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Manager of Enterprise Applications

  • Chicago, IL
  • Information Technology

Position: Manager of Enterprise Applications
Industry: Credit Union / Financial Services
Location: Remote – Approved States Only
Employment Type: Full-Time
Work Authorization: Must be legally authorized to work in the United States without current or future employment sponsorship


Overview
The Manager of Enterprise Applications will lead the strategy, delivery, operations, and continuous improvement of the Credit Union's business-critical enterprise application portfolio. This includes the core banking environment, CRM, Robotic Process Automation (RPA), debit and credit card integrations, OnBase, SharePoint, DocuSign, Microsoft business applications, user interfaces, and the integrations and dependencies connecting these platforms.
This is an execution-oriented leadership role. The successful candidate must be able to move beyond developing strategies and roadmaps to delivering solutions and automations into production that improve the way the Credit Union operates. This individual will establish clear accountability across the Enterprise Applications team, strengthen relationships with business stakeholders, remove delivery roadblocks, and ensure technology initiatives progress from business need through design, testing, deployment, adoption, and production support.
The Manager will also own the operational health and resiliency of the enterprise application portfolio, including service-level performance, access governance, security and risk controls, vendor performance, business continuity, disaster recovery, and cross-training of critical technical knowledge.
Success requires someone who can simultaneously lead people, understand technology, influence senior business leaders, manage vendors, and create a culture where the Enterprise Applications team is measured by what it successfully delivers into production and the business outcomes those solutions produce.

Purpose:
Lead the technology organization responsible for applications that sit at the center of the Credit Union's member and employee experience. The team's work directly affects core banking operations, card services, customer relationship management, document management, workflow automation, and the ability of business teams to serve members efficiently and reliably.
This role provides broad ownership across a diverse enterprise application portfolio rather than responsibility for a single platform. The Manager will influence application strategy, automation, AI adoption, governance, resiliency, vendor strategy, team development, and technology investment while working directly with business and technology leadership.
This opportunity is designed for a technology leader who enjoys building strong teams and seeing solutions actually reach production. The role provides the opportunity to identify business problems, challenge existing processes, introduce automation and emerging technologies, and create measurable improvements rather than simply maintaining the status quo.

Objectives
1. Establish an Accountable, High-Performing Enterprise Applications Team. Within the first 90 days, assess the Enterprise Applications organization, clarify ownership across the core system, CRM, RPA, card integrations, content-management platforms, Microsoft business applications, interfaces, and other critical dependencies, and establish measurable expectations for delivery, production support, stakeholder responsiveness, and technical ownership. Identify critical knowledge gaps and implement cross-training and development plans that reduce key-person dependencies while giving team members opportunities to expand their capabilities. Establish a management cadence that provides visibility into priorities, commitments, risks, incidents, and delivery progress without creating unnecessary administrative overhead. Success will be measured by clear application ownership, improved accountability, increased cross-training, predictable execution, and stakeholder confidence in the team's ability to deliver.
2. Deliver and Deploy Business Automations into Production. Within the first six months, establish a repeatable process for identifying, prioritizing, designing, testing, deploying, and supporting automation opportunities across the Credit Union. Partner with business stakeholders to identify high-value manual processes and use RPA, Microsoft business applications, workflow technologies, APIs, integration capabilities, and other appropriate tools to create production-ready solutions. Ensure initiatives move beyond proof-of-concept or development status into controlled production deployment with appropriate security, testing, documentation, monitoring, ownership, and business adoption. Success will be measured by the number and quality of automations successfully deployed into production, adoption by business users, reliability after deployment, and demonstrated reductions in manual effort, processing time, errors, or operating friction.

3. Improve the Reliability and Resiliency of the Enterprise Application Portfolio. Within the first six months, establish a comprehensive understanding of the operational health, dependencies, risks, service levels, and recovery requirements of all critical enterprise applications. Prioritize and resolve recurring reliability issues, strengthen monitoring and escalation practices, and ensure enterprise applications and integrations consistently meet established service-level expectations. Work collaboratively with other IT teams to validate business continuity and disaster recovery capabilities for the Enterprise Applications portfolio and address material readiness gaps. Success will be measured by SLA performance, reduction in recurring incidents, improved recovery readiness, application availability, and increased confidence in the resiliency of business-critical technologies.

4. Establish and Execute an Enterprise Applications Roadmap Aligned with Business Priorities. Within the first 120 days, evaluate the current application portfolio and establish a prioritized roadmap connecting technology investments to Credit Union strategic and operational objectives. Assess application capabilities, technical debt, integration requirements, vendor performance, automation opportunities, security concerns, business needs, and emerging technologies to determine where the organization should maintain, enhance, integrate, automate, replace, or retire capabilities. Translate the roadmap into actionable initiatives with defined ownership, resource requirements, budgets, risks, dependencies, and expected business outcomes. Success will be measured by leadership alignment on priorities, approved and funded initiatives, predictable roadmap execution, and delivery of capabilities that measurably support business objectives.

5. Strengthen Application Governance, Security, and Vendor Accountability. During the first year, improve governance across enterprise applications by establishing clear expectations for access management, technical and administrative controls, vendor performance, change management, production readiness, and application ownership. Oversee the decentralized access governance framework to ensure appropriate security and functionality requirements are consistently implemented while partnering with IT and business leaders to balance member experience, operational needs, risk, and security. Establish meaningful vendor performance expectations and hold third parties accountable for service, delivery, cost, and contractual commitments. Success will be measured by improved governance compliance, timely remediation of identified risks, stronger vendor performance, effective access controls, and fewer preventable production or security issues.

Subtasks
1. Assess the Team, Application Portfolio, and Current Delivery Environment. During the first 30–60 days, conduct a structured assessment of the Enterprise Applications team, critical platforms, current initiatives, production issues, application dependencies, vendor relationships, service levels, governance practices, and business stakeholder expectations. Meet with business and technology leaders to understand where application delivery is working and where execution is stalled or failing. Identify the highest-priority operational and delivery risks and establish an initial action plan with clear owners and timelines. Success will be measured by stakeholder alignment around priorities and a documented, actionable view of the environment.

2. Establish Ownership, Operating Cadence, and Team Development. Within the first 90 days, define clear ownership and backup responsibilities across the core banking system, CRM, RPA, card integrations, OnBase, SharePoint, DocuSign, Microsoft business applications, interfaces, and other assigned technologies. Establish practical delivery and operational management routines covering production support, projects, incidents, risks, priorities, and stakeholder commitments. Develop cross-training and individual development plans that strengthen the team's technical depth and reduce critical dependencies. Success will be measured by clear accountability, improved visibility into commitments, stronger team capabilities, and reduced reliance on individual resources.

3. Build and Prioritize the Automation Pipeline. Within the first 90–120 days, partner with business stakeholders to identify manual, repetitive, error-prone, or high-friction processes that can be improved through automation. Evaluate opportunities based on business value, implementation complexity, risk, security, maintainability, and expected adoption, then create a prioritized delivery pipeline. Select appropriate technologies based on the business problem rather than forcing every opportunity onto a single platform. Success will be measured by an agreed automation backlog, clear business cases, assigned ownership, and movement of prioritized opportunities into active delivery.

4. Move Solutions from Design Through Production Deployment. Throughout the first year, personally drive execution of prioritized application enhancements and automation initiatives through requirements, design, configuration or development, testing, security review, deployment, adoption, monitoring, and production support. Remove technical and organizational roadblocks, coordinate dependencies across IT and business teams, and prevent projects from becoming stalled in prolonged analysis or proof-of-concept stages. Establish clear production-readiness criteria so solutions are secure, supportable, documented, and owned after launch. Success will be measured by reliable production deployments, stakeholder adoption, delivery predictability, and measurable improvements generated by deployed solutions.

5. Strengthen Application Reliability, Recovery, and Governance. Within the first six months, review SLA performance, recurring incidents, technical controls, access governance, business continuity, disaster recovery, and production support practices across the application portfolio. Prioritize material gaps according to business and security risk and coordinate remediation with Enterprise Applications, infrastructure, security, vendors, and other responsible teams. Ensure recovery requirements and critical application dependencies are reflected in the Credit Union's IT Disaster Recovery Plan. Success will be measured by reduced operational risk, improved service performance, validated recovery readiness, and closure of priority governance issues.

6. Manage the Roadmap, Budget, Vendors, and Executive Communication. Throughout the year, maintain a prioritized Enterprise Applications roadmap and translate it into appropriate operating and capital plans, resource requirements, vendor commitments, and measurable delivery outcomes. Evaluate third-party vendor performance and negotiate or escalate issues involving service, specifications, pricing, delivery, or technical capability when necessary. Provide business and technology leadership with concise reporting covering accomplishments, risks, investment requirements, application health, and upcoming decisions. Success will be measured by informed leadership decisions, effective resource allocation, stronger vendor accountability, and consistent execution against agreed priorities.

Ideal Candidate Profile
The strongest candidate will bring at least four years of successful technology leadership combined with meaningful experience in enterprise application planning, delivery, implementation, and production support. Experience in banking, credit unions, financial services, or another highly regulated environment is strongly preferred because the individual must balance innovation and delivery speed with security, resiliency, access governance, and operational risk.
The candidate does not need to be the deepest technical specialist in every platform. However, they must have enough breadth and technical judgment to lead teams responsible for core banking, CRM, RPA, debit and credit card integrations, content management, Microsoft business applications, interfaces, and other enterprise application dependencies.
The differentiator will be a demonstrated history of getting technology into production. Strong candidates should be able to provide specific examples of identifying business problems, selecting appropriate technologies, leading teams through implementation, overcoming delivery obstacles, deploying solutions or automations into production, and measuring the resulting business impact.
A bachelor's degree in a relevant technical, quantitative, finance, or business discipline—or equivalent related professional experience—is expected. At least one relevant technical certification, such as a Microsoft Azure, Data, Dynamics, or Security credential, and one industry certification such as ITIL, PMP, or Project+ are desired based on the organization's stated requirements.

Definition of Success
At the end of the first year, the Enterprise Applications organization is operating with greater accountability, stronger technical ownership, improved cross-training, and increased confidence from business stakeholders. Critical applications are stable and resilient, governance and recovery practices have improved, and leadership has a clear application roadmap aligned with Credit Union priorities.
Most importantly, the team has established a track record of delivering and deploying automations and application improvements into production. Business stakeholders can point to specific solutions that have eliminated manual work, improved processes, increased reliability, or enhanced the member and employee experience.
The Manager is recognized not simply as the person responsible for the application portfolio, but as the leader who turns business needs into secure, reliable, production-ready technology outcomes.