IT Payments Support Leader

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We are committed to helping our team members find their success while maintaining the integrity of our values: building trust, fostering lasting relationships and pursuing excellence. At SouthState, individual contributions are recognized, potential is cultivated and team members are inspired to achieve their greater purpose. Your future begins here!

Summary

The IT Payments Support Leader serves as the senior technical authority for enterprise payment platforms, providing architectural leadership, advanced system expertise, and hands‑on guidance across payment technologies. This role is responsible for the design, stability, scalability, and strategic evolution of payment systems to ensure secure, compliant, and reliable payment processing. The position partners closely with IT leadership, operations, Treasury, Risk, and vendors to align payment technology delivery with business strategy and future growth initiatives.

Duties & Responsibilities

• Serve as the technical lead and subject‑matter expert for enterprise payment platforms, including Cari Network (Stablecoin/Tokenized deposits), ACH, wires, real‑time payments (RTP/FedNow), and related payment gateways.

• Provide architectural direction, technical design standards, and oversight for payment system enhancements, integrations, and modernization initiatives.

• Ensure reliability, performance, and resiliency of payment processing environments through proactive monitoring, troubleshooting, and root‑cause analysis.

• Act as the highest‑level escalation point for complex payment system incidents, outages, and processing exceptions.

• Lead technical evaluation and implementation support for new payment capabilities, including ISO 20022 adoption and emerging payment technologies.

• Partner with vendors and core providers to manage integrations, upgrades, patches, and platform changes for payment systems.

• Ensure payment technologies comply with NACHA rules, FFIEC guidance, audit requirements, and internal IT governance standards.

• Provide technical mentorship and guidance to payments analysts and administrators, establishing best practices, standards, and operational runbooks.

• It is the responsibility of this role to take ownership of all tasks and challenges that they encounter in the operation of their assigned position.  Reasonable accommodations may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform the essential functions. 

Qualifications

Education Requirements

• Bachelor’s degree required in Information Technology, Computer Science, or a related discipline. Advanced degree preferred.

Minimum Experience

• 8–12+ years of experience in payment systems, core banking platforms, or financial services technology environments.

Licenses & Certifications

• AAP (Accredited ACH Professional) and/or NCP (National Check Professional) preferred.

• Relevant technology or security certifications are a plus.

Knowledge, Skills, & Abilities

• Position may require regular before/after normal business hours, or regular out-of-town travel.

• Deep knowledge of ACH, wire, and real‑time payment processing architectures

• Strong understanding of payment settlement, exception handling, and operational risk

• Ability to design and evaluate complex system integrations and data flows.

• Proven ability to lead technical initiatives without direct people management responsibility.

• Strong analytical, problem‑solving, and incident‑management skills.

• Ability to communicate complex technical concepts clearly to business and executive audiences

Physical Demands and Work Environment

Physical Demands

• Ability to communicate in person, on the phone, and through electronic channels

• Ability to use a computer on a frequent basis, including typing and sustained attention to a monitor

• Ability to sit, walk, and/or stand for extended periods of time

• Ability to bend and reach

Work Environment

• Office: This position reports to a physical Company location, and the setting will be a typical office environment.

• Remote or hybrid: For remote or hybrid positions, a secure and distraction-free setting is required, with a reliable internet connection (cable or fiber preferred, mobile hotspots not acceptable).  Hybrid positions will report to a physical Company location, as directed by the manager, and that setting will be a typical office environment.

Benefits | SouthState Careers

Equal Opportunity Employer, including disabled/veterans.