Asset & Wealth Management - Money Movement & Payment Rails, Software Engineering - Vice President - Richardson

The VP of Money Movement Engineering will lead the strategic technical direction for our global payment infrastructure. This leader is responsible for the end-to-end lifecycle of money movement, from the implementation of domestic real-time rails (RTP, FedNow, Zelle) and legacy systems (ACH) to the integration of international standards like SEPA. You will be the primary technical authority for ensuring that our payment systems are scalable, resilient, and compliant with global industry standards (ISO 20022), while maintaining rigorous Service Level Agreements (SLAs) for millions of consumer transactions.

 

Key Responsibilities

1. Payment Rail Implementation & Integration

• Domestic Rails: Lead the engineering and deployment of U.S. payment rails, including ACH, The Clearing House (TCH) RTP, FedNow, and Zelle.
• European Standards: Oversee the integration and maintenance of SEPA (SCT, SCT Inst, and SDD) to ensure seamless Euro-denominated transactions across the Single Euro Payments Area.
• ISO 20022 Migration: Drive the adoption of ISO 20022 messaging standards across all payment flows to ensure data richness, interoperability, and future-proofing of the payment stack.

2. Scalability & Performance Engineering

• High-Throughput Architecture: Design and manage distributed, event-driven systems capable of processing high-volume consumer transactions at scale with sub-second latency.
• SLA Management: Define, monitor, and guarantee strict Service Level Agreements (SLAs) for payment availability, processing times, and settlement finality.
• Resiliency & Recovery: Implement robust disaster recovery (DR) and business continuity plans (BCP) specifically for money movement, ensuring zero data loss and high availability (99.99% or higher).

3. Governance, Standards & Compliance

• Industry Standards: Ensure all integrations adhere to NACHA rules, Federal Reserve regulations, and European Payments Council (EPC) guidelines.
• Security & Risk: Partner with Information Security and Fraud teams to integrate real-time risk scoring and AML/KYC checks into the payment orchestration layer.
• Reconciliation & Ledgering: Oversee the engineering of automated, real-time reconciliation systems to ensure the integrity of the general ledger and customer accounts.

4. Strategic Leadership & Vendor Management

• Technical Roadmap: Define the 3-year vision for the "New Payment Rails" (NPR) team, balancing the modernization of legacy systems with the adoption of emerging instant payment technologies.
• Stakeholder Management: Act as the primary technical liaison for external partners, including central banks, clearing houses (TCH, EBA Clearing), and payment service providers (PSPs).
• Team Mentorship: Build and lead a high-performing team of payment engineers, architects, and SREs specializing in financial transaction systems.

 

Required Qualifications & Skills

Technical Expertise

• Engineering Leadership: 12+ years of experience in software engineering, with at least 6 years in a senior leadership role specifically within Payments or Fintech.
• Rail Mastery: Deep, hands-on experience with the technical specifications of ACH, RTP, FedNow, Zelle, and SEPA.
• Messaging Standards: Expert knowledge of ISO 20022, SWIFT MT/MX, and JSON-based API payment protocols.
• Cloud-Native Infrastructure: Proven experience building high-scale systems on AWS, GCP, or Azure using microservices, Kafka, and distributed databases (e.g., Cassandra, CockroachDB).

Strategic Leadership

• Operational Excellence: Proven track record of managing mission-critical systems with strict uptime and performance requirements.
• Regulatory Knowledge: Strong understanding of PSD2, Dodd-Frank, and global money transmitter licensing requirements.
• Analytical Rigor: Ability to translate complex payment network rules into technical requirements and control frameworks.

Ed