Manager, Client Delivery Experience - CDE Project Management Office

Join the People Helping People

Velera is the nation’s premier payments credit union service organization (CUSO) and an integrated fintech solutions provider. The company serves more than 4,000 financial institutions throughout North America, operating with velocity to help our clients keep pace with the rapid momentum of change and fuel growth in the new era of financial services. Our purpose: We accelerate partners’ success through innovative financial technology solutions and inspired service.

The Opportunity:

The Manager, Client Delivery Experience will lead a group of technical and professional staff in a complex, client facing projects to deliver high quality card processing projects, conversions, parameter configurations, set-up of requested solutions, and execution of quality assurance testing. This position will define requirements and processes for implementation of enhancements and new product/services supported on all processing systems and subsystems. The Manager will support the transformation of the organization to deliver quality projects with measurable and positive impacts on the client experience. The Manager, Client Delivery Experience will assist Sales as needed in the proposal process, which may include on-site presentations of services to potential customers; and interact with CEOs and senior client executives to ensure high levels of client satisfaction. The Manager will assume responsibility for all client projects in assigned area, which may include high-visibility strategic conversions, product implementations; and act as an escalation point of contact for critical issues to ensure quality service and positive relationships between Velera, financial institutions, and partners. This position will provide management leadership and supervision for employees focusing on project implementation using standardized project management processes, tools, and best practices. Platform and processing parameter configurations present significant risk for operational and revenue loss to Velera and our clients. Provide oversight and leadership of client facing teams in support of all debit and credit platform configurations for multiple vendor processing platforms in accordance with custom client requirements, SLAs, and change management practices to protect from operational loss, revenue loss, and negative cardholder impact.

Day in the Life:

• Manage highly trained, client facing project management, and/or technical staff responsible for deploying cross functional teams to deliver high quality project implementations.
• Oversee the department’s mission to assist clients in defining system requirements for implementation of products/services, including system conversions, and complex mergers; and ensuring successful deployment.
• Manage project implementation staff to assist business and operating units to define product/service system requirements, develop project plans and technical procedures to support implementation on supported processing systems and subsystems, to ensure customer satisfaction. Support product and marketing staff during sales cycle, assisting in identifying and providing for customer needs.
• Forecast, recruit, and develop sufficient skilled resources to meet area requirements. Assign resources to project requests based upon established priority and support of other business units.
• Guide procedural workflow, establish project management principles and timeline management, enhance inter-departmental communication and relations, and instill accountability, responsibility, and leadership skills in staff members.
• Promote operational efficiencies. Identify, evaluate, and promote enhancements to increase efficiencies and provide service at scale. Assist in department’s strategic planning and provide input, recommendations, and direction for process improvements
• Develop and manage operational plan for the department. Develop department strategies and execute defined strategic projects.
• Monitor progress of all change events and assist in resolution of issues or delays impacting successful conclusion of projects. Maintain updates on enhancements and changes to processing systems and subsystems as they impact team processes.
• Develop and ensure compliance to Velera project management processes. Evaluate completed tasks to review variations from established processes and identify opportunities for continous process improvement.
• Attend offsite meetings at client locations, other Velera locations, and regional locations of Velera partner vendors as needed.
• Provide pre-sale cycle support and consulting including travel to client locations for presentations to senior client management team. Provide ad hoc technical support and consulting to other Velera areas.
• Maintain KPIs and OKRs ensuring delivery of high-quality project results, utilizing proactive measures to insure smooth implementation.
• Provide after-hours on-call support for project installations as needed.
• Maintain thorough knowledge of industry-standard best practices, processes, data mining, and reporting tools as it pertains to PMO project management/deployment of all supported areas of operations.
• Demonstrate understanding of complex business processes and systems; maintain a thorough knowledge of processing platforms, interdepenencies and technology capabilities.
• Collaborate with senior leadership to align on organizaitonal goals, key initiatives, trends and strategic objectives.
• Support Go-To-Market team collaboration meetings to identify business unit impacts and capture resource estimates.
• Create department performance standards and procedures supporting business unit objectives; evaluate and provide feedback on individual and team performance for productivity, accuracy, timeliness, losses and rejects; review staffing ratios for equitable distribution of workload.
• Establish departmental reports and procedures that comply with established contractual requirements for all client and business partner relationships. Manage, monitor, and continually seek ways to improve reporting requirements. Identify any Service Level Agreement (SLA) variances and communicate such variances to appropriate team members.
• Analyze and evaluate project requirements and scheduling, ensuring all necessary documentation and resource requirements are defined and met.
• Evaluate requests and support the prioritization of project requests including identification of risks and dependencies, and demonstrating an understanding of the client’s strategic goals.
• Manage internal and external stakeholder relationships, including vendor relationships.
• Manage and refine non-standard project requests, ensuring proper commercialization and demand foundation is built within the Client Delivery Experience team.
• Oversee testing and issue resolution for new product releases that impact operational processes.
• Conduct issue and problem resolution and consulting for unexpected outcomes of project or solution implementations.
• Provide direction and leadership to staff; guide, coach, mentor and develop staff ensuring compliance with processes and procedures.
• Handle interviewing, hiring, promotions, transfers, performance appraisals, compensation, counseling and termination of staff as required.
• Develop and maintain staff by establishing the necessary training and leadership that will foster internal growth, advancement and maintain morale.
• Direct staff in the development of action plans aimed to increase employee engagement
• Direct staff to ensure that all duties are performed according to department performance standards.
• Perform other duties as assigned.

Qualifications:

• Bachelor’s Degree in related field and/or equivalent combination of experience and education required.
• Eight (8) years in credit/debit card and/or financial industry related experience required, inclusive of five (5) years in client project and/or conversion related experience.
• Five (5) years management experience preferred. 
• Working knowledge of card processing systems preferred. 
• Ability to lead large cross-functional teams and engage with senior leadership both internally and externally.
• Ability to analyze and assess business impacts
• Demonstrated presentation skills and comfort presenting to all levels of leadership within the organization.
• Ability to problem solve and remove barriers.
• Ability to deliver objectives within established timelines.
• Ability to lead team members in planning, tracking and implementation of complex projects in a fast-paced environment; while managing multiple priorities/initiatives and meeting deadlines. 
• Understanding of Six Sigma and project management best practices to implement, monitor, and control changes to existing processes and procedures in order to attain high levels of quality and client satisfaction. 
• Thorough understanding of card payment industry, various processing systems, and/or related in-house applications. 
• Ability to read and understand legal/compliance contractual requirements and implement within the confines of the agreement.
• Demonstrated analytical and quantitative skills. 
• Proficiency in standard Microsoft Office Suite such as Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Teams etc.
• Ability to travel up to 50% or as needed.
• Ability to maintain confidentiality of materials handled. 

About Velera

At Velera, inclusion isn’t an initiative – it’s how we work. Guided by a people‑helping‑people philosophy, we cultivate a culture where every employee feels valued, respected and empowered to do their best work. We’re committed to building a diverse workforce and fostering meaningful connection across our teams. Through a remote‑first, flexible environment, we prioritize psychological safety, wellbeing and belonging so individuals and teams can collaborate to thrive. Together, we’re shaping a new era of secure, innovative solutions for the clients and communities we serve. Learn more about what it’s like to work at Velera.

Pay Equity

$105,600.00 - $134,600.00 - $163,600.00 of salary range

The anticipated hiring range for this position is typically between the minimum and midpoint of the posted salary range; however, actual compensation may vary based on a variety of factors, including relevant experience, skills and qualifications, education, internal equity, and overall business and budget considerations. Velera is committed to providing competitive compensation that reflects both individual role and responsibilities, individual performance, and market.

Great Work/Life Benefits!

• Competitive wages

• Medical with telemedicine

• Dental and Vision

• Basic and Optional Life Insurance

• Paid Time Off (PTO)

• Maternity, Parental, Family Care

• Community Volunteer Time Off

• 12 Paid Holidays

• Company Paid Disability Insurance

• 401k (with employer match)

• Health Savings Accounts (HSA) with company provided contributions

• Flexible Spending Accounts (FSA)

• Supplemental Insurance

• Mental Health and Well-being: Employee Assistance Program (EAP)

• Tuition Reimbursement

• Wellness program

• Benefits are subject to generally applicable eligibility, waiting period, contribution, and other requirements and conditions

Velera is an Equal Opportunity Employer. We consider applicants without regard to race, color, religion, age, national origin, ancestry, ethnicity, gender, gender identity, gender expression, sexual orientation, marital status, veteran status, disability, genetic information, citizenship status, or membership in any other group protected by federal, state or local law.

Velera is an Equal Opportunity Employer that complies with the laws and regulations set forth in the following "EEO is the Law" Poster. Velera will not discharge or in any other manner discriminate against employees or applicants because they have inquired about, discussed, or disclosed their own pay or the pay of another employee or applicant. However, employees who have access to the compensation information of other employees or applicants as a part of their essential job functions cannot disclose the pay of other employees or applicants to individuals who do not otherwise have access to compensation information, unless the disclosure is (a) in response to a formal complaint or charge, (b) in furtherance of an investigation, proceeding, hearing, or action, including an investigation conducted by the employer, or (c) consistent with the legal duty to furnish information.

Velera is an E-Verify Employer. Review the E-Verify Poster here.  For information regarding your Right To Work, please click here.

This role is currently not eligible for sponsorship.

As an ongoing commitment to reasonably accommodate individuals with disabilities please contact a recruiter at [email protected] for assistance.