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The Position

Job Title

Chief of Staff to the Chief Banking Officer

Job Description

Summary

This is not an administrative role. This is not a project manager with a fancy title. This is the person who makes the entire community banking franchise move faster.

First United Bank is a purpose-driven financial services enterprise operating across Oklahoma and Texas. Our community banking division is the heart of the enterprise -- and the Chief Banking Officer leads one of the most complex, high-impact organizations in the company: Regional Presidents, a Chief Lending Officer, retail and treasury enablement leaders, a Community Bank CFO, a Presidents Advocate, and the community banks themselves.

The CBO's highest-value work is coaching Regional Presidents and making strategic decisions that shape the franchise. Every hour spent chasing follow-ups, brokering handoffs between functional leaders, or piecing together information from five different sources is an hour lost to the work that actually moves the enterprise forward.

That is where you come in. You will be the person who ensures the CBO's priorities do not just get set -- they get done. You will drive initiatives across functions, hold leaders accountable to commitments without having positional authority over them, synthesize complex information into clear decisions, and operate at a pace that matches the urgency of a growing franchise.

Major Duties and Responsibilities (Essential Functions)

Initiative Momentum

The CBO sets strategic priorities. You make sure they move. You will track every major initiative across the franchise, know exactly where things stand, identify what is stalling and why, and drive resolution. You do not own the initiatives themselves -- the functional leaders do. You own the discipline that ensures nothing stalls, nothing falls between the cracks, and the CBO always knows where the real issues are. You will maintain a living initiative dashboard and you will be relentless about follow-through.

Cross-Functional Integration

The CBO's organization includes leaders who each run a critical function. They are strong operators. But their work intersects constantly -- lending, retail, treasury, financial analytics, and the regions all depend on each other. When priorities collide, when timelines conflict, when three leaders each think someone else is handling the handoff -- that is your problem to solve. You will be the person who connects the dots, aligns the moving parts, and makes the whole system faster than the sum of its pieces. You do this through influence and relationships, not authority.

Operating Rhythm

You will own the CBO's operating cadence. Weekly, monthly, quarterly, annual -- you ensure every meeting has the right agenda, the right preparation, the right participants, and real follow-through on commitments. When the CBO's calendar starts filling with reactive noise instead of coaching and strategy, you raise the flag and fix it. You protect the CBO's most valuable asset: time.

Information Synthesis

The CBO needs to make fast, high-quality decisions. That requires the right information at the right time -- synthesized, not dumped. You will pull data and insight from across the franchise, filter the noise, elevate the signal, and deliver decision-ready packages. You will prepare the CBO for Board presentations, executive reviews, and Diamond partnership conversations. You will know what is happening across the franchise before anyone has to tell you.

Enterprise Integration

You will serve as the CBO's bridge into enterprise-level initiative governance. The COO runs the Program and Strategy Office that governs the enterprise's strategic imperatives. You ensure community banking priorities are represented, that capacity conflicts are surfaced early, and that the CBO is never blindsided by enterprise decisions that affect the franchise. You attend the Community Bank Business Unit Review Meeting and carry the CBO's perspective with credibility.

What This Looks Like Day to Day

No two days are the same. That is the point. On any given day you might be preparing the CBO for a Board presentation, tracking down why a cross-functional initiative has stalled, sitting in on a regional performance review to capture follow-up items, coordinating a community bank launch timeline across five functional leaders, synthesizing credit and financial data into a decision brief, or flagging an emerging issue that nobody else has connected yet.

You operate at the intersection of strategy and execution. You think in systems -- understanding how a decision in lending affects retail delivery, how a talent gap in one region creates risk patterns the CBO needs to see, how an enterprise technology initiative will hit the community banks. You move fast, but you think clearly. You are comfortable with ambiguity because you are the person who turns ambiguity into clarity for others.

You are in the room for the most important conversations in the franchise. You are trusted with sensitive information. You represent the CBO when the CBO cannot be present. That requires judgment, discretion, and the ability to know when to act and when to escalate.

Additional Duties and Responsibilities

Dresses professionally.
Recommends to supervisor possible methods to improve department.
Completes all required compliance exams on a yearly basis.
Adherence to all First United Policies and Procedures.
Performs other related duties as required and assigned.

Employee Specifications

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. Reasonable accommodations may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform the essential functions.

Who You Are

You are wired to drive results through people. You are naturally persuasive and build trust quickly -- not because you tell people what to do, but because you make them better at what they already do. You connect with leaders at every level and they take your calls because working with you makes things easier, faster, and clearer.

You are impatient with inefficiency but disciplined about how you fix it. You see the gap between where things are and where they should be, and you close it. You do not wait to be asked. You anticipate what the CBO needs before the CBO asks for it. You read a room, sense the real issue behind the surface conversation, and act on it.

You thrive on pace and variety. The idea of doing the same thing every day would make you crazy. You want a role where every week brings new challenges, where you are constantly learning the business at a deeper level, and where your work has visible, measurable impact on the franchise.

You are analytical -- you want the data before you form the opinion. But you are not paralyzed by it. You synthesize quickly, form a view, and move. You are comfortable making a recommendation even when the information is incomplete, because you understand that speed with 80% of the picture beats perfection that arrives too late.

You are competitive. You want to win. But you define winning as the franchise winning -- not yourself. The best Chief of Staff is invisible when things go well and indispensable when things get hard. You find satisfaction in making the system work, not in being the center of attention.

You carry yourself with the confidence to push back on senior leaders when timelines slip, but the emotional intelligence to do it in a way that strengthens the relationship rather than creating resentment. You are direct without being abrasive. You are urgent without being anxious. You are relentless without being exhausting.

What You Bring

Experience

Significant experience in a fast-paced operating environment -- banking, financial services, consulting, or a complex multi-unit business. You have been close enough to the P&L to understand how decisions create value. You have led cross-functional work and influenced leaders who do not report to you.

Capabilities

Exceptional analytical skills paired with the ability to synthesize complexity into clear, actionable insight. Strong written and verbal communication. Ability to build trust rapidly across all levels. Comfortable operating with ambiguity and moving at speed. Naturally organized without being bureaucratic.

What Will Set You Apart

You have a track record of making complex organizations move faster. You have operated in the space between strategy and execution and you know how to close the gap. People you have worked with describe you as the person who gets things done and makes everyone around them better. You are energized by operating at the center of a high-performing leadership team.

What Will Not Work

Someone who needs a defined playbook to operate. Someone who waits to be told what to do. Someone who confuses process management with leadership. Someone who accumulates informal power rather than distributing it. Someone who needs credit for every win. This role requires ego discipline -- the CBO and the functional leaders get the spotlight; you make the spotlight possible.

Why This Role Matters

The community banking franchise is the heart of First United. It operates across communities in Oklahoma and Texas, serving families, businesses, and nonprofits through empowered local teams led by Community Bank Presidents who own their P&L and make decisions close to the customer.

The CBO is responsible for making this entire system work -- growth, talent, culture, risk, execution, and integration with the enterprise. The Chief of Staff is the force multiplier that makes the CBO's impact possible at scale. Without this role, the CBO absorbs the coordination burden and the franchise slows down. With this role, the CBO's priorities move with discipline, the functional team operates as one system, and the franchise executes with the speed and coherence its communities deserve.

This is a career-defining role for someone who wants to understand how a complex, purpose-driven enterprise actually works -- from the Board room to the banking center. The exposure is extraordinary. The pace is fast. The impact is real.

NOTE: This job description is not intended to be all-inclusive. Employee may perform other related duties as assigned by supervisor to meet the ongoing needs of the organization.

All Locations:

Plano-Parkwood

If any applicant is unable to complete an application or respond to a job opening because of a disability, please email us at [email protected] for assistance.

First United is an Equal Opportunity Employer. To the extent required by Federal or State law, First United does not discriminate in employment opportunities or practices on the basis of race, color, religion, sex, national origin, or any other characteristic protected by law.