[Hiring] Technical Lead - Payments @Servus Credit Union

Role Description

The Technical Lead – Payments is a senior-level technical leadership role accountable for the design, delivery, integration, and ongoing evolution of enterprise payment platforms and services. The role provides hands-on technical leadership for systems supporting Canadian payment rails and emerging payment capabilities, ensuring platforms are secure, resilient, scalable, and compliant with regulatory and industry standards.

The Technical Lead – Payments acts as a key technology partner to Payment Product and Payment Operations, collaborating early and continuously to understand business needs, operational challenges, and product objectives. This role is accountable for helping define, shape, and recommend fit-for-purpose technology solutions that address business problems, enable product capabilities, and support efficient, scalable payment operations. The Technical Lead ensures that business requirements are translated into clear technical designs that balance member experience, operational efficiency, risk, and long-term platform sustainability.

A core focus of this position is advancing payments maturity—from dependable batch-based processing toward always-on, ISO 20022–aligned, and real-time payment capabilities—while recognizing the shared-service, vendor, and scale considerations typical of a credit union environment.

What You'll be Doing:

• Payments Platform Leadership:
  • Provide technical leadership for systems supporting Canadian payment rails including Interac e-Transfer®, Interac Debit, EFT (ACSS), Real-Time Rail (RTR), and cheque imaging, in alignment with Payments Canada rules and standards.
  • Lead design decisions that ensure high availability, low latency, resiliency, and scalability for member-facing and back-office payment services.
  • Own technical oversight for payment processing flows including initiation, validation, clearing, settlement, reconciliation, returns, reversals, and exception handling.
• Business and Product Partnership:
  • Partner closely with Payment Product and Payment Operations to understand business goals, regulatory drivers, and operational pain points, and to jointly define technology solutions that meet business needs and requirements.
  • Translate product concepts, operational needs, and regulatory requirements into clear technical options, solution designs, and delivery approaches.
  • Act as a trusted advisor to Product and Operations, providing input on feasibility, trade-offs, risk, cost, and long-term implications of technology decisions.
  • Support the evolution of payment products and services by identifying technology opportunities that improve member experience, operational efficiency, and resilience.
• System Integration and Modernization:
  • Lead integrations with Payments Canada–operated systems (ACSS, Lynx, RTR), Interac services, and external payment gateways.
  • Drive adoption and coexistence strategies for ISO 20022 messaging, supporting migration, translation, and backward compatibility across payment ecosystems.
  • Modernize legacy payment services to support 24x7 operations, improved observability, and future payment innovation while reducing technical debt.
• CI/CD, DevSecOps, and Reliability:
  • Lead and continuously improve CI/CD pipelines for payment platforms, enabling frequent, low-risk deployments while maintaining strict security and compliance standards.
  • Ensure strong alignment with DevSecOps principles, including secure coding, automated testing, vulnerability management, and audit readiness.
  • Champion system observability, including monitoring, alerting, logging, and performance metrics, with appropriate handling of sensitive and regulated data.
• Risk, Compliance, and Fraud Enablement:
  • Partner closely with Payment Operations, Risk, Fraud, and Compliance teams to ensure payment platforms support AML/ATF controls, fraud detection, real-time monitoring, and regulatory reporting requirements.
  • Ensure solutions meet Canadian regulatory expectations, clearing rules, settlement timelines, and data residency requirements.
• Team Leadership and Delivery Excellence:
  • Provide technical leadership and mentorship to software developers, systems analysts, and QA analysts, promoting best practices in secure coding, performance optimization, and resilient design.
  • Collaborate with Agile Delivery Leads, Partners, Vendors to ensure payment platform priorities, technical health, and operational risks are effectively represented and prioritized in the backlog.
  • Act as a senior technical escalation point for complex payment issues, incidents, and architectural decisions.
  • Maintain strong Vendor relationships focused on supporting Servus’s needs within the broader payment ecosystem.

Qualifications

• 6+ years of experience in a senior software engineering or technical lead role supporting complex, mission-critical platforms.
• Completed a relevant certificate, diploma, degree, or professional designation; an equivalent combination of education and experience will be considered.
• Demonstrated experience leading technical teams and delivering high-availability systems.
• Knowledge of relevant legislation and regulations related to privacy, PII, and anti-money laundering.

Requirements

• Hands-on experience with the Canadian payments ecosystem, including Interac services, Payments Canada, and major payment gateways.
• Strong understanding of retail and wholesale payment flows, clearing & settlement cycles, reconciliation, and exception handling.
• Experience supporting both real-time and batch payment processing models.
• Deep knowledge of modern application development and integration patterns, including APIs, microservices, and event-driven architectures.
• Strong experience with source control (Git) and CI/CD platforms such as Azure DevOps or GitLab.
• Proficiency in common enterprise programming languages and data technologies (e.g., Java, C#, SQL, JavaScript/TypeScript).
• Understanding of when and how low-code platforms (e.g., OutSystems) can be leveraged for high-velocity, high-quality delivery.
• Strong experience working in Agile delivery environments using tools such as Azure DevOps, JIRA, and Confluence.
• Excellent analytical, problem-solving, and communication skills.
• Proven ability to work effectively with vendors and external partners.

Benefits

• Competitive compensation including performance-based incentive pay and profit share.
• Training & Development Opportunities.
• Career Advancement Potential.
• Flexible work options.
• Meaningful work towards individual and corporate goals.
• Opportunities to get involved and give back through an employee volunteer program.