Payment Operations - Lead Associate

Fannie Mae • Reston, DC

1d • $107,000 - $142,000 • Hybrid

About The Position

Playing an essential role in the U.S. economy, Fannie Mae is foundational to housing finance. Here, your expertise can help fuel purpose-driven innovation that expands access to homeownership and affordable rental housing across the country. Join Fannie Mae to grow your career and help people find a place to call home. Job Description As a valued colleague on our team, you will lead the team to support customer and performance measures focusing on completeness, timeliness, quality, and customer satisfaction. You will engage with customers to understand business needs and priorities and lead efforts to deliver those outcomes. You will identify, recommend, and assist with implementing process improvements to increase customer value, as well as identify and resolve customer problems, process exceptions, and risks. THE IMPACT YOU WILL MAKE The Payment Operations- Lead Associate role will offer you the flexibility to make each day your own, while working alongside people who care so that you can deliver on the following responsibilities: Resolve customer issues and manage third party service level agreements (SLA). Research and resolve exceptions, including escalation and communication of production incidents. Assist management with tasks related to the design and execute process improvements. Perform data analysis, forecasting, capacity management, and loan quality modeling. Lead the team in monitoring process performance and performing risk assessments

Requirements

• Minimum Required Experience 4 years
• Electronic Payments Expertise: Demonstrated knowledge and experience with electronic payments (ACH, Fedwire, SWIFT), including payment processing, settlement, and reconciliation.
• Financial Products & Industry Practices: Solid understanding of financial products, industry standards, technologies, and banking/regulatory environments.
• Transactional Accountability: Ability to own transactions from start to finish, maintain flexibility, and uphold departmental safety and soundness control standards.
• Project Leadership & Change Management: Proven experience leading cross-functional projects, including defining scope and business requirements, preparing and executing test/use cases, implementing process improvements, and training on new business processes.
• Risk Assessment & Governance: Proficiency in evaluating and designing controls, conducting impact assessments, remediating risks, and ensuring policy compliance through governance and internal investigations.
• Operational Excellence & Process Optimization: Strong analytical skills with a focus on identifying process inefficiencies, applying Lean management principles, and implementing solutions to enhance performance and accuracy.
• Problem Solving & Issue Resolution: Demonstrated ability to identify operational and process issues, propose solutions, and lead collaborative efforts to resolve challenges.
• Analytical and Data Skills: Skilled in data analysis, documentation, and reporting using tools such as Excel, Tableau, or Power BI to support decision-making and ensure data quality.
• Communication & Influence: Excellent verbal and written communication skills, effective presentation abilities, and a talent for negotiating, persuading, and facilitating meetings to resolve conflicts and drive consensus.
• Relationship Management & Team Collaboration: Ability to build and manage stakeholder relationships, engage with customers and vendors, and work productively in cross-functional teams.
• Personal Computing Proficiency: Advanced skills in Microsoft Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and Outlook.

Nice To Haves

• Desired Experience Bachelor's degree or equivalent
• Professional Certifications: Accredited ACH Professional (AAP) or Certified Treasury Professional (CTP) preferred.
• Cash Management (Optional): Experience with cash position and cash forecasting functions within a large corporation is a plus.
• Experience with Fedline Advantage, Nacha file formatting and ISO 20022 format

Responsibilities

• Resolve customer issues and manage third party service level agreements (SLA).
• Research and resolve exceptions, including escalation and communication of production incidents.
• Assist management with tasks related to the design and execute process improvements.
• Perform data analysis, forecasting, capacity management, and loan quality modeling.
• Lead the team in monitoring process performance and performing risk assessments

Benefits

• As part of our comprehensive benefits package, Fannie Mae offers a broad range of Health, Life, Voluntary Lifestyle, and other benefits and perks that enhance an employee's physical, mental, emotional, and financial well-being.

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Mid Level
• Number of Employees: 5,001-10,000 employees