Associate Director - Banking Operations en FC Global Services India LLP (First Citizens India)

FC Global Services India LLP (First Citizens India), a part of First Citizens BancShares, Inc., a top 20 U.S. financial institution, is a global capability center (GCC) based in Bengaluru. Our India-based teams benefit from the company’s over 125-year legacy of strength and stability. First Citizens India is responsible for delivering value and managing risks for our lines of business. We are particularly proud of our strong, relationship-driven culture and our long-term approach, which are deeply ingrained in our talented workforce. This is evident across all key areas of our operations, including Technology, Enterprise Operations, Finance, Cybersecurity, Risk Management, and Credit Administration. We are seeking talented individuals to join us in our mission of providing solutions fit for our clients’ greatest ambitions.

Job Description:

Value Preposition

Orchestrator of enterprise critical ecosystems – Lead and safeguard end to end payments and card operations landscape, ensuring precision, compliance and enterprise resilience while influencing the banks strategic growth.

Catalyst of Digital and operational transformation- Drive automation, UAT led innovation and digital acceleration redefining payment and card operations into future ready, client centric ecosystems.

Job Details

• Position Title:  Associate Director – Banking Operations

• Career Level:  L3

• Job Category: Vice President

• Role Type: Hybrid

• Job Location: Bangalore  

About the Team:

The associate director will helm a mission-critical payments and card operations team, entrusted with orchestrating high- value transaction flows, safeguarding regulatory compliance and fortifying systemic resilience. This lean yet high impact unit serves as the operational backbone of the bank’s financial ecosystem, harmonizing precision, client centricity and technological agility to deliver uncompromising excellence across global payment and card networks.

Impact

This role embodies stewardship over the banks most systematically consequential financial conduits, where the precision of execution safeguards institutional credibility and client trust. By synthesizing regulatory exactitude with operational ingenuity, the associate director ensures that the Check Operations, Card Operations and Specialty Operations remain resilient, scalable and future aligned. Positioned at the strategic intersection of governance and transformation this mandate is indispensable to advancing the enterprises global payments supremacy.

Key Deliverables

• Holistic Command of Payments and Card Ecosystems- Exercise overarching authority over the end-to-end lifecycle of Check, card and specialty operations, ensuring faultless execution, systemic resilience, and institutional credibility across global clearing, settlement, and card network infrastructures. 

• Regulatory Stewardship Across Multidimensional Frameworks- Safeguard enterprise operations by embedding rigorous compliance standards that encompass both payments regulations and card scheme mandates, ensuring seamless jurisdictional harmonization and anticipatory adaptation to evolving statutory landscapes. 

• Technology Integration and UAT Governance- Direct User Acceptance Testing for payments and card platforms with uncompromising precision, validating system enhancements, regulatory implementations, and product innovations before deployment at operational scale. 

• Operational Continuity and Risk Fortification- Engineer a resilient control environment across payments and card operations by instituting preventative safeguards, crafting contingency strategies, and mitigating vulnerabilities that may compromise transactional sanctity. 

• Lifecycle Excellence and Client-Centric Delivery- Oversee the complete **card operations spectrum—issuance, transaction processing, chargebacks, reconciliations, and dispute resolution—**while simultaneously ensuring payment flows remain frictionless and client-centric. 

• Talent Leadership and Professional Elevation- Build, mentor, and inspire a cadre of specialists across payments and card operations, cultivating a culture of accountability, agility, and excellence that reflects the enterprise’s global ambitions. 

• Cross-Functional Influence and Strategic Enablement- Act as the principal bridge between Operations, Technology, Product, Risk, and Compliance, elevating payments and card operations from an executional function to a strategic fulcrum of institutional growth and transformation.

Skills and Qualification

Functional Skills:

• Ecosystemic Payment Architecture Insight- Mastery in deciphering the structural intricacies of global payment ecosystems, enabling the orchestration of end-to-end workflows that guarantee operational fluidity, systemic scalability, and institutional trust.

• Card Network Jurisprudence- Deep fluency in the jurisprudential and operational protocols of major card schemes, including dispute adjudication, interchange principles, and settlement frameworks, with the ability to transpose these into bank-wide operating standards.

• Operational Harmonization and Standardization- Expertise in harmonizing disparate processes across payments and card operations, establishing standardized frameworks that reduce inefficiency, eliminate redundancy, and instill methodological precision.

• Programmatic UAT Leadership- Advanced capability to architect UAT programs that rigorously validate technological deployments within payments and card environments, ensuring functional adequacy, regulatory conformity, and zero disruption to client obligations.

• Strategic Control Framework Engineering- Proficiency in constructing and embedding multilayered control frameworks, integrating fraud detection, reconciliation integrity, and dispute governance to immunize critical payment and card flows against systemic risk.

• Stakeholder Navigation and Institutional Gravitas- Acumen in exercising influence with gravitas across enterprise stakeholders—Technology, Compliance, Product, and Risk—elevating payments and card operations from transactional functions into levers of strategic differentiation.

• Transformational Thought Leadership- Capacity to envision, advocate, and execute transformative agendas in payments and card operations, leveraging automation, digital enablement, and data intelligence to redefine operational paradigms and future-proof institutional capability.

• Multifaceted Stakeholder Engagement – Demonstrated ability to multitask and seamlessly manage concurrent demands from diverse internal stakeholders, ensuring timely delivery without compromising quality or governance. 

• Cross-Functional Awareness – Possess a comprehensive functional overview of interconnected teams, processes, and stakeholder groups, enabling alignment of payments and card operations with enterprise-wide objectives. 

• Independent Problem Resolution – Adept at independently addressing, supporting, and resolving requirements raised by partner teams across Technology, Risk, Compliance, Product, Finance, and Client Services, fostering operational fluidity and collaboration.

Technical/Business Skills:

• Payments Infrastructure Proficiency- Expertise in global payment rails such as SWIFT, CHIPS, Fedwire and real-time payments, coupled with the ability to optimize transaction flows for resilience, scalability, and speed.

• Card Systems and Lifecycle Management -Deep technical familiarity with card management systems, authorization engines, settlement platforms, and dispute resolution tools, ensuring flawless execution across the card lifecycle.

• Regulatory and Scheme Compliance Mastery- Acumen in interpreting and applying the operational mandates of regulators, central banks, and global card schemes, ensuring institutional adherence without impeding innovation or client experience.

• Data Analytics and Intelligence Utilization- Capability to harness predictive analytics, MIS dashboards, and machine learning insights to pre-empt risk, identify inefficiencies, and drive strategic decisions in payments and card operations.

• UAT and Systems Validation Expertise- Proficiency in designing and overseeing UAT frameworks that validate the robustness of payment and card technology deployments, ensuring functional adequacy and regulatory conformity prior to production rollouts.

• Automation and Digital Enablement- Command of robotic process automation (RPA), workflow orchestration tools, and API-driven integrations that streamline operations, reduce manual intervention, and elevate productivity.

• Business Strategy and Financial Acumen- Strong grounding in banking and finance principles, supported by a degree or master’s degree in Banking and Finance, enabling the Associate Director to align operational imperatives with enterprise profitability and growth strategy.

• Global Workforce Leadership and Alignment- Demonstrated expertise in managing diverse, cross-border operational teams with 10+ years of people management experience, ensuring cultural cohesion, strategic alignment, and responsiveness across time zones—including willingness to work in night shifts to support global stakeholders.

• Degree/master’s degree in Banking and Finance

• 18+ years of payment and cash management domain including Check Operations, Card Operations, Payment Operations and UAT management

• Minimum 12+ years of People management experience

Leadership Qualities

• Executive presence

• Decision making skills

• Adaptability and Flexibility

• Strategic thinking

• Building Trust and Relationship

• Continuous feedback and developing talents

Relationships & Collaboration

• Reports to: Director, Banking Operations

• Operate with integrity, discretion, and a strong ethical compass.

• Lead investigations independently while coaching junior staff when needed.

Accessibility Needs

We are committed to providing an inclusive and accessible hiring process. If you require accommodations at any stage (e.g. application, interviews, onboarding) please let us know, and we will work with you to ensure a seamless experience.

Equal Employment Opportunity

FC Global Services India LLP (First Citizens India) is an Equal Employment Opportunity Employer. We are committed to fostering an inclusive and accessible environment and prohibit all forms of discrimination on the basis of gender, religion, caste, disability, sexual orientation, economic status or any other characteristics protected by the law. We strive to foster a safe and respectful environment in which all individuals are treated with respect and dignity. Our EEO policy ensures fairness throughout the employee life cycle.