VP, Lead Customer Activation Initiatives Manager

Role Summary/Purpose:

Reporting to the VP, Strategic Card Solutions, the VP, Lead Customer Activation Initiatives Manager leads and develops a team responsible for the end-to-end delivery of business-critical customer activation initiatives across Performance Marketing and the Growth organization. This role serves as the central point of accountability for complex, cross-functional programs—from project inception through launch and stabilization—ensuring clear scope, stakeholder alignment, disciplined governance, and on-time/on-quality delivery.

This role is also the enterprise owner of the Synchrony Plastics Strategy—responsible for developing, documenting, governing, and executive-socializing the strategy narrative, decision framework, and multi-year roadmap to ensure consistent alignment across clients, channels, technology, operations, compliance, and suppliers.

Partnering closely with Growth, client-facing teams, Technology (SYF and partners such as Fiserv), Operations, Compliance, and external suppliers, this leader drives execution across initiatives including new client integrations, conversions/deconversions, partner product expansions, regulated communications deployments (cards/letters/statements), vendor migrations, and change-in-terms efforts. The role requires travel for partner planning and scope sessions and for supplier quality assurance events tied to physical output.

Essential Responsibilities:

• Own and drive end-to-end delivery of complex customer activation initiatives across Performance Marketing and Growth, ensuring integrated plans, milestones, deliverables, and readiness criteria.

• Lead and directly manage a team of Customer Activation Initiatives Managers/resources; coach on project/program management standards, stakeholder management, and delivery excellence in a regulated environment.

• Execute delivery planning and manage workstreams for Growth initiatives such as card reissues/upgrades, vendor migrations, billing statement software deployments, and change-in-terms efforts—prioritizing business-critical activities and sequencing across shared capacity.

• Stay current on relevant credit card industry standards, regulations, and legislative changes impacting card issuance and regulated customer communications; incorporate changes into delivery plans and controls.

• Own the Synchrony Plastics Strategy (vision, principles, decision framework, and multi-year roadmap) across card package/design, inventory readiness, kit/envelope options, and alternative fulfillment approaches; ensure alignment to Growth priorities and platform capabilities.

• Create, document, and maintain executive-ready strategy artifacts (e.g., strategy deck, roadmaps, operating assumptions, decision logs, standards, playbooks) that clearly communicate “what we do, why we do it, and how we execute it.”

• Establish strategy governance: define the intake/decisioning process, facilitate executive reviews, capture decisions and rationale, and maintain version control so updates are traceable and audit-ready.

• Translate complex inputs into clear executive narratives by synthesizing perspectives from client teams, Technology, Operations, Compliance, and suppliers into crisp recommendations, tradeoffs, and decision points.

• Lead executive communications for plastics strategy including pre-reads, leadership updates, and operating reviews; ensure messaging is consistent, visually clear, and action-oriented.

• Support additional duties and special projects, as assigned.

Qualifications/Requirements:

• Bachelor’s degree required. In lieu of degree, HS Diploma/GED and 8+ years program/project delivery.

• 5+ years of program/project delivery experience leading complex, cross-functional initiatives (marketing activation, customer communications, card lifecycle, or regulated operations preferred).

• 3+ years of people management experience, including coaching/developing delivery talent.

• Demonstrated experience delivering in highly regulated environments with strong controls, documentation discipline, and audit-ready execution.

• Demonstrated ability to develop executive-level strategy materials (PowerPoint narratives, decision memos, roadmaps) that drive alignment and enable leadership decisioning.

• Strong executive communication, stakeholder management, and risk/dependency management skills; ability to drive decisions in a matrixed organization.

• Ability and flexibility to travel for business as required including travel for partner planning and supplier QA events, as needed