Head of Deposits & Payments Operations

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The Head of Deposits & Payments Operations is an enterprise operations leader responsible for the end to end performance, control, resiliency and continuous improvement of the bank’s deposit- and payment related operations. This role is accountable for the enterprise deposits and payments operating model, including performance, risk posture, and long term scalability.

The Head of Deposits & Payments Operations serves as the first line of defense (1LoD) accountable executive and partners closely with LOB leaders, Technology, Risk, Compliance and Finance to deliver efficient, scalable, customer centric operations aligned with regulatory expectations and growth objectives.             

Essential Duties and Responsibilities

• Lead and develop a large, multi-disciplinary operations organization with emphasis on strong leadership development, succession planning, and performance management while fostering a culture of accountability, customer focus, and risk ownership.

• Provides executive-level oversight for all deposit and payment processing activities, ensuring operational accuracy, timeliness, resiliency, and capacity across all processing platforms and vendors, including:

• First-line execution ownership of BSA/AML and financial crimes operational controls across deposits and payments, including execution of Customer Identification Program (CIP) and Know Your Customer (KYC) Program and controls across all on-boarding channels.

• Operational support for Customer Due Diligence (CDD) and Enhanced Due Diligence (EDD), including beneficial ownership and entity verification, as well as timely escalation of suspicious activity and support for SAR processes through accurate documentation and handoffs.

• Debit card, Credit card, ATM network, branch cash, and vault operations – driving operational consistency, cost optimization, and service reliability across physical and digital touchpoints.

• 1LoD execution for transaction monitoring and fraud prevention, debit and credit card disputes/chargebacks, recovery, representment, and customer remediation.

• Balance fraud loss mitigation with customer experience, ensuring timely detection and response, clear customer communication and effective handoffs to 2LoD financial crimes, risk, and compliance partners

• Provide leadership over consumer, private banking and small business-related contact centers, servicing deposits, card/payment, loan, digital and other inquiries.

• Key leadership responsibilities include:

• Ownership and accountability over first line of defense activities, including key operational risk and controls, development and monitoring of key risk indicators, effective process documentation, and exam readiness and remediation for deposit, payments, and fraud operations.

• Design and evolve a scalable operating model that efficiently supports growth, digital adoption, and regulatory expectations.

• Partner with LOBs and Technology teams on platform modernization and automation, vendor and fintech integrations, and resiliency, disaster recovery, and capacity planning

• Drive continuous improvement leveraging enterprise quality, data and automation to reduce cost, risk, and customer friction

• Ensures all departmental documents and activities are performed in compliance with applicable laws, regulations, policies and procedures as applicable to this position, including completion of required compliance training.

• Performs other duties and responsibilities as assigned.

Qualifications

To perform this job successfully, an individual must be able to perform each essential duty satisfactorily. The requirements listed below are representative of the knowledge, skill, and/or ability required.

Skills

• Strong understanding of banking regulations impacting deposits and payments

• Strong understanding of Operational risk and control frameworks (1LoD)

• Enterprise operations leadership

• Risk balanced decision making

• Data driven performance management

• Regulatory and control discipline

• Customer experience orientation

• Executive communication and influence

Education and/or Experience  

• Bachelor’s degree, advanced degree (MBA or related) preferred

• 10+ years of progressive experience in deposit, payments, or banking operations, with,

• 5+ years in senior leadership roles managing multi-function operations teams

• Dynamic experience across deposit and payment processing, fraud operations and disputes, customer onboarding and services, and contact center operations                

Computer Skills 

• MS Office programs

Other Qualifications (including physical requirements)

Other

Please note this job description is not designed to cover or contain a comprehensive listing of activities, duties or responsibilities that are required of the employee for this job.  Activities, duties and responsibilities may change at any time with or without notice.    

Equal Employment Opportunity Information: Simmons First National Corporation and its subsidiaries are committed to a policy of equal employment with respect to a person's race, color, religion, sex, ancestry, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, covered veterans, military status, physical or mental disability or any other legally protected classifications.