Payments Technical Project Manager
Job Type: Contract
Contract Duration: 12 months, expectation to extend.
Location: Downtown Toronto
WFH/Office/Hybrid: hybrid. 1-2 days per week in office.
Hours: 37.5hrs/week
Pay rate: $80 - $90/hr
Your New Company
One of our global banking clients is hiring for Technical Project Manager with extensive payments domain knowledge and experience.
Your New Role
The role is part of the ISO 20022 project within the Global Markets team. The Technical Project Manager will lead the delivery of complex payments technology initiatives from concept through implementation and post-release stabilisation. The role will coordinate business, technology, operations, risk, compliance and third-party teams to deliver secure, resilient and customer-focused payment solutions. The successful candidate will combine strong project leadership with a practical understanding of payment processing, systems integration, regulatory controls and operational readiness.
What You Need to Do
Delivery leadership
- Own the end-to-end delivery plan, including scope, milestones, dependencies, resources and budget.
- Establish governance, reporting and decision-making forums.
- Manage risks, assumptions, issues and dependencies, ensuring timely escalation and resolution.
- Coordinate delivery across business, technology, operations, architecture, testing, security and control functions.
- Track progress against agreed outcomes, timelines and quality standards.
- Manage change control and ensure that scope changes are assessed and approved appropriately.
Payments technology delivery
- Lead projects involving payment processing, clearing and settlement, payment platforms, APIs, messaging, reconciliation and operational tooling.
- Work with architects and engineering teams to understand system interfaces, integration patterns and technical dependencies.
- Support delivery of domestic, cross-border, real-time and account-to-account payment capabilities where relevant.
- Coordinate technology changes involving payment gateways, fraud and sanctions screening, customer channels, data platforms and third-party providers.
- Ensure that payment exceptions, investigations, returns, repairs and reconciliation requirements are considered in the solution design.
Testing and implementation
- Define and manage the test strategy, including system integration, end-to-end, performance, resilience, security and user acceptance testing.
- Coordinate test environments, data, defect management and business sign-off.
- Ensure payment volumes, message formats, settlement behaviour and reconciliation are tested appropriately.
- Lead implementation planning, including cutover, communications, rollback and contingency arrangements.
- Manage post-implementation review, hypercare and transition into business-as-usual support.
Stakeholder and supplier management
- Build effective relationships with senior stakeholders and delivery teams across multiple functions and locations.
- Translate complex technical information into clear business impact, options and recommendations.
- Manage vendors and third-party dependencies, including deliverables, milestones, risks and commercial obligations.
- Facilitate workshops and resolve conflicting priorities through evidence-based decision-making.
- Provide concise, accurate and timely status reporting.
What You'll Need to Succeed:
Essential
- Proven experience delivering complex technology projects, preferably in financial services or payments.
- Strong understanding of project delivery methodologies, including Agile, waterfall or hybrid approaches.
- Experience managing cross-functional teams and delivery partners without direct line authority.
- Experience managing delivery risks, issues, dependencies, governance and senior reporting.
- Strong understanding of operational readiness, production implementation and post-release support.
- Excellent written, verbal and stakeholder communication skills.
- Ability to prioritise effectively, make clear recommendations and drive issues to resolution.
Desirable
- Experience with domestic or cross-border payments, clearing and settlement.
- Knowledge of ISO 20022, SWIFT, real-time payments, payment gateways or account-to-account payments.
- Experience with fraud detection, sanctions screening, reconciliation or payment investigations.
- Exposure to cloud platforms, microservices, event-driven architecture or modernisation programmes.
- Experience working with major technology suppliers or payment processors.
- Relevant project or delivery qualification, such as PRINCE2, PMP, AgilePM or Scrum certification.
Key competencies
- Delivery ownership: takes responsibility for outcomes and follows actions through to completion.
- Technical curiosity: understands enough detail to ask effective questions and challenge assumptions.
- Customer focus: recognises the impact of failed, delayed or duplicated payments.
- Risk awareness: balances delivery pace with security, resilience and control requirements.
- Collaboration: works constructively across business, technology, operations and control functions.
- Influencing: gains alignment and resolves issues without relying solely on formal authority.
- Decision-making: provides clear options and recommendations based on evidence.
- Resilience: remains organised and composed during delivery pressure or incidents.
What You'll Get in Return:
You will have the opportunity to work with a talented team of professionals in a dynamic and supportive environment. Client is offering competitive pay rate, and extension possibility.
What You Need to Do Now:
If you're interested in this role, click 'apply now' to forward an up-to-date copy of your CV, or call us now.
If this job isn't quite right for you, but you are looking for a new position, please contact us for a confidential discussion on your career.
This posting is for an existing vacancy with the organization.
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