IT Payments Strategic Leader

SouthState Bank•Remote Worker, SC

21h•$133,533 - $213,307•Hybrid

About The Position

The IT Payments Strategies Leader serves as the senior technical authority for enterprise payment platforms, providing architectural leadership, advanced system expertise, and hands‑on guidance across payment technologies. This role is responsible for the design, stability, scalability, and strategic evolution of payment systems to ensure secure, compliant, and reliable payment processing. The position partners closely with IT leadership, operations, Treasury, Risk, and vendors to align payment technology delivery with business strategy and future growth initiatives.

Requirements

Bachelor’s degree required in Information Technology, Computer Science, or a related discipline.
8–12+ years of experience in payment systems, core banking platforms, or financial services technology environments.
Deep knowledge of ACH, wire, and real‑time payment processing architectures
Strong understanding of payment settlement, exception handling, and operational risk
Ability to design and evaluate complex system integrations and data flows.
Proven ability to lead technical initiatives without direct people management responsibility.
Strong analytical, problem‑solving, and incident‑management skills.
Ability to communicate complex technical concepts clearly to business and executive audiences

Nice To Haves

Advanced degree preferred.
AAP (Accredited ACH Professional) and/or NCP (National Check Professional) preferred.
Relevant technology or security certifications are a plus.

Responsibilities

Serve as the technical lead and subject‑matter expert for enterprise payment platforms, including Cari Network (Stablecoin/Tokenized deposits), ACH, wires, real‑time payments (RTP/FedNow), and related payment gateways.
Provide architectural direction, technical design standards, and oversight for payment system enhancements, integrations, and modernization initiatives.
Ensure reliability, performance, and resiliency of payment processing environments through proactive monitoring, troubleshooting, and root‑cause analysis.
Act as the highest‑level escalation point for complex payment system incidents, outages, and processing exceptions.
Lead technical evaluation and implementation support for new payment capabilities, including ISO 20022 adoption and emerging payment technologies.
Partner with vendors and core providers to assist with integrations, upgrades, patches, and platform changes for payment systems.
Ensure payment technologies comply with NACHA rules, FFIEC guidance, audit requirements, and internal IT governance standards.
Provide technical mentorship and guidance to payments analysts and administrators, establishing best practices, standards, and operational runbooks.