Sr. Project Manager

TEKsystems•Honolulu, HI

10d•$60 - $75•Remote

About The Position

Seeking an experienced Project Manager to lead and support strategic initiatives associated with mergers and acquisitions (M&A), core banking system integration, and enterprise technology transformation. The ideal candidate will have significant experience managing complex projects within the banking or financial services industry, with a strong preference for candidates who have participated in a bank merger, acquisition, conversion, or core banking integration. This individual will be responsible for coordinating cross-functional workstreams spanning technology, operations, retail and commercial banking, digital channels, data, risk, compliance, finance, and third-party vendors. The Project Manager will play a critical role in ensuring that M&A integration activities are carefully planned, dependencies are identified and managed, risks are proactively addressed, and technology and operational readiness activities remain aligned with key transaction and conversion milestones.

Requirements

8+ years of project/program management experience, preferably within banking, financial services, fintech, or another highly regulated environment.
Demonstrated experience leading large, complex, cross-functional technology and business transformation projects.
Experience supporting or leading a financial institution merger, acquisition, bank conversion, or major systems integration.
Strong understanding of project management disciplines including scope, schedule, budget, resource, risk, issue, dependency, and change management.
Experience coordinating projects involving multiple technology platforms, business teams, and third-party vendors.
Demonstrated ability to manage projects with high organizational visibility and aggressive timelines.
Strong executive communication and presentation skills.
Ability to work effectively across both technical and non-technical teams.
Excellent facilitation, negotiation, problem-solving, and organizational skills.
Understanding of Hawaii culture is highly preferred and need to work on HST

Nice To Haves

Direct participation in a bank merger or acquisition integration program.
Experience managing the core banking conversion or integration workstream during an M&A transaction.
Experience with core banking platforms and ecosystems such as FIS, Fiserv, Jack Henry, or similar banking technology platforms.
Experience coordinating large-scale data conversion and migration initiatives.
Experience managing conversion weekends, implementation cutovers, and post-conversion stabilization/command center activities.
Knowledge of retail banking, commercial banking, deposits, lending, payments, digital banking, and/or branch operations.
Experience managing system integration, UAT, regression testing, reconciliation, and production-readiness activities.
Experience working with external system integrators, consulting firms, and banking technology vendors.
PMP, PgM, Agile/Scrum, or comparable project management certification.

Responsibilities

Lead complex projects and workstreams associated with bank mergers, acquisitions, integrations, and system conversions.
Develop and maintain comprehensive project plans covering pre-conversion, conversion, cutover, and post-conversion stabilization activities.
Coordinate activities across multiple business and technology workstreams to ensure M&A integration objectives and deadlines are achieved.
Establish project governance, reporting cadence, decision-making processes, escalation procedures, and executive-level status reporting.
Manage critical milestones, dependencies, risks, issues, decisions, and action items throughout the integration lifecycle.
Facilitate cross-functional meetings and ensure clear ownership and accountability for project deliverables.
Lead or coordinate activities related to the integration and/or conversion of core banking platforms and associated applications.
Partner with technology and business teams to manage dependencies between the core banking platform and surrounding systems, including: Online and mobile banking, Deposit and loan systems, Customer/account data, Payments and transaction processing, Online account opening, Branch and teller platforms, CRM and customer servicing systems, Financial and regulatory reporting, Fraud, AML, risk, and compliance platforms, Third-party interfaces and vendor applications.
Coordinate planning for data conversion, interface integration, system configuration, testing, reconciliation, cutover, and production readiness.
Ensure downstream and upstream system dependencies are documented and incorporated into the overall integration plan.
Support development of detailed cutover and contingency plans for major conversion events.
Partner with business, technology, QA, and vendor teams to ensure appropriate testing strategies are established.
Coordinate project dependencies related to system integration testing, regression testing, user acceptance testing (UAT), and production readiness.
Monitor defect resolution and critical issues affecting conversion readiness.
Facilitate go/no-go readiness assessments and ensure outstanding risks and dependencies are clearly communicated to leadership.
Coordinate post-conversion stabilization activities and track outstanding issues through resolution.
Identify and proactively manage project risks, issues, dependencies, and resource constraints.
Maintain RAID logs and ensure critical items have appropriate owners and mitigation plans.
Provide concise, executive-level project reporting covering project health, schedule, scope, budget, risks, decisions, and upcoming milestones.
Escalate critical issues requiring leadership intervention or cross-functional decision-making.
Partner closely with Risk, Compliance, Information Security, Legal, Audit, and Regulatory teams to ensure project requirements are appropriately incorporated.
Maintain strong documentation and project controls appropriate for a highly regulated banking environment.
Serve as a key liaison between business stakeholders, technology teams, executive leadership, vendors, and implementation partners.
Manage relationships with core banking and technology vendors involved in integration or conversion activities.
Facilitate discussions across teams with competing priorities and drive decisions necessary to maintain project momentum.
Translate technical issues and dependencies into clear business impacts for leadership.
Ensure vendor deliverables, milestones, and dependencies remain aligned with the bank's overall integration plan.