Senior Manager Enterprise Operations - Reconciliations (Hybrid)

First Citizens; Phoenix (AZ); Hybrid; USD 120,000 - 180,000; Full time

Job summary

First Citizens is seeking a Senior Operations Manager, Reconciliation, to lead end-to-end reconciliation for cash, clearing, suspense, and balance sheet accounts within a Large Financial Institution. The role partners across Finance, Operations, Technology, Risk, Compliance, and Audit to ensure robust controls and accurate financial reporting.

The ideal candidate will drive governance, control effectiveness, and continuous process improvement while guiding teams through daily, monthly, and

Qualifications

• Bachelor's Degree with 6+ years of experience in Operations and Leadership, or a High School Diploma/GED with 10+ years of relevant experience.
• Extensive banking/financial services experience is preferred.
• Strong understanding of account reconciliations, balance sheet controls, and financial reporting.
• Experience managing operational risk and regulatory control frameworks.
• Proven ability to lead cross-functional initiatives and influence senior stakeholders.

Responsibilities

• Lead reconciliation governance & control across cash, clearing, suspense, and balance sheet accounts.
• Manage daily, monthly, and quarterly reconciliation activities and production schedules.
• Identify, assess, and mitigate operational and regulatory risks; maintain audit-ready documentation.
• Drive continuous improvement, automation, and data analytics for reconciliation processes.
• Develop talent, create succession plans, and foster ownership and accountability.

Skills

Leadership

Data analytics

Regulatory knowledge

Cross-functional leadership

Process improvement

Stakeholder management

Education

Bachelor's Degree

High School Diploma or GED

Tools

BlackLine

Job description

Overview

This is a hybrid role with the expectation that time working will regularly take place inside and outside of a company office in Phoenix, AZ or Raleigh, NC.

The Senior Operations Manager, Reconciliation is responsible for leading and overseeing end-to-end reconciliation operations across cash, clearing, suspense, and balance sheet accounts within a Large Financial Institution (LFI). This role ensures compliance with enterprise reconciliation policies, regulatory expectations, risk management frameworks, and financial control standards.

The leader will drive operational excellence, governance, control effectiveness, and continuous process improvement while ensuring timely identification, investigation, escalation, and resolution of reconciliation breaks and aged items. The role requires strong partnership across Finance, Operations, Technology, Risk, Compliance, Internal Audit, and business stakeholders to maintain a robust control environment and support accurate financial reporting.

Responsibilities & Qualifications

Duties & Responsibilities:

Reconciliation Governance & Control

• Lead reconciliation functions supporting cash, clearing, suspense, and balance sheet account certification activities.
• Ensure adherence to LFI standards, regulatory expectations, and enterprise reconciliation policies.
• Maintain a strong first-line control environment focused on financial integrity, risk reduction, and issue prevention.
• Oversee account ownership, reconciliation completeness, certification quality, and attestation processes.
• Establish and monitor key risk indicators (KRIs), KPIs, and operational risk metrics.
• Ensure compliance with policies governing unreconciled balances, aged items, suspense accounts, and exception management.

Operational Leadership

• Manage teams responsible for daily, monthly, and quarterly reconciliation activities.
• Drive execution of reconciliation production schedules and service-level commitments.
• Ensure timely investigation and resolution of reconciliation breaks and outstanding exceptions.
• Implement standardized operating procedures and best practices across reconciliation processes.
• Lead workload management, capacity planning, and staffing strategies to support business growth and increasing complexity.

Risk & Regulatory Management

• Identify, assess, and mitigate operational, financial, and regulatory risks associated with reconciliation activities.
• Ensure effective issue management, root cause analysis, corrective action plans, and sustainable remediation.
• Partner with First Line Risk, Compliance, Audit, and Finance teams during reviews and examinations.
• Maintain audit-ready documentation and evidence supporting reconciliation controls.
• Support regulatory inquiries, internal audits, external audits, and risk assessments.

Aged Items & Exception Management

• Establish governance standards for tracking, escalating, and resolving aged reconciliation items.
• Ensure ownership and accountability for long-outstanding breaks and unreconciled balances.
• Monitor adherence to aging thresholds, escalation protocols, and resolution targets.
• Challenge and validate exception rationale to ensure balances remain appropriate and supported.
• Drive root cause elimination to reduce recurring reconciliation exceptions.

Technology & Process Improvement

• Partner with Technology teams to improve reconciliation platforms, automation capabilities, and reporting tools.
• Lead initiatives focused on straight-through processing, workflow optimization, and manual effort reduction.
• Utilize data analytics to identify trends, risks, opportunities, and process inefficiencies.
• Champion continuous improvement methodologies that enhance control effectiveness and operational efficiency.
• Support implementation of strategic reconciliation and finance transformation initiatives.

Leadership & Talent Development

• Build and develop high-performing teams focused on accountability, collaboration, and execution excellence.
• Coach managers and individual contributors through performance management and career development.
• Foster a culture of ownership, risk awareness, and continuous improvement.
• Create succession plans and talent strategies aligned with organizational objectives.
• Lead organizational change initiatives across operations and reconciliation functions.

Qualifications:
Minimum Required Education and Experience: Bachelor's Degree and 6 years' experience OR High School Diploma or GED/Equivalent and 10 years' experience in Operations and Leadership

The ideal candidate will have:

• Extensive experience within large banking, brokerage, asset management, or financial services environments.
• Strong understanding of account reconciliations, balance sheet controls, and financial reporting processes.
• Demonstrated experience managing operational risk and regulatory control frameworks.
• Proven ability to lead cross-functional initiatives and influence senior stakeholders.

Additional preferred qualifications:

• Master's degree, MBA, CPA, CMA, or equivalent professional designation.
• Experience supporting Large Financial Institution (LFI) control frameworks.
• Knowledge of SOX controls, risk governance, and regulatory expectations.
• Experience leading enterprise reconciliation modernization or transformation programs.
• Expertise with reconciliation platforms, workflow tools, and data analytics solutions.
• Experience working with reconcilitation tools, such as Blackline or similar

Additional Information

Benefits are an integral part of total rewards and First Citizens Bank is committed to providing a competitive, thoughtfully designed and quality benefits program to meet the needs of our associates. More information can be found at https://jobs.firstcitizens.com/benefits.