Innovation Strategist

Velera

107d • $95,800 - $124,500

About The Position

Join the People Helping People Velera is the nation’s premier payments credit union service organization (CUSO) and an integrated fintech solutions provider. The company serves more than 4,000 financial institutions throughout North America, operating with velocity to help our clients keep pace with the rapid momentum of change and fuel growth in the new era of financial services. Our purpose: We accelerate partners’ success through innovative financial technology solutions and inspired service. The Opportunity: This position will be a champion, building and shaping a superior payment and member experience capability within our Clients and Velera. This includes contributing to the corporate strategy and approach to evangelizing robust digital and physical payment products, geared at enhancing service and member experience. The incumbent will provide guidance and expertise to bring innovative approaches to drive the Path to Purchase; in addition, this role will ensure that efforts are integrated seamlessly into the marketing mix and business plans. This role will drive the vision and thought leadership on how to best reach consumers through robust and ever changing channels, develop and recommend components of a multi-year corporate strategy, plans and roadmaps for Velera and our Clients. This role will be responsible for consulting with Credit Unions and industry players to understand and launch payment and member experience initiatives that leverage both existing and brand new Velera solutions to drive revenue for both Velera and Credit Unions. They will drive discussions, design and help develop products/services that are in alignment with Velera strategies. Working with a matrixed team, help define scope and recommended approach for major projects.

Requirements

• Bachelor’s degree in Business Management or related field required.
• Masters degree preferred.
• Five (5) years’ experience in financial services card programs/processing product management, marketing or development with new technologies required.
• At least five (5) years’ managing cross functional teams experience required.
• Experience with the credit union industry and core or account processing preferred.
• Knowledge of consumer/customer needs and behaviors related to usage of digital assets and applications.
• Current and future trends in digital platforms and applications.
• Digital and social media analytics.
• Budgetary management, metrics and reporting.
• Implementation of process change.
• General knowledge of UI/UX practices, operating systems Windows, iOS and Android required.
• IT literacy preferred around API integration, application security, frameworks/libraries, databases, servers and programming languages.
• Experience with budget responsibility.
• Ability to evaluate and analyze metrics related to digital initiatives.
• Proven drive and passion for continuing education independently.
• Strong verbal, written, technical communication, and presentation skills.

Responsibilities

• Responsible for information gathering/research; business needs and industry analysis in order to identify key business challenges and opportunities.
• Responsible for contributing to the analytical strategy and defining consumer/customer requirements then driving partners/stakeholders through execution.
• Contribute to the identification of potential solutions through consumer driven 'problem solving' approach, gathering and analyzing market data, consumer intelligence, competitive information, as well as internal capabilities and capacity.
• Direct efforts to quickly introduce new and emerging products/solutions and drive them from concept to delivery.
• Understand and communicate demographical, financial and technological market trends affecting solution offerings.
• Partner with business leaders to identify gaps in existing services and develop strategies to improve or replace those services.
• Provide insight and direction during complex product development projects.
• Develop collaborative relationships amongst all lines of business, to help ensure the team meets corporate strategies and delivery targets.
• Assist in keeping the organization abreast of emerging trends, opportunities along with value added insights to drive the business.
• Support customer requirements and new product design meetings; understand business processes and strategies and closely match technology solutions to those requirements.
• Provide guidance and leadership over project teams involving internal members, as well as, outside vendors and consultants where appropriate.
• Represent the company at conferences, tradeshows and in all major vendor negotiations that impact the development of new products and solutions.

Benefits

• Competitive wages
• Medical with telemedicine
• Dental and Vision
• Basic and Optional Life Insurance
• Paid Time Off (PTO)
• Maternity, Parental, Family Care Community Volunteer Time Off
• 12 Paid Holidays
• Company Paid Disability Insurance
• 401k (with employer match)
• Health Savings Accounts (HSA) with company provided contributions
• Flexible Spending Accounts (FSA)
• Supplemental Insurance
• Mental Health and Well-being: Employee Assistance Program (EAP)
• Tuition Reimbursement
• Wellness program

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Mid Level
• Education Level: Bachelor's degree
• Number of Employees: 1,001-5,000 employees