, and risk mitigation activities.
• Drive execution of Operational Readiness Reviews (ORR) and governance checkpoints.
• Ensure adherence to enterprise change management and control frameworks.
• Deliver timely and accurate reporting for executive audiences (SteerCo, Operating Committees, leadership forums).
• Ensure completion of control deliverables and remediation activities.

Risk & Governance

• Maintain strong visibility into program risks and proactively escalate delivery issues.
• Ensure compliance with internal controls, regulatory expectations, and governance standards.
• Serve as an Agile coach and change agent across the portfolio.
• Coach cross-functional teams, product partners, and stakeholders on Agile principles and best practices.
• Identify and remove obstacles to agile adoption.
• Help design and scale an enterprise agile delivery model within Payments Operations.

Qualifications

• Proven project and program management experience in large, complex organizations.
• Demonstrated success leading multi-stream, cross-functional initiatives.
• Hands-on experience with Agile/Scrum delivery models in enterprise environments.
• Strong understanding of project delivery frameworks (waterfall, agile, and hybrid models).
• Deep knowledge of risk management, control frameworks, and governance processes.
• Excellent stakeholder management and executive communication skills.
• Prior experience in financial services.
• Familiarity with regulatory or industry initiatives such as ISO 20022.