Senior Core Systems Lead

First New York Federal Credit Union; Albany (CA); On-site; USD 120,000 - 180,000; Full time

Job summary

First New York Federal Credit Union is seeking a Senior Core Systems Lead to steward the credit union’s core platforms, including Jack Henry Symitar. The role focuses on administration, releases, and seamless vendor coordination to ensure a scalable, resilient core ecosystem.

You will advance from hands-on execution to independent ownership of releases, upgrades, and essential operational decisions, while mentoring teams and aligning core operations with business goals.

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree in IT, CS, IS, or related field; equivalent education and experience considered.
• 5+ years of experience supporting business-critical platforms, financial systems, core banking systems, or integrations.
• Jack Henry Symitar experience strongly preferred.
• Credit union experience and familiarity with EASE, Synergy, ARCU, SymXchange, SymForm, PowerOn/RepGen, OpCon, APIs, SQL, secure file transfer, or digital/origination integrations are valuable.
• Experience leading or coordinating implementations, upgrades, releases, integrations, and major system changes.
• Maintain strict confidentiality and comply with information-security, privacy, change-management, incident-response, and internal-control requirements.
• Support scheduled off-hours work and join the compensated on-call rotation when ready.

Responsibilities

• Administer, monitor, troubleshoot, and optimize Symitar, Synergy, ARCU, SymXchange, SymForm/document technologies, processing schedules, interfaces, and related services.
• Develop or modify PowerOns, reports, extracts, forms, interfaces, and automations; review vendor work.
• Identify root causes, technical debt, and opportunities to improve reliability and supportability.
• Lead core-native implementations, releases, upgrades, enhancements, integrations, and optimization initiatives.
• Coordinate requirements, testing, deployment, rollback planning, and post-implementation review.
• Represent Core Operations as SME on enterprise projects involving related platforms.
• Own documentation of core architecture, configuration, processing, and operational procedures.
• Build runbooks, checklists, and knowledge-transfer materials.

Skills

Systems thinking

Leadership

Documentation discipline

Ownership & judgment

Business partnership

Organization & leadership potential

Education

Bachelor’s degree in IT/CS/IS or related field

Tools

Jack Henry Symitar

EASE

Synergy

ARCU

SymXchange

SymForm

PowerOn/RepGen

OpCon

APIs

SQL

Secure file transfer

Job description

Description

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.

Requirements

• Bachelor’s degree in information technology, computer science, information systems, business technology, or a related field preferred; equivalent education and experience considered.
• Five or more years of progressively responsible experience supporting business-critical platforms, financial systems, core banking systems, enterprise applications, or integrations preferred.
• Jack Henry Symitar experience strongly preferred. Credit union experience and familiarity with EASE, Synergy, ARCU, SymXchange, SymForm, PowerOn/RepGen, OpCon, APIs, SQL, secure file transfer, or digital/origination integrations are valuable.
• Experience with another core banking platform may be considered with strong transferable technical, implementation, documentation, and organizational skills. Exceptional candidates without direct core experience may be considered when they demonstrate strong systems thinking and ability to learn complex financial-services platforms.
• Demonstrated experience leading or coordinating implementations, upgrades, releases, integrations, major system changes, vendors, and business stakeholders preferred.
• Maintain strict confidentiality and comply with all information-security, privacy, change-management, incident-response, vendor-management, and internal-control requirements.
• Support scheduled off-hours work and join the compensated on-call rotation after readiness is established.
• Additional duties as needed, role may evolve as organizational priorities, technologies, and regulatory expectations change.

Core Competencies

• Systems thinking and technical aptitude: understands dependencies, downstream effects, and root causes across platforms, data, processes, vendors, and business functions.
• Implementation leadership: converts objectives into structured plans, coordinates stakeholders and testing, maintains momentum, and follows through to validated completion.
• Documentation discipline: creates clear, accurate, usable, and maintainable documentation and treats knowledge transfer as a required deliverable.
• Ownership and judgment: proactively identifies risks and opportunities, takes responsibility for outcomes, and escalates appropriately.
• Business partnership and communication: gathers requirements, explains technical concepts clearly, and builds productive relationships across departments.
• Organization and leadership potential: balances operations and projects, influences without formal authority, shares knowledge, and grows into greater operational responsibility.

Success Measures

• Core systems documentation is organized, current, comprehensive, and usable by qualified backup personnel.
• Releases, upgrades, enhancements, and implementations follow predictable, documented, and repeatable practices.
• Core-native initiatives and core-related project work move faster with better visibility, accountability, and completion.
• Core Operations has reduced dependence on tribal knowledge, individual employees, and unnecessary outside consulting.
• Business departments receive effective consultation and practical solutions for core-related needs.
• The Director of Core Operations has dependable technical and operational backup coverage.

Work Schedule:

Monday-Friday, 8:15 a.m.-5:00 p.m.; additional hours as required

Work Location:

Fully On-Site