Director, Payment Operations

Valley Bank • New York, NY

1d

About The Position

This role provides end-to-end leadership of all payment operations, including USD domestic wires, international wires, CHIPS, SWIFT, ACH origination, and compliance processes. The Director will act as the organization's payment operations subject matter expert and primary escalation point for complex transactions and client-impacting issues. This position focuses on building and sustaining a high-performance culture, defining and enhancing KPIs, championing automation, strengthening operational resiliency, overseeing fraud monitoring, and ensuring full compliance with internal policies and regulatory requirements.

Requirements

• Minimum of 10 years of experience in payment operations or treasury operations.
• Deep expertise in ACH, Nacha, wire operations (Fedwire, CHIPS, SWIFT), sanctions screening, fraud monitoring and payment investigations.
• Forward thinking leader who anticipates risk, embraces change and drives modernization.
• Excellent problem-solving, communication, and stakeholder management capabilities.
• Bachelors Degree and a minimum of 10 years within a financial industry handling operational functions, payment operations, or treasury operations and 3 years of management experience.

Nice To Haves

• Minimum 5 years of experience managing operations, ACH, Wires, or Risk function.

Responsibilities

• Provide end-to-end leadership of all payment operations, including USD domestic wires, international wires, CHIPS, SWIFT, ACH origination, and compliance processes, ensuring accuracy, timeliness, and regulatory adherence.
• Act as the organization's payment operations subject matter expert and primary escalation point for complex transactions and client-impacting issues.
• Build and sustain a high-performance culture emphasizing accountability, cross-training, and operational discipline while fostering team engagement and development.
• Define and enhance KPIs and service standards for payment accuracy, fraud detection, exception management, and throughput; monitor performance and drive continuous improvement initiatives.
• Champion automation, workflow modernization, and straight-through processing strategies to optimize efficiency and client experience across payment channels.
• Strengthen operational resiliency through robust business continuity planning, dual-control frameworks, and uptime assurance.
• Oversee fraud monitoring and anomaly detection for ACH and wire transactions; partner with risk and compliance teams to reinforce control frameworks and regulatory adherence.
• Ensure full compliance with internal policies and regulatory requirements (OCC, FDIC, FFIEC, NACHA, BSA, OFAC, Reg E, Reg CC, Reg DD), meeting audit expectations and mitigating operational risk.

What This Job Offers

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