Senior Operations Officer

Job description

POSITION DESCRIPTION

The Senior Operations Officer (SOO) is a forward-thinking, highly organized, and strategically minded senior manager responsible for enterprise-wide leadership, governance, and performance of the Bank's core operational and servicing functions. Reporting to Director of Operations and Innovation , this role ensures operational excellence, regulatory compliance, risk discipline, and scalability across deposit operations, payments, loan servicing, and supporting infrastructure.

This role ensures that day-to-day execution is controlled, efficient, compliant and scalable, with a primary focus on sustaining a consistent control environment across front-to-back processes. The SOO ensures processes comply with the Bank's operational risk framework, control standards, and policy requirements by setting clear expectations for control performance, monitoring execution through key risk indicators and operational metrics, and driving timely mitigation of emerging risks before they become control failures, while continuously improving and innovating how operations are designed, monitored and governed.

GENERAL DESCRIPTION OF DUTIES

Operational Risk Control Environment (Primary Accountability) Own and maintain an effective, consistent operational control environment by ensuring day-to-day execution aligns with the Bank's operational risk framework, policies, and procedures. Oversee the creation and maintenance of standard operation procedures (SOPs) and playbooks. Define and enforce control standards for critical operational processes (e.g., payments, deposit operations, servicing, reconciliations, adjustments, and vendor-supported activities), including control ownership, frequency, evidence, and escalation thresholds. Champion standardization and automation of key controls. Maintain and/ or develop RACIs for all substantial functions. Ensure RACI responsibilities are in job descriptions, periodically reviewed for accuracy and appropriateness, and ensure training is provided to carry out roles within each function. Ensure controls are embedded in workflows (preventive first, detective second) and that control performance is monitored continuously. Establish an exception management and escalation model with clear owners and deadlines to ensure issues are identified early, triaged appropriately, corrected rapidly, and prevented from recurring. Partner with Risk, Compliance, Audit, and Information Security to align control expectations with regulatory requirements and industry best practices; ensure operational teams execute controls consistently and produce reliable evidence. Oversee operational loss event tracking, root cause analysis, and corrective action plans; ensure sustainable remediation with clear owners and due dates. Data Fluency, Measurement & Insight (KRIs / KPIs / Trends) Demonstrate strong data fluency and the ability to translate operational data into actionable insights that strengthen controls, reduce risk, and improve service outcomes. Define and govern an operational measurement system, including key performance indicators (KPIs), key risk indicators (KRIs), error rates, exception volumes, timeliness metrics, loss events, and rework drivers. Ensure KPI and KRI are reported upon timely in dashboards, available to leadership Develop and review recurring management reporting using bank available tools that highlight trends, emerging risk signals, and control performance (including leading indicators), and recommend specific risk mitigation actions. Reporting will be presented and discussed with Executive Leadership and Risk areas. Reporting will be developed in collaboration with the bank's Business Intelligence area. Proactively identify areas of increasing operational risk (e.g., rising exceptions, backlogs, repeat errors, vendor performance degradation) and implement controls or process changes to reduce exposure. Use metrics to prioritize automation, simplification, and modernization opportunities; validate changes improve control outcomes and do not introduce new risk. Enterprise Operations Leadership & Governance Set operational priorities and performance standards across Operations and Loan Servicing; ensure execution through senior operational leaders. Translate strategy into operational roadmaps with measurable outcomes; provide disciplined governance, status reporting, and risk/issue transparency. Serve as the executive escalation point for material operational issues, client-impacting events, and significant control breakdowns. Oversight of Banking Operations (via Operations Manager) Provide executive direction and oversight to the Operations Manager responsible for deposit operations, payments (ACH/wires/EFT), card services, ATM settlement, and related functions. Set expectations for high-risk transaction controls, exception handling, and operational quality; ensure processes are executed accurately and consistently. Drive automation and tools to monitor transaction flows, volumes and exceptions in near real-time; improve straight-through processing wherever practical Oversight of Loan Servicing Operations (via Loan Servicing Manager) Provide executive direction and oversight to the Loan Servicing Manager responsible for commercial, residential, and consumer loan servicing operations, including loan boarding and system setup, payment application, escrow administration, payoff processing, investor reporting and remittance, insurance tracking and collateral management. Execute efficiency and automation in the aforementioned functions. Ensure strong governance for monthly/quarterly reporting cycles to investors or agencies, portfolio reconciliations, variance analysis, remediation plans and training and competency of staff executing complex servicing processes. Ensure servicing controls and monitoring are consistently executed and aligned to policy and regulatory requirements; drive corrective actions for servicing errors and exceptions. Process Improvement, Automation & Change Risk Sponsor enterprise process improvements and automation initiatives; require risk assessment and control design for material process/system changes. Ensure operational readiness and control design for new products or features, system changes, migrations and integrations through appropriate testing, documentation, training, and post-implementation monitoring to sustain the control environment. Vendor, Financial & Resource Oversight Provide executive oversight of critical operational vendors and third-party performance; ensure service levels, controls, and contract obligations are met. Partner on budgeting, capacity planning, and resource allocation to maintain service levels and control performance. Develop and manage vendor scorecards for critical vendors. Hold relationship meetings and invite Executive stakeholders. Leadership Development & Accountability Lead and develop a high-performing operations governance team fostering accountability, transparency and collaboration with front-line and support functions; establish clear ownership for control execution and operational performance. Partner with leadership to develop a team structure and organizational hierarchy that empowers employees and promotes accountability, risk management, and task efficiencies. Promote a control by design and data-driven culture where teams anticipate risk rather than reacting to issues, and decisions are based on metrics, trends, and root cause discipline to prevent repeat issues and strengthen the risk culture.

EDUCATION

Bachelor's degree in Business, Finance, or related field required; advanced degree preferred.

EXPERIENCE REQUIRED

10+ years of progressive banking operations and/or loan servicing leadership experience, including multi-functional leadership and accountability for risk controls. Demonstrated ability to design, embed, and monitor controls within day-to-day operations; experience leading teams through operational risk mitigation, process improvement, and change management. Strong data fluency with the ability to define KPIs/KRIs, interpret trends, and translate insights into risk-reducing action.

Success Measures:

Staff and team development. Responsible for developing future leaders of the organization. Consistent control execution and sustained control environment (low repeat issues; timely, effective remediation) Reduced error rates, exceptions, rework, and operational loss events Improved KRIs and early identification of emerging operational risks Operational efficiency gains validated by measurable control and quality outcomes Strong operational reporting cadence and actionable insights to leadership Change Agent comfortable leading teams through change, process redesign, and system enhancements

DUTIES SUPERVISED

Banking Operations and Loan Servicing

POSITIONS SUPERVISED

Operations Manager and Loan Servicing Manager

DIGITAL LITERACY

The ability to use data, information, and communication technologies to find, evaluate, create, and communicate information, requiring both cognitive and technical skills Information, data, and content Teaching learning and self-development Communication, collaboration, and participation Digital identity, safety, and security Technical proficiency with all bank products Awareness and interest in new technology Creation, innovation, and research

Compensation:

Compensation is based on our market pay structures. However, individual salaries are determined by a variety of factors including, but not limited to business considerations, local market conditions, and internal equity, as well as candidate qualifications, such as skills, education, and experience. Ascend Bank is an equal opportunity employer and offers equal opportunity to all applicants for all positions without regard to race, color, religion, national origin, age, disability, and veteran status. Applicants requiring reasonable accommodation in the application process should notify Human Resources. Ascend Bank participates in E-Verify.

EOE/AA/M/F/D/V

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