Senior Project Manager - Payments

East West Bank; Pasadena (CA); On-site; USD 120,000 - 140,000; Full time

Job summary

East West Bank in Pasadena, CA is seeking a Senior Project Manager - Enterprise Payments to lead complex payment initiatives across the bank. The initial focus is the Cross Border Payment Program spanning U.S. and Asia, coordinating business, operations, and technology stakeholders.

The ideal candidate has 10+ years in project or program management within banking or payments, with governance, executive communication, and Asia-based collaboration experience; Mandarin is strongly preferred.

Qualifications

• 10+ years of project or program management experience in banking, payments, or regulated environments.
• Experience leading large, cross-functional initiatives with multiple business and technology teams.
• Proven track record partnering with senior executives and governing bodies.
• Experience with Jira and Confluence for planning, tracking, and reporting.

Responsibilities

• Lead complex enterprise payment initiatives from planning through implementation and stabilization.
• Establish integrated delivery plans, milestones, dependencies, risks, and critical paths.
• Coordinate with business, operations, product, and technology leaders to translate objectives into executable delivery plans.
• Maintain RAID visibility and governance with executive reporting and steering forums.
• Drive alignment and sequencing across related payment initiatives to minimize duplication.

Skills

Integrated planning

Dependency management

RAID management

Executive reporting

Cross-functional leadership

Tools

Jira

Confluence

Job description

Introduction

Since 1973, East West Bank has served as a pathway to success. With over 110 locations across the U.S. and Asia, we are the premier financial bridge between the East and West. Our teams of experienced, multi-cultural professionals help guide businesses and community members on both sides of the Pacific looking to explore new markets and create new opportunities, and our sustained growth and expertise in industries like real estate, entertainment and media, private equity and venture capital, and high-tech help build sustainable businesses and expand our associates’ potential for career advancement.

Introduction

Since 1973, East West Bank has served as a pathway to success. With over 110 locations across the U.S. and Asia, we are the premier financial bridge between the East and West. Our teams of experienced, multi-cultural professionals help guide businesses and community members on both sides of the Pacific looking to explore new markets and create new opportunities, and our sustained growth and expertise in industries like real estate, entertainment and media, private equity and venture capital, and high-tech help build sustainable businesses and expand our associates’ potential for career advancement.

Headquartered in California, East West Bank (Nasdaq: EWBC) is a top-performing commercial bank with a strong foundation, an enterprising spirit and a commitment to absolute integrity. East West Bank gives people the confidence to reach further.

Overview

East West Bank is seeking an experienced Senior Project Manager - Enterprise Payments to lead complex, strategic payment initiatives across the Bank.

The Senior Project Manager will initially support the Bank's Cross Border Payment Program, a multi-year effort spanning U.S. and Asia operations and involving business, operations, and technology stakeholders. Over time, this role may lead or support other enterprise payment initiatives based on the Bank's strategic priorities.

This individual will serve as a senior EPMO delivery leader, partnering with Global Treasury & Payments, Operations, Technology, Technology Strategy, Digital Banking, Risk, Compliance, and other business and support functions to translate payment strategies into executable plans and drive successful delivery.

The ideal candidate has significant experience delivering complex banking or payment initiatives and understands the intersection of payment products, payment operations, technology platforms, regulatory requirements, risk, and organizational change.

GLOBAL COLLABORATION

Because the initial Cross Border Payment assignment includes significant collaboration with Hong Kong and China stakeholders, experience working with Asia-based teams and professional fluency in Mandarin Chinese are strongly preferred.

Responsibilities

• Lead complex enterprise payment initiatives from planning through implementation and stabilization.
• Establish integrated delivery plans, milestones, dependencies, resource requirements, risks, and critical paths.
• Partner with business, operations, product, and technology leaders to translate strategic objectives into clearly defined initiatives and executable delivery plans.
• Coordinate delivery across GTP, Operations, Technology, Digital Banking, Architecture, Information Security, Risk, Compliance, Finance, vendors, and other stakeholders.
• Manage dependencies across multiple projects, platforms, delivery teams, and business functions.
• Identify resource or priority conflicts and drive timely escalation and executive decision-making.
• Establish effective project and program governance, including executive steering and decision forums where appropriate.
• Maintain comprehensive RAID management and ensure significant risks, issues, dependencies, and decisions are visible and actively managed.
• Partner with Finance and business leadership on project financials, forecasts, investment tracking, and benefits realization.
• Ensure initiatives have clear business outcomes, sponsorship, scope, success measures, resource commitments, and governance requirements.
• Coordinate with Enterprise Architecture and Technology Strategy to ensure delivery aligns with strategic technology direction and target-state architecture.
• Develop concise, decision-oriented executive reporting and facilitate senior leadership reviews.
• Drive alignment between related payment initiatives to minimize duplication, identify shared capabilities, and optimize sequencing.
• Promote consistent use of Jira, Confluence, and EPMO standards for planning, execution, reporting, and traceability.
• Support continuous improvement of the Bank's approach to managing complex payment initiatives.

Qualifications

• 10+ years of project or program management experience, with demonstrated responsibility for large, complex, cross-functional initiatives.
• Experience leading major initiatives within banking, financial services, payments, treasury management, fintech, or another highly regulated environment.
• Demonstrated ability to manage initiatives involving multiple business and technology teams.
• Experience partnering directly with senior executives and facilitating executive-level governance and decision-making.

Core Delivery Capabilities

• Integrated planning and roadmap development
• Dependency management
• RAID management
• Resource and capacity planning
• Financial management
• Vendor management
• Executive reporting
• Organizational change and implementation readiness
• Demonstrated experience working across business, product, operations, and technology organizations.
• Strong written, verbal, facilitation, and executive communication skills.
• Ability to bring structure to complex or ambiguous initiatives without creating unnecessary process or bureaucracy.

Preferred Payments Experience

• Cross-border and international payments
• Payment operations and straight-through processing
• Domestic and international wire payments
• Payment fraud and financial-crime controls
• SWIFT / ISO 20022
• Payment screening
• Correspondent banking
• FX and multi-currency payments
• FedNow and Real-Time Payments (RTP)
• Digital banking payment capabilities
• ACH
• API and ERP payment integrations
• Treasury management and commercial payments
• Payment platform modernization
• Global cash management and liquidity
• Payment resiliency and business continuity

The role does not need to be the product or technical SME for every payment capability. However, the successful candidate should have enough payments experience to understand business and technology dependencies, identify delivery risks, and effectively challenge assumptions.

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience managing large-scale payment transformation or modernization initiatives.
• Experience working across U.S. and international banking organizations.
• Experience working with teams in Hong Kong, China, or the broader Asia-Pacific region.
• Professional fluency in Mandarin Chinese strongly preferred for the initial Cross Border Payment assignment.
• PMP, PgMP, or equivalent project/program management certification.
• Experience with Jira and Confluence.
• Experience operating across Agile, traditional, and hybrid delivery models.
• Experience managing initiatives with significant regulatory, compliance, security, operational, or third-party dependencies.

Applicants must have legal authorization to work in the United States. We do not offer visa sponsorship at this time.

Compensation

The base pay range for this position is USD $120,000.00/Yr. - USD $140,000.00/Yr. Exact offers will be determined based on job-related knowledge, skills, experience, and location.