CIO - Payments

Description

The Payments CIO will be responsible for defining and executing the technical strategy for the bank’s payments ecosystem. This role requires a proven leader who can architect, build, deliver, and operate enterprise-grade payment platforms while ensuring alignment with business priorities and product roadmaps. In this role you will serve as a bridge between engineering, product, and business partners to drive innovation, scalability, security, and resilience across the payments domain.

Key Responsibilities

• Technical Strategy & Leadership
  • Define and execute the payments engineering strategy, ensuring alignment with enterprise technology direction and business objectives.
  • Drive the modernization and evolution of core payment systems, with a focus on scalability, stability, and regulatory compliance.
  • Establish best practices for engineering excellence, resiliency, and operational efficiency within payments platforms.
• Platform Engineering & Delivery
  • Lead teams responsible for designing, building, and maintaining payment processing platforms, settlement engines, and clearing solutions.
  • Oversee the end-to-end lifecycle of payments products, from requirements through delivery and ongoing operations.
  • Ensure high system availability, performance monitoring, and proactive incident management.
• Collaboration & Stakeholder Engagement
  • Partner closely with product managers, operations, and business leaders to define requirements and prioritize the payments technology roadmap.
  • Collaborate with risk, compliance, and security teams to meet regulatory and audit requirements.
  • Build strong vendor and partner relationships to maximize platform value and performance.
• Operational Excellence
  • Establish metrics, SLAs, and KPIs for payments systems to ensure consistent delivery against performance and resiliency goals.
  • Drive continuous improvement initiatives in system availability, monitoring, and recovery capabilities.
  • Champion a culture of engineering excellence and foster the growth of top-tier payments engineering talent.

Experience and Skills:

• 12+ years of progressive experience in software engineering, with at least 5+ years in payments technology leadership roles.
• Demonstrated success in building, delivering, and operating core payments platforms in a complex, regulated environment.
• Deep knowledge of payments processing, settlement, clearing, ACH, wires, and real-time payments.
• Proven ability to define and execute large-scale technical strategies that align with business objectives.
• Strong collaboration skills with experience working across product, business, and operations stakeholders.
• Expertise in platform stability, resiliency, and real-time processing environments.
• Excellent leadership skills with a track record of building and developing high-performing engineering teams.

Preferred Experience

• Hands-on experience with industry-leading payments platforms:
  • Fiserv Enterprise Payments Platform (EPP)
  • ACI Money Transfer System (MTS)
• Familiarity with cloud-native architectures and microservices in payment ecosystems.
• Understanding of regulatory requirements impacting payments, including PCI, NACHA, and ISO 20022.

Personal Attributes

• Strategic thinker with strong execution skills.
• Highly collaborative, influencing across technology and business organizations.
• Passion for innovation in the payments space and delivering frictionless customer experiences.
• Results-driven, with a strong focus on reliability, security, and operational excellence.

Hours & Work Schedule

Hours per Week: 40

Work Schedule: Monday to Friday core business hours

Pay Transparency 

The salary range for this position is $300,000 - $400,000 per year, plus an opportunity to earn an annual discretionary bonus. Actual pay is based on various factors including but not limited to the work location, and relevant skills and experience.   

We offer competitive pay, comprehensive medical, dental and vision coverage, retirement benefits, maternity/paternity leave, flexible work arrangements, education reimbursement, wellness programs and more. Note, Citizens’ paid time off policy exceeds the mandatory, paid sick or paid time-away policy of every local and state jurisdiction in the United States. For an overview of our benefits, visit https://jobs.citizensbank.com/benefits.

Some job boards have started using jobseeker-reported data to estimate salary ranges for roles. If you apply and qualify for this role, a recruiter will discuss accurate pay guidance.

Equal Employment Opportunity

Citizens, its parent, subsidiaries, and related companies (Citizens) provide equal employment and advancement opportunities to all colleagues and applicants for employment without regard to age, ancestry, color, citizenship, physical or mental disability, perceived disability or history or record of a disability, ethnicity, gender, gender identity or expression, genetic information, genetic characteristic, marital or domestic partner status, victim of domestic violence, family status/parenthood, medical condition, military or veteran status, national origin, pregnancy/childbirth/lactation, colleague’s or a dependent’s reproductive health decision making, race, religion, sex, sexual orientation, or any other category protected by federal, state and/or local laws. At Citizens, we are committed to fostering an inclusive culture that enables all colleagues to bring their best selves to work every day and everyone is expected to be treated with respect and professionalism. Employment decisions are based solely on merit, qualifications, performance and capability.