The Senior Core Systems Lead is the senior technical individual contributor for the credit union’s core systems ecosystem. The role administers and improves Jack Henry Symitar and related platforms, leads core-native implementations and releases, represents Core Operations on projects involving core integration, and builds the documentation and operating discipline needed for a scalable and resilient function.
The position begins with hands-on technical execution under the Director of Core Operations and is expected to grow into independent ownership of releases, upgrades, routine vendor relationships, implementations, and delegated operational decisions. The role progressively serves as the primary technical and operational backup to the Director.
Duties & Responsibilities
Core Systems Leadership
- Administer, monitor, troubleshoot, and optimize Symitar, Synergy, ARCU, SymXchange, SymForm/document technologies, processing schedules, interfaces, and related services.
- Maintain enough hands-on proficiency to develop or modify moderate PowerOns, reports, extracts, forms, interfaces, and automations; review and validate work performed by vendors and consultants.
- Identify root causes, technical debt, unsupported practices, single points of failure, and opportunities to improve reliability, automation, supportability, and member or employee experience.
Implementation and Release Management
- Lead core-native implementations, releases, upgrades, enhancements, integrations, and optimization initiatives.
- Coordinate requirements, impact analysis, testing, business validation, deployment, communications, rollback planning, production validation, and post-implementation review.
- Represent Core Operations as the core SME and integration lead on enterprise projects involving Alkami, MeridianLink, Data & AI, CRM, fraud, onboarding, and other connected platforms.
Documentation and Operational Resiliency
- Own the organization and maintenance of core architecture, configuration, processing, interface, vendor, testing, release, troubleshooting, recovery, and operational documentation.
- Build procedures, runbooks, inventories, checklists, decision records, and cross-training materials that reduce tribal knowledge and enable qualified backup coverage.
- Participate in incident response, business continuity, disaster recovery, security reviews, change control, off-hours maintenance, and eventually the on-call rotation.
Business Partnership and Continuous Improvement
- Regularly engage department leaders and subject-matter experts to understand needs, gather requirements, identify opportunities, and shape practical solutions.
- Translate business needs into configuration, integration, automation, reporting, workflow, training, vendor, or process recommendations while setting realistic expectations for scope, risk, and timing.
- Participate in the Symitar/core roadmap and promote effective use of existing capabilities before recommending new technology or custom development.
Vendor and Consultant Coordination
- Manage day-to-day Jack Henry and other core vendor relationships, including support cases, troubleshooting, commitments, testing, scheduling, and follow-through.
- Participate in solution evaluation and vendor selection; advise on technical fit, implementation complexity, operational impact, risk, supportability, and expected value.
- Help scope outside work, review deliverables, require documentation and knowledge transfer, and reduce unnecessary consultant dependency while using specialized expertise appropriately.
