VP Digital Operations

Allegacy Federal Credit Union•Winston-Salem, NC

About The Position

Allegacy is seeking a Vice President of Digital Operations to lead the strategy, operation, and growth of its digital banking ecosystem. Reporting to the CIO and serving on the technology leadership team, this executive owns the platforms, partnerships, and performance of digital banking, online account opening, and conversational chat and voice channels, including strategic partners Lumin, Glide, and Glia. The role sets Allegacy’s digital vision, builds a fintech ecosystem that advances member experience and competitive advantage, and develops AI capabilities across digital channels. The VP will build and lead a growing digital operations organization, own the digital budget and partner portfolio, and guide build, buy, and partner decisions. The role works across Retail, Marketing, Lending, Data & Analytics, Risk, Finance, and other functions, translating digital strategy into measurable outcomes in adoption, member growth, satisfaction, reliability, and efficiency. The VP is responsible for channel strategy and performance, fintech partnerships, AI and innovation, risk and compliance, operational resilience, executive collaboration, and team development. Leadership is expected to combine strategic vision with disciplined execution, accountability, intentional staff development, cross-functional influence, and continuous improvement.

Requirements

12+ years of progressive experience in digital banking, digital channels, or digital product and operations, including 5+ years in senior leadership roles; financial services experience is ideal.
Proven executive ownership of a digital banking platform, account opening ecosystem, or comparable member-facing digital business, with accountability for adoption and growth outcomes.
Deep fintech expertise, including knowledge of the fintech landscape and partnership and commercial models, and experience evaluating, negotiating, integrating, and scaling third-party capabilities.
Track record of building a fintech partner ecosystem that delivered measurable member and business results.
Experience leading AI or automation initiatives in member- or customer-facing channels, with sound judgment about responsible and valuable applications.
Strong command of third-party risk management and regulatory expectations for fintech partnerships in a regulated environment.
Demonstrated success building and leading multi-layered teams, developing leaders, and managing through growth and change.
Financial and vendor management skills, including budget ownership, contract negotiation, and business case development.
Technical fluency to partner credibly with engineering, integration, and security leaders on APIs, integrations, and platform architecture.
Executive presence and communication skills, with the ability to influence peers, engage the Board, and translate digital strategy into business outcomes.

Nice To Haves

Direct experience with Lumin, Glide, Glia, or comparable platforms.
Background in credit unions, including CUSO structures or collaborative credit union fintech models.
Experience with open banking, consumer-permissioned data sharing, embedded finance, or real-time payments.
Experience launching conversational AI, virtual assistants, or agentic AI experiences in financial services.
Familiarity with NCUA, FFIEC, and interagency third-party risk management guidance.
Exposure to fintech venture, investment, or corporate development activity.
Experience leading digital product management, journey mapping, or experience design at scale.
Leadership of Lean, Agile, or continuous improvement practices.

Responsibilities

Define and execute Allegacy’s multi-year digital channel strategy, aligning digital banking, account opening, and conversational channels with enterprise growth goals and the technology roadmap.
Own end-to-end performance of digital channels, including adoption, engagement, conversion, reliability, and member satisfaction, and report results to executive leadership.
Lead digital roadmap and investment prioritization, balancing member impact, business value, risk, and operational readiness.
Champion journey redesign across account opening, onboarding, servicing, and everyday banking to reduce friction and drop-off.
Develop Allegacy’s fintech ecosystem strategy and evaluate market players and emerging capabilities.
Drive build, buy, and partner decisions and structure fintech relationships, including pilots, revenue-share models, strategic partnerships, CUSO collaborations, and co-investment opportunities.
Own the fintech partner portfolio from sourcing and due diligence through negotiation, integration, performance management, renewal, and exit.
Serve as executive relationship owner for strategic platform partners, influence their roadmaps, and hold them accountable to service levels and delivery commitments.
Evaluate and introduce capabilities such as embedded finance, open banking and consumer-permissioned data sharing, real-time payments, and digital identity.
Set the vision and strategy for AI across digital channels, including self-service, virtual assistants, agent-assisted experiences, and agentic member experiences.
Partner with the CIO and enterprise AI governance to deploy AI responsibly, with guardrails for accuracy, fairness, privacy, and member trust.
Scale AI and automation across digital operations to reduce manual support, triage, and routine platform work.
Build a culture of experimentation and measurement by piloting, testing, and scaling initiatives based on data and member feedback.
Partner with Information Security, Enterprise Risk, and Compliance to incorporate third-party risk management into fintech relationships.
Ensure digital channels and partners meet regulatory and member-protection expectations, including NCUA and FFIEC guidance, consumer protection, privacy, and accessibility.
Represent digital operations in enterprise risk, security, and technology governance forums.
Establish KPIs, SLAs, and operational metrics that drive reliability, availability, and continuous improvement across digital platforms and partners.
Oversee incident management, root cause analysis, and problem prevention for member-facing digital services, including vendor-side incidents.
Partner with Infrastructure, Platform Integrations, and Information Security to ensure integrations are resilient, secure, and scalable.
Own the digital operations budget, vendor contracts, and forecasting, maximizing the value of platform spending.
Partner with senior leaders across Retail, Marketing, Lending, Member Experience, Data & Analytics, and Finance to align digital priorities with enterprise strategy.
Influence executive and Board decisions by explaining digital trade-offs, risks, and opportunities in business terms.
Work with Data & Analytics to turn digital platform data into insight for personalization, decisioning, and growth.
Build, lead, and scale a high-performing digital operations organization, including people leaders and senior individual contributors.
Develop future leaders and build digital product, partner management, AI, and analytics capabilities.
Lead with clarity and accountability, develop people intentionally, influence across functions, balance strategy and execution, and model continuous improvement.