Director of Payments and Commercial Technology

Zions Bancorporation • Midvale, UT

2d • Onsite

About The Position

Zions Bancorporation’s Enterprise Technology and Operations team is seeking an executive technology leader to guide technical vision, architectural roadmaps, engineering execution, and operational resiliency across commercial banking and payments. Reporting directly to the Chief Technology Officer, the Director is accountable for technology supporting commercial banking clients and the bank’s high-throughput payment rails. The role works with senior business executives, leads engineering organizations, manages complex regulatory and operational responsibilities, and delivers secure, resilient financial technology solutions.

The Director will oversee technology strategy and delivery across Treasury Management, Commercial Lending, Business Digital Banking, ACH, wire processing, RTP, and FedNow. The position is fully in office five days a week at the Zions Technology Center in Midvale, Utah.

Requirements

• 12 or more years of progressive technology experience.
• At least 5 years in a senior leadership role (Director or above) managing engineering managers and technical leaders within banking or financial services.
• Deep technical knowledge of US payment rails and protocols, including ACH, Fedwire, CHIPS, The Clearing House RTP, and FedNow.
• Deep familiarity with ISO 20022 messaging standards.
• Comprehensive understanding of commercial banking workflows, including Treasury Management, liquidity management, commercial loan origination and servicing, and digital business portals.
• Proven experience leading large-scale legacy modernization, decomposing legacy platforms into microservices, deploying event streaming architectures such as Kafka or MQ, and establishing cloud-native systems.
• Outstanding executive communication and stakeholder management skills, including presenting roadmaps, risks, and architectural strategies to C-suite executives, Board committees, and regulatory examiners.
• Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Software Engineering, Information Systems, or equivalent practical experience.

Nice To Haves

• Master’s degree in Computer Science or Information Technology, or an MBA.
• Hands-on leadership implementing or modernizing platforms such as FIS, Fiserv, CGI payment hubs, TCS BaNCS, nCino, or Finastra.
• Active involvement with payments industry working groups such as NACHA, the US Faster Payments Council, or Federal Reserve Payments Improvement.
• Certified experience or demonstrated mastery of Agile at Scale (SAFe, LeSS), DevSecOps culture, and automated test-driven development.
• Experience with GCP is preferred.

Responsibilities

• Formulate and execute an enterprise technology roadmap for commercial banking solutions and payment engines.
• Partner with executive business stakeholders, including the Heads of Commercial Banking and Treasury Management, to align technology roadmaps with business objectives.
• Evaluate, integrate, and manage strategic enterprise technology vendors and FinTech partners.
• Provide executive oversight of the engineering delivery lifecycle, including solution design, vendor platform evaluations, and enterprise integrations.
• Architect resilient interfaces connecting commercial applications, payment hubs, and core systems.
• Champion cloud-native architectures, containerized microservices, zero-downtime CI/CD pipelines, and infrastructure-as-code.
• Guide data accessibility and streaming architecture for real-time fraud monitoring, transaction tracking, straight-through processing, and business intelligence.
• Ensure 24x7x365 platform stability, low-latency transaction execution, and fault-tolerant infrastructure.
• Maintain compliance with Federal Reserve regulations, NACHA rules, OCC requirements, FFIEC guidance, cybersecurity standards, and audit baselines.
• Direct incident management and business continuity during outages or payment disruptions, ensuring rapid resolution and transparent communication.
• Lead, develop, and scale an organization including the Director of Commercial Technology, engineering managers, software architects, and delivery professionals.
• Foster a high-accountability engineering culture emphasizing technical rigor, customer-centricity, modern development discipline, and continuous learning.
• Manage capital and operational budgets, contractor and vendor engagements, software licensing, and talent acquisition strategies.

Benefits

• Medical, dental, and vision insurance starting day one.
• Life and disability insurance.
• Paid parental leave and adoption assistance.
• Health Savings Account, Flexible Spending Account, and dependent care accounts.
• Paid training and paid time off.
• 11 paid federal holidays.
• 401(k) plan with company match.
• Profit sharing.
• Competitive compensation in line with work experience.
• Mental health benefits, including coaching and therapy sessions.
• Tuition reimbursement for qualifying employees.
• Employee Ambassador preferred banking products.

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Director