IT Manager, Business Application Support

Ascend is the largest credit union in Middle Tennessee and one of the largest credit unions in the United States, with over $4 billion in assets. With an occupation-based field of membership, Ascend is focused on the expansion and diversification of the select employee groups it serves, which creates greater security for the credit union and its member-owners. Approximately 650 employees serve more than 260,000 members from 28 Middle Tennessee branch locations, Regional Operations Center, Teller Center and Corporate Headquarters. Ascend recognizes that its employees are critical to the credit union’s sustained success and future growth. Our employees are the face of the credit union and their personal successes fuel the success of the team. Through collaboration between employees, management, our membership and our Board, we fuel an engine that propels the credit union forward.

Thank you for your interest in a career with Ascend Federal Credit Union Being employed by Ascend is vastly different than just holding a job. The credit union prides itself on providing employees rewarding career opportunities, competitive benefits and a unique work culture. The credit union’s commitment to its employees is fostered by its commitment to the member-owners, ensuring dedicated and engaged employees to serve the membership. Ascend’s vision to be the most loved credit union in our market by employees and members alike has earned the credit union distinctions including Federal Credit Union of the Year (NAFCU, 2015), Best Credit Union to Work For (2016-2023) and Training APEX Awards (2015-2024).

The IT Business Applications (BAS) manager is a leadership role overseeing the Enterprise Applications team. This includes the operational development, process improvement and vendor management of enterprise applications such as Core, Lending, Collections, Financial, Branch Operations, Deposit, and Payment systems and integrations. The Manager works closely with key business stakeholders in identifying and implementing value-effective technology solutions for the credit union. This position provides leadership, and day-to-day management and has responsibility in identifying, and designing current and future technical solutions that will drive the resiliency of business-critical technologies. The manager will foster a culture of innovation, continuous improvement, and teamwork. In this position the manger will collaborate closely with IT and business stakeholders, IT leadership, and other leaders across the Credit Union. This position is a leadership role that requires strong technical skills, strong interpersonal skills, excellent communication, and the ability to manage a team effectively.

#LI-Onsite

• Application and Vendor Management:
• Demonstrate a strong ability to perform failure analysis and determine corrective actions for restoring production applications and preventing future issues.
• Oversee internal applications used by Credit Union staff and members.
• Ensure these applications are efficient, secure, and aligned with business needs.
• Lead process development and continuous improvement efforts.
• Identify, monitor, and evaluate key metrics to ensure system health and business progress within areas of influence.
• Manage and develop vendor relationships to ensure SLOs and deliverables are achieved in support of stated business objectives.
• Achieve monthly and annual Return-To-Service (recovery time) and Availability targets for responsible applications and vendors.
• Monitor vendor compliance with security, privacy, and regulatory requirements.
• Collaborate with stakeholders to assess vendor solutions.
• Ensure compliance with vendor contracts, service level agreements (SLAs), and performance metrics.
• Collaborate with vendors to enhance existing applications and explore new solutions.
• Technical Support and Team Leadership:
• Lead and manage a team of Application Analysts and a team of Application Developers.
• Articulate direction and roles for an effective team, consistent with the organization’s mission, strategy, and direction.
• Determine team capacity, set project timelines, and manage deliverables.
• Ensure timely resolution of application-related issues.
• Lead the analysis and development of application software code for new or existing software enhancements.
• Optimize core processing services by leveraging a deep knowledge of credit union business processes and core platform capabilities.
• Demonstrate knowledge and proficiency of the Software Development Lifecycle (SDLC) and/or Agile Software Development methodologies.
• Actively lead the team to stay ahead of vendor contract expirations, security certificate expirations, software patches, and any other system updates that could affect production operations.
• Monitor, track, and adjust project/task priorities to gauge progression of unit goals and overall business objectives.
• Deliver formal and informal training, coaching, and mentoring for direct reports, ensuring expected behavior and progress are achieved.
• Maintain a strong sense of urgency supporting day-to-day on-call support, issue resolution, development, and maintenance of software applications.
• Demonstrate and instill a positive team culture that is eager to learn and is member focused.
• Foster a customer-centric approach to support.
• Set performance goals and regularly monitor employee performance, provide feedback, coaching, recognition, rewards, motivation and conduct performance evaluations.
• Foster collaboration and professional growth within the teams.
• Prepare employee work schedules or assign as needed.
• Strategic Vision and Modernization:
• Advise IT leadership on business application capabilities and options through research/analysis of internal and external business data, industry best practices, and competitive technology information.
• Lead initiatives to modernize legacy applications and supporting processes to maximize business enablement and application usability.
• Participate in the strategic planning process by developing positive relationships with executive leadership and by defining achievable operational goals.
• Contribute to the design and delivery of the Credit Union’s strategic vision.
• Identify opportunities for modernization and optimization of vendor applications.
• Stay informed about industry trends and emerging technologies.
• Financial Oversight:
• Assist in budget planning for technology initiatives.
• Ensure financial transparency and accountability.
• Risk Management:
• Assess risks associated with vendor applications and internal systems.
• Implement risk/secuirty mitigation strategies.
• Stay informed about cybersecurity threats and compliance requirements.
• Collaboration and Communication:
• Work closely with cross-functional teams, including IT, operations, and business units.
• Manage and develop relationships with internal business customers and peer IT teams.
• Communicate effectively with stakeholders and executives.
• Possess excellent service, communication, analytics, and problem-solving skills.
• Maintain a high degree of poise and tact to represent the credit union positively in outside contacts and with employees.
• Continuously pursue self-improvement (technical skills, leadership skills, soft skills, etc.).
• Attend various meetings and training sessions to keep updated on job duties or as assigned.
• Read all internal publications including HUB and Possibilities.
• Perform other duties as required or assigned.

• Four-year college degree in Computer Science, Information Technology, or equivalent work experience required
• 5-8 years of software development experience preferred
• 5-8 years of banking and/or credit union industry experience or expertise within financial services required
• 3-5 years of experience in a team leadership role preferred
• 5-8 years Experience with federal banking/credit union regulatory agencies and how to remain compliant while still delivering strategic capabilities and business value preferred
• Deep understanding of IT best practices, policies, and regulations.
• The ability to relay information between upper management and department employees is essential.
• Experience in process development and continuous improvement efforts (ITIL V4 preferred)
• Experience with federal banking/credit union regulatory agencies and how to remain compliant while still delivering strategic capabilities and business value preferred.
• Ability to meet deadlines.
• Experience with Smartsheets and Azure DevOps or equivalent preferred.

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