Sr. Director, PDLC Governance

Early Warning; New York (NY); Hybrid; USD 140,000 - 190,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Restaurant of growth

Job summary

Early Warning, a leader in payments, seeks an enterprise product owner to guide the Product Development Life Cycle (PDLC) framework. You will shape strategy, governance, standards, and adoption, partnering with Product, Technology, Risk, Compliance, Internal Audit, and executive stakeholders to ensure scalable, audit-ready delivery.

The role emphasizes governance, operational metrics, and risk integration, coordinating across first-, second-, and third-line functions to drive disciplined,

Qualifications

• Requires experience as an enterprise product owner overseeing the Product Development Life Cycle.
• Proven ability to establish and monitor OKRs, KPIs, and lifecycle health metrics.
• Strong executive communications and stakeholder alignment across multiple functions.
• Ability to embed risk and control requirements into lifecycle processes.

Responsibilities

• Oversee PDLC strategy, governance, and adoption across teams.
• Define standards, procedures, controls, and operating models.
• Provide executive governance and communications for resources and decisions.
• Serve as escalation point for lifecycle interpretation and stage-gate decisions.

Skills

PDLC governance

OKRs & KPIs

Stakeholder management

Enterprise product ownership

Risk awareness

Job description

At Early Warning, we’ve powered and protected the U.S. financial system for over thirty years with cutting-edge solutions like Zelle, Paze, and so much more. As a trusted name in payments, we partner with thousands of institutions to increase access to financial services and protect transactions for hundreds of millions of consumers and small businesses.
Positions located in Scottsdale, San Francisco, Chicago, or New York follow a hybrid work model to allow for a more collaborative working environment.
Candidates responding to this posting must independently possess the eligibility to work in the United States, for any employer, at the date of hire. This position is ineligible for employment Visa sponsorship.

Overall Purpose

Enable strategic direction by serving as the enterprise product owner for the Product Development Life Cycle (PDLC) framework. The role is responsible PDLC strategy, governance, standards, adoption, and ongoing maturity to enable consistent, disciplined execution of company initiatives across product, technology, and business teams. This role oversees prioritized programs and governance activities, embeds risk and control requirements into lifecycle execution, and partners with Product, Technology, Risk, Compliance, Internal Audit, and executive stakeholders to ensure delivery capabilities are scalable, effective, audit-ready, and aligned with business and regulatory expectations.

Essential Functions

• Service Excellence and governance: Provides executive governance and communications to ensure effective resource utilization, prioritization, and lifecycle decision-making. Owns and maintains PDLC standards, procedures, controls, operating models, governance forums, and operational rhythms; continuously evaluates processes and methodologies to improve consistent execution.
• Operational Effectiveness: Establishes and monitors OKRs, KPIs, lifecycle health measures, control effectiveness, risks, issues, and remediation activity. Uses insights to prioritize corrective actions, roadmap improvements, and sustainable resolution of execution or control gaps.
• Strategic Partner: Manages executive communication and escalations across the organization related to PDLC execution and governance. Serves as a senior escalation point for lifecycle interpretation, stage-gate decisions, exceptions, and deviations within delegated authority, and aligns stakeholders across first-, second-, and third-line functions.
• Change