Banking Platforms Technology Manager

Farmers and Merchants Bank of Long Beach•Seal Beach, CA

About The Position

The Banking Platforms Technology Manager is an experienced technology leader who reports directly to the Chief Information Officer (CIO). The role provides strategic and operational leadership for the Bank’s core banking, payments, lending, and related technology platforms, overseeing platform administration, integrations, data management, security, availability, processing, vendor relationships, and continuous improvement initiatives. The manager ensures that critical banking platforms are secure, resilient, compliant, scalable, and operationally efficient while aligning technology capabilities with business objectives, regulatory requirements, and customer needs. The role is a key partner to business leaders and vendors in supporting platform performance, innovation, and the Bank’s long-term technology strategy. The position leads platform strategy, governance, operations, and lifecycle management; develops multi-year roadmaps; and establishes service-level objectives and performance measures. It oversees a 24/7 production environment and critical processes for incident response, changes, releases, disaster recovery, business continuity, payment processing, lending technology, and third-party and internally managed environments. The manager also prioritizes initiatives and resources with business leadership and oversees vendor relationships, contracts, budgets, risk remediation, and technology investments. The position requires a bachelor’s degree in a relevant field and ten or more years of progressive technology experience, including at least five years leading teams, technology functions, or critical banking platforms. This position is eligible for the Vice President officer title, subject to the Bank’s stated eligibility requirements. The listed exempt salary range is $129,584–$240,656 per year.

Requirements

Bachelor’s degree in Information Technology, Computer Science, Information Systems, Engineering, Business Administration, or a related field.
Ten or more years of progressive technology experience, including at least five years leading teams, technology functions, or critical banking platforms.
Demonstrated experience supporting or managing core banking, payments, lending, digital banking, or other mission-critical financial services platforms in a regulated environment.
Experience overseeing technology operations, platform administration, system integrations, vendor management, production support, and technology-delivery initiatives.
Proven track record leading large-scale technology projects, platform implementations, modernization efforts, system upgrades, or digital transformation initiatives.
Experience managing vendor relationships, service-level agreements, technology budgets, contract negotiations, and third-party risk considerations.
Strong understanding of banking operations, regulatory requirements, information security, business continuity, disaster recovery, and risk-management practices.
Advanced knowledge of core banking, payments, lending, and related banking technology platforms, including business processes, data architecture, integrations, and operational workflows.
Strong understanding of IT operations, platform product management, financial and budget management, vendor management, and technology governance in a regulated financial services environment.
Comprehensive knowledge of IT service management, cybersecurity controls, data governance, resiliency planning, change management, disaster recovery, and business continuity practices.
Working knowledge of banking operations, payment systems, lending processes, regulatory requirements, audit standards, and financial institution risk-management frameworks.
Proficiency in developing business cases, technology roadmaps, budgets, total cost of ownership analyses, value-realization models, service-level metrics, risk assessments, and performance measurement frameworks.
Strong leadership, people management, coaching, and team development skills.
Excellent written, verbal, presentation, executive, and vendor communication skills, including the ability to explain complex technical concepts to diverse audiences.
Strong analytical, critical-thinking, organizational, prioritization, problem-solving, and decision-making skills, including the ability to manage multiple initiatives and competing priorities.
Demonstrated ability to lead troubleshooting, root-cause analysis, and resolution of complex, high-impact platform, system, integration, and production processing issues.
Ability to collaborate and influence effectively across technical, business, risk, compliance, audit, finance, information security, and executive teams.
Current knowledge of banking technology platforms, payment modernization, digital banking and lending solutions, cloud and hosted services, APIs, automation, data management, cybersecurity, and emerging industry trends.
Ability to balance strategic planning with operational execution while driving platform reliability, service excellence, regulatory compliance, and continuous improvement.
Strong project, vendor, and stakeholder management skills, including managing roadmaps, service delivery expectations, budgets, risks, and third-party relationships.
Ability to perform repetitive movements associated with office and computer-based work; sit and/or stand for extended periods; lift, carry, or move objects weighing up to 25 pounds; and use hands and fingers to operate standard office equipment, with or without reasonable accommodation.

Nice To Haves

Advanced degree.
Experience with leading banking technology providers and vendor-supported platforms.

Responsibilities

Lead strategy, governance, operations, and lifecycle management for core banking, payments, lending, and related technology platforms, including production processing, configuration, administration, integrations, data management, security, and change control.
Provide thought leadership on platform strategy, target operating models, modernization, automation, service delivery improvements, scalability, and cost optimization.
Partner with business stakeholders to deliver technology solutions and serve as the primary technology owner and subject matter expert for platform-related initiatives.
Develop and maintain multi-year platform roadmaps, evaluating platform capabilities, technical debt, vendor solutions, emerging technologies, and investments.
Establish service-level objectives and key performance metrics, and monitor availability, performance, capacity, transaction throughput, processing deadlines, and operational efficiency.
Direct disaster recovery, backup, retention, business continuity, and succession planning for internally managed and vendor-hosted environments, including periodic testing.
Maintain platform documentation, operating procedures, policies, architecture diagrams, data flows, control evidence, and support playbooks; ensure annual reviews and updates after significant changes.
Oversee 24/7 production operations, including incident, problem, change, release, escalation, and service restoration processes for mission-critical banking applications and services.
Manage payment processing capabilities, including ACH, wire transfers, check and item processing, settlement and clearing, real-time payments, digital payment integrations, fraud-prevention interfaces, and reconciliation, as applicable.
Partner with lending and credit teams to support loan origination, underwriting, documentation, servicing, collateral management, and related integrations across consumer, commercial, and specialty lending platforms.
Prioritize technology initiatives and resource allocation with business leadership; oversee vendor relationships, contracts, service-level performance, budgets, risk remediation, and strategic technology investments.
Govern and oversee core banking platforms and supporting infrastructure, databases, and administrative environments.
Govern and oversee payment networks, settlement processes, reconciliation functions, and payment-related integrations.
Govern and oversee lending origination, decisioning, documentation, servicing, collateral management, and credit-related systems.
Govern and oversee APIs, middleware, managed file transfers, batch scheduling, event-driven architectures, and third-party interfaces.
Govern and oversee data governance, reporting, access controls, audit trails, cybersecurity measures, and regulatory compliance requirements.
Oversee IT service management practices, including incident, problem, change, release, configuration, and asset management.
Oversee vendor-hosted and on-premises environments, including production operations, disaster recovery, business continuity, and ongoing platform support.
Comply with applicable banking laws, regulations, and internal policies, including requirements related to BSA, AML, OFAC, CIP, financial elder abuse reporting, sexual harassment prevention, information security, and privacy.