Vice President – Head of Program Management & Strategic Initiatives

Job Description

Vice President, Head of Program Management & Strategic Initiatives

About FIS

FIS is a leading provider of technology solutions for financial institutions and businesses of all sizes and across all industries — in the world. We empower the financial world by enabling the movement of money, processing trillions of dollars annually, and powering thousands of banks, capital markets firms, and merchants globally. Our Technology organization is the engine behind that mission, building the platforms, infrastructure, and digital experiences that move the global economy forward.

Position Summary

The Vice President, Head of Program Management & Strategic Initiatives is a senior executive within the FIS Technology organization, accountable for leading the enterprise Technology Program Management Office (TPMO) and driving the most consequential, cross-functional initiatives across the technology portfolio. This leader serves as a trusted advisor to the CTO/CIO and the broader Technology Leadership Team, translating strategy into executable, measurable programs and ensuring disciplined delivery of FIS's most complex modernization, integration, and transformation efforts.

The role combines strategic vision with operational rigor. The successful leader will shape how Technology plans, prioritizes, governs, and executes work at scale — orchestrating multi-year transformation programs, platform consolidations, cloud and AI initiatives, and enterprise-level operating model changes. This leader will build and lead a high-performing organization of program directors, program managers, and PMO professionals supporting Technology globally.

Key Responsibilities

Strategic Leadership

• Partner with the CTO/CIO and Technology Leadership Team to translate enterprise strategy into a coherent portfolio of programs, investments, and outcomes.
• Lead the design and execution of high-priority, cross-functional strategic initiatives — such as platform modernization, cloud migration, AI/ML enablement, technology rationalization & productivity transformation.

Program Management

• Establish and continuously evolve the Technology PMO operating model, methodologies, and tooling — balancing Agile, hybrid, and waterfall approaches based on program need.
• Drive rigor in scope, schedule, budget, risk, and dependency management across the portfolio; ensure programs deliver business outcomes — not just outputs.
• Define and maintain enterprise standards for program planning, status reporting, escalation, OKRs, and KPIs.
• Lead executive-level program reviews; provide clear, data-driven visibility to the CTO/CIO, CEO staff, Board, and other senior stakeholders.

Execution & Delivery

• Personally lead or sponsor the most complex, highest-risk, and highest-visibility programs across Technology.
• Identify and remove organizational, technical, and resourcing blockers; drive accountability across program leaders and partner functions.
• Establish disciplined change management practices to ensure adoption and value capture for major transformation efforts.
• Partner closely with Finance to manage Technology investment portfolios — capital plans, operating budgets, vendor spend, and ROI tracking.

Organizational Leadership

• Build, lead, mentor, and develop a globally distributed team of program directors, program managers, PMO analysts, and transformation professionals.
• Cultivate a culture of ownership, transparency, intellectual honesty, and outcome-orientation.
• Recruit and retain top program leadership talent; create career paths and development frameworks for the program management discipline at FIS.
• Champion diversity, equity, and inclusion in hiring, development, and leadership practices.

Stakeholder & Executive Engagement

• Represent the Technology organization in executive forums, steering committees, and board-level reporting on strategic programs.

Required Qualifications

• 15+ years of progressive experience in program management, technology delivery, management consulting, or transformation leadership, including 5+ years leading large, multi-tier program management organizations.
• Demonstrated success leading enterprise-scale transformation programs (>$50M, multi-year, multi-region) within complex, matrixed organizations.
• Deep experience in financial services, fintech, payments, or a similarly regulated technology environment.
• Proven ability to operate at the executive level — directly advising C-suite leaders, presenting to boards, and influencing across functional boundaries.
• Strong command of modern delivery methodologies (Agile, SAFe, Lean, hybrid) and portfolio management practices and tooling (e.g., Jira Align, Clarity, Planview, ServiceNow SPM).
• Experience leading or supporting M&A technology integration, divestitures, or carve-outs.
• Track record of building and scaling teams of 50+ across geographies.
• Exceptional written, verbal, and executive communication skills; able to distill complexity into clear narratives and decisions.
• Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Engineering, Business, Finance, or a related field.

Preferred Qualifications

• MBA or advanced degree in a relevant discipline.
• PMP, PgMP, SAFe Program Consultant (SPC), or equivalent professional certifications.
• Direct experience with cloud transformation (AWS, Azure, GCP), platform modernization, data/AI programs, or core banking/payments platform migrations.
• Prior experience in a global, publicly traded technology or financial services company.
• Background in management consulting (e.g., McKinsey, BCG, Bain, Deloitte, Accenture) combined with operating experience.

Leadership Competencies

• Strategic Thinking — Connects technology execution to business outcomes and long-term competitive positioning.
• Executive Influence — Builds credibility quickly across senior stakeholders; communicates with clarity and conviction.
• Bias for Outcomes — Drives delivery and benefits realization, not just activity.
• Operational Rigor — Brings structure, discipline, and data to ambiguous, high-stakes problems.
• Talent Multiplier — Develops leaders, attracts top talent, and builds organizations that outperform.
• Integrity & Judgment — Demonstrates the highest standards of ethics, transparency, and decision-making.

What We Offer

• Competitive executive compensation including base salary, annual incentive, and long-term equity.
• Comprehensive health, retirement (401k with match), and wellness benefits.
• Generous paid time off and a hybrid working model.
• The opportunity to shape the technology agenda of one of the world's most consequential fintech companies.
• A culture that values curiosity, ownership, and continuous learning.

FIS is an Equal Opportunity Employer. We are committed to building a diverse and inclusive workforce and do not discriminate on the basis of race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, age, disability, veteran status, or any other protected characteristic.

Privacy Statement

FIS is committed to protecting the privacy and security of all personal information that we process in order to provide services to our clients. For specific information on how FIS protects personal information online, please see the Online Privacy Notice.

EEOC Statement

FIS is an equal opportunity employer. We evaluate qualified applicants without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, marital status, genetic information, national origin, disability, veteran status, and other protected characteristics. The EEO is the Law poster is available here supplement document available here

For positions located in the US, the following conditions apply. If you are made a conditional offer of employment, you will be required to undergo a drug test. ADA Disclaimer: In developing this job description care was taken to include all competencies needed to successfully perform in this position. However, for Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) purposes, the essential functions of the job may or may not have been described for purposes of ADA reasonable accommodation. All reasonable accommodation requests will be reviewed and evaluated on a case-by-case basis.

Sourcing Model

Recruitment at FIS works primarily on a direct sourcing model; a relatively small portion of our hiring is through recruitment agencies. FIS does not accept resumes from recruitment agencies which are not on the preferred supplier list and is not responsible for any related fees for resumes submitted to job postings, our employees, or any other part of our company.

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