SVP, Director Banking Business Technology Officer

Wintrust provides community and commercial banking, specialty finance and wealth management services through its 16 bank charters and nine non-bank businesses. Wintrust delivers the sophisticated solutions of a large bank while staying true to the relationship-focused, personalized service of our community banking roots. We serve clients in all 50 states with more than 200 branch banking locations in Illinois, southwestern Florida, northwestern Indiana, west Michigan and southern Wisconsin and commercial banking offices in Chicago, Denver, Milwaukee, Grand Rapids, Mich., and in key branch banking locations throughout Illinois. Our people are the heart of our business and we are proud to rank consistently as a top place to work. Wintrust is a $66 billion financial institution based in Rosemont, Illinois, and listed on the NASDAQ Global Select Market under the symbol “WTFC.”

Why join us?

• An award-winning culture! We are rated a Top Workplace by the Chicago Tribune (past 12 years) and Employee Recommended award by the Globe & Mail (past 6 years)

• Competitive pay and discretionary or incentive bonus eligible

• Comprehensive benefit package including medical, dental, vision, life, a 401k plan with a generous company match and tuition reimbursement to name a few

• Promote from within culture

Why join this team?

• This position has the opportunity to interface with and have a positive impact on multiple areas of Wintrust's business

• We hold ourselves accountable to high standards, share wins, operate ethically, and have fun

Position Overview

Wintrust is seeking a Senior Vice President, Business Technology Officer to lead the technology vision, strategy, and execution for our Banking Products, including Deposits, Payments and Digital Banking. This role serves as the primary technology leader and strategic partner to the business unit’s executive leadership team, assuming responsibility for ensuring that technology, data, and digital capabilities drive business growth, operational efficiency, and customer value.
The Business Technology Officer will shape how technology enables the business by overseeing a portfolio of platforms, applications, and services that differentiate the business unit in its markets while maintaining alignment with overall Wintrust strategy, enterprise architecture, governance, information security, compliance and regulatory risk frameworks.
This is a strategic leadership opportunity — the ideal candidate will be a technology leader who excels at the intersection of business strategy, digital innovation, and collaboration across a wide variety of business and vendor relationships. This role acts as a trusted partner to executive leadership, identifying opportunities for digital transformation, automation, data analytics, and AI-driven innovation in support of Wintrust’s overall enterprise goals. This will be accomplished through the development of IT strategic plans and roadmaps, managing project intake submissions aligned to business priorities, and enabling projects across supported business lines by engaging stakeholders through Wintrust’s Initiative Committee prioritization process.

What You’ll Do

• Lead the technology vision, strategy, and execution for your assigned business units and serve as the primary technology leader and strategic partner to the business unit’s executive leadership team and their direct reports — responsible for ensuring that technology roadmaps and digital capabilities drive business growth, operational efficiency, and customer value.

• Act as the principal IT point of contact, and business facing role, for all IT requirements as well as problem escalation and remediation for supported business lines.  Act as advocate for the businesses and simplify and demystify the IT organization for the business, ensure their priorities are executed, identify appropriate, cost-effective solutions, and resolve issues in a timely and direct fashion.

• Shape how technology enables the business, overseeing the support and implementation of their assigned business units’ portfolio of platforms, applications, and services that differentiate the business unit while maintaining and ensuring alignment with enterprise architecture, architectural standards review boards, data governance, regulatory, enterprise risk and information security frameworks. Review and guide along new software and applications through the Vendor Risk and Software Asset Management (SAM) intake process and ensure these align and conform to Wintrust’s standards.

• Work with the various teams within IT and the business and facilitate a demand intake and disposition process to review initiatives and designate them as either “Projects” (significant workstreams that impact multiple lines of business that will need to be reviewed, approved and prioritized by Executive Leadership), or “Activities” that align to “Business As Usual” (BAU). Work with IT Leadership to accurately disposition these initiatives and oversee both Projects and Activities throughout their life cycle.

• Partner with Information Security and Enterprise Risk to identify and manage overall risk to the organization, by performing risk assessments and disaster recovery planning specific to the business unit’s operational landscape. Partner with IT Risk and oversee an incident handling program for your lines of business to identify and classify problems based upon priority and severity impact. Conduct root cause analysis for incidents which result in the highest priority and severity and monitor the control environment in a continuous fashion by reviewing assessment and internal audit findings and verifying the program is operating effectively. Position yourself and your team to act as enforcers across your business lines to ensure compliance with enterprise standards for data, architecture, and security.

• Oversee end-to-end technology project delivery for the business unit, including applications, enterprise operations, data management, information security, and vendor risk management including the tracking and management of key performance indicators (KPIs), key risk indicators (KRIs), and other measures of application and project health.

• Partner with the Business Unit CFOs, Wintrust’s Enterprise CFO, and both Finance and IT team members supporting budgets to ensure that projects and costs are aligned to Executive Leadership’s approved budget estimates and keep project costs and timelines aligned.  Understand and communicate to the business the services where IT allocates costs back to the business units and assist with budget developments and updates as needed.

Qualifications

• 10+ years of experience in a Senior Technology Leadership role; a Masters degree in computer science, information systems and/or an MBA is a plus; industry standard certifications such as ISACA’s Certified in the Governance of Enterprise IT (CGEIT), or related certifications from NIST, ISC2, ITIL, PMI and others preferred

• Knowledge of the Software Development Lifecycle (SDLC) and quality assurance processes

• Proven experience in managing large-scale technological initiatives from intake to execution and completion (including P&L responsibilities)

• Excellent leadership, organizational, and interpersonal skills; must be able to communicate complex technical information to business stakeholders in a meaningful manner and with senior leadership

• Familiarity with project management tools (e.g. Clarity, Jira, Adobe Workfront) and IT Service Management tools (ServiceNow)

Benefits

Medical Insurance • Dental • Vision • Life insurance • Accidental death and dismemberment • Short-term and long-term Disability Insurance • Parental Leave • Employee Assistance Program (EAP) • Traditional and Roth 401(k) with company match • Flexible Spending Account (FSA) • Employee Stock Purchase Plan at 5% discount • Critical Illness Insurance • Accident Insurance • Transportation and Commuting Benefits • Banking Benefits • Pet Insurance

Compensation

The estimated salary range for this role is $169,000.00 - $228,000.00, along with eligibility to earn an annual bonus. Actual salaries may vary based on several factors, such as a candidate’s qualifications, skills and experience.

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From our first day in business, Wintrust has been proud to serve a variety of unique communities and people from all walks of life.  To build a company that reflects the communities we serve, we believe that fostering a unique and inclusive workplace where everyone feels valued and empowered to succeed will support our ongoing success.  Wintrust Financial Corporation, including community banking and financial services subsidiaries, is an Equal Opportunity Employer.  All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, age, national origin, disability, veteran status, genetic information, and other legally protected categories.