Technical Program Manager - Consumer Lending

Golden 1 Credit Union•Sacramento, CA

5d•Hybrid

About The Position

Golden 1 Credit Union is seeking a strategic Technical Program Manager to lead lending initiatives from concept through implementation. This role involves connecting business objectives with technical delivery, operational readiness, and measurable outcomes. The Technical Program Manager will act as a liaison between lending leaders, technology teams, vendors, compliance partners, and operational stakeholders, translating business needs into clear requirements, priorities, delivery plans, and communication to support informed decision-making. The position requires applying technical expertise, lending knowledge, and strong program governance to solve complex problems, align cross-functional teams, improve systems and workflows, and deliver solutions that enhance the member and team member experience.

Requirements

Bachelor’s Degree in related field required or equivalent work experience
6+ years of progressive experience in project analysis, coordination, project/program management, product management, digital transformation, solution design, or business planning, including 5 years directly managing initiatives end-to-end.
Experience within a financial institution, regulated environment, technology delivery environment, or enterprise project management office.

Nice To Haves

Advanced degree preferred

Responsibilities

Lead and guide cross-functional teams to ensure projects are delivered on time, within scope, and on budget, including collecting and documenting business requirements, performing research, vendor due diligence, ensuring quality user acceptance testing, and overseeing implementations.
Align and optimize resource utilization across workstreams in collaboration with leaders, and collaborate with senior management to develop and implement strategic plans that align with the credit union’s objectives.
Work closely with Enterprise Risk Management teams to assess and mitigate risks associated with projects, ensuring programs and projects are within regulatory and legal requirements, and internal policies.
Focus on enhancing member satisfaction and loyalty through improved services and offerings.
Stay apprised of relevant industry regulations and compliance requirements related to financial services products, ensuring all projects adhere to applicable laws and regulations.
Effectively communicate project updates and progress to stakeholders, including executives, team members, and other relevant parties.
Manage resources efficiently to optimize project outcomes, and plan, organize, direct, and manage budgetary activity for upcoming projects and initiatives.
Develop and execute a comprehensive approach to deliver major products, capabilities, services, system enhancements, and vendor-enabled solutions in alignment with business objectives, product roadmaps, strategic priorities, and established success measures.
Define, prioritize, and maintain product backlogs with input from key stakeholders; determine release sequencing, support roadmap planning, and balance business value, member impact, risk, funding, resource availability, and delivery dependencies.
Translate business needs into technical requirements, document and prioritize user stories, define acceptance criteria, and perform just-in-time story elaboration with development teams, business partners, and vendors to ensure work is ready for execution.
Provide guidance and direction to Scrum teams and business partners, clarify requirements, resolve questions, prioritize defects or bugs, support testing and validation, and advocate for the business and member experience throughout delivery.
Conduct research, facilitate vision and validation discussions with stakeholders, evaluate external market trends and operational needs, identify automated or digital solutions, and help formulate business cases, success criteria, and measurable outcomes.
Partner with technology delivery teams, solution architects, vendors, operations, compliance, and business stakeholders to evaluate technical feasibility, confirm dependencies, support system design decisions, and remove barriers that may impact delivery timelines or product outcomes.
Maintain clear traceability from business objectives and regulatory requirements to features, user stories, acceptance criteria, test scenarios, release decisions, and post-implementation results.
Identify opportunities to improve loan origination, vendor integration, member communication, operational workflow, data capture, reporting, and exception management through system configuration, automation, or process redesign.
Support test planning, user acceptance testing, defect triage, release readiness reviews, implementation planning, change impacts, training needs, communication plans, and go-live validation to ensure solutions are adopted successfully and operate as intended.
Define product metrics, adoption measures, operational performance indicators, risk indicators, and reporting needs to evaluate product effectiveness, inform prioritization decisions, and support continuous improvement after launch.
Collaborate with vendor partners and internal teams to assess integration requirements, data exchange needs, service-level expectations, operational impacts, implementation risks, and ongoing enhancement opportunities.
Track and evaluate the project status and outcomes, making data-driven decisions to improve performance where necessary.
Build strong relationships with key stakeholders, including internal teams, senior management, members, and external partners. Collaborate with cross-functional teams to ensure alignment and successful execution, gather business requirements, define product specifications, and prioritize feature/functionality development.
Act as a subject matter expert on financial products, providing guidance and support to internal and external stakeholders.
Stay up to date with industry trends, emerging technologies, and regulatory changes that impact business units. Update existing and create new programs and strategies, workflows, and introduce stand-alone applications related to systems and processes to advance long term credit union growth.
Provide guidance and support to project teams, fostering a collaborative and productive work environment.
Represent credit union in contacts with business and trade associations, members, and regulatory agencies. Attend business functions, industry conferences, and otherwise promote the credit union’s image.
Perform other duties as assigned.