Director of Implementations - Core, Digital & Payments

Job Summary:

The Director, Client Services leads Blossom’s client-facing delivery organization across all product lines — Core, Digital, Cards, AI, and Hardware. The area comprises three functions: Implementation, which brings new clients live; Professional Services, which delivers paid client-requested work; and Client Education, which makes credit union staff proficient and keeps them informed.

The Director is accountable for delivery outcomes — on-time, on-scope launches with clean data and prepared client teams — and for the operating system that produces them: a repeatable methodology, disciplined scoping and estimation, resource capacity planning, a delivery partner relationship, and a budget. The Director formulates the standards the organization works to, exercises independent judgment in scoping and approving client engagements, and serves as the senior escalation point with credit union executives.

The role exists to make Blossom’s implementations predictable and its clients self-sufficient, in service of Blossom’s mission of a modern, member-first banking experience.

Supervisory Responsibilities:

• Oversees staffing, training, and performance management to ensure high-quality, consistent delivery.

• Provides mentorship, coaching, and professional development opportunities for all direct reports.

Duties/Responsibilities:

Implementation Delivery

• Directs all client implementation projects across Core, Digital, Cards, AI, and Hardware, ensuring on-time, on-scope, and high-quality launches.

• Exercises independent judgment in scoping, sequencing, and approving client implementation plans, including production cutover go/no-go decisions.

• Establishes go-live readiness criteria spanning data readiness, training readiness, and site readiness, and approves readiness at each gate.

• Serves as the senior escalation point for at-risk implementations, engaging credit union executives directly to define and commit to remediation approaches.

• Establishes and chairs a portfolio-level risk and status cadence, tracking risks, assumptions, issues, and dependencies across concurrent engagements, and reports portfolio health to the executive team.

• Negotiates implementation scope, milestones, and timelines directly with client credit union executives.

• Personally leads or accompanies strategic implementations — merger conversions, first deployments of a new product, flagship and reference clients, at-risk recoveries, and multi-branch hardware rollouts.

Data Conversion

• Owns end-to-end client data conversion — conversion strategy, mock conversion cycles, balancing and data-integrity validation, cutover planning, and post-conversion verification.

• Directs merger conversions, including dual-institution data reconciliation, member record consolidation, and coordination against a committed regulatory close date.

• Directs card processor conversions and the core-side work they depend on, including file formats, posting logic, and card record setup.

• Formulates conversion standards, validation criteria, and acceptance thresholds, and authorizes deviation from standard procedures where client circumstances warrant.

• Directs post-conversion issue triage and resolution through stabilization.

Professional Services Engagements

• Directs the delivery of paid client-requested engagements — configuration, custom development, integrations, custom reporting, and data extracts.

• Approves engagement scope and estimates, and authorizes Statements of Work within delegated authority.

• Approves post-signature scope changes and change orders, and commits the company to revised timelines and delivery approaches.

• Is accountable for estimate accuracy — actual effort against scoped effort — and directs corrective action to scoping standards when variance exceeds threshold.

• Manages the services backlog and prioritizes engagements against implementation commitments and available capacity.

Delivery Partner Management

• Owns Blossom’s relationship with the onsite implementation partner, including scope definition, service levels, and performance standards.

• Is accountable to clients for partner-delivered outcomes, including installation quality, schedule adherence, and onsite client experience.

• Monitors partner performance against agreed service levels, conducts periodic performance reviews, and directs remediation where standards are not met.

• Directs coordination with third-party vendors, OEMs, card processors, and integration partners on dependencies affecting client go-live dates.

Client Education

• Owns Blossom’s client education function, directing the design and delivery of onboarding curricula for new clients and role-based training for credit union staff.

• Establishes competency standards and certification criteria for client staff, and determines client training readiness as an input to go-live approval.

• Directs ongoing post-launch client training, including refreshers, new-feature enablement, and training tied to new product deployments, whether included in a setup fee or scoped under a Statement of Work.

• Directs client-facing product and release communications, ensuring credit unions understand and can act on product changes.

• Directs the development of internal staff training and knowledge resources, including onboarding for new hires across the Client Services organization.

• Partners with Product and Engineering to identify enablement needs and to build knowledge resources that measurably reduce support volume and delivery friction.

Team Leadership

• Directs the work of the Client Services organization. Recommendations regarding hiring, performance, promotion, discipline, and other changes of status are given particular weight.

• Provides mentorship, coaching, and professional development, and manages performance to consistent quality and delivery standards.

• Forecasts resource capacity against the combined implementation and services backlog, and plans staffing and assignment to meet committed dates across all product lines.

Commercial and Operational Ownership

• Owns the Client Services budget and is accountable for delivery cost and team utilization against plan.

• Partners with Sales during the pre-sales cycle to scope and estimate implementation effort and to define Statements of Work.

• Establishes scoping and estimation standards, and is accountable for the quality of estimates the organization commits to.

• Is accountable for professional services revenue delivery and backlog realization against plan.

Process, Standards, and Reporting

• Formulates and maintains Blossom’s delivery methodology, project plan templates, quality gates, and milestone tracking, and revises them as the product portfolio and client base evolve.

• Establishes delivery and education metrics and quality benchmarks across all product lines, and drives measurable improvement against them.

• Directs the transition from implementation to ongoing support, ensuring clients are fully trained and support-ready at go-live and that Client Support receives complete handoff documentation.

• Interprets and applies regulatory and contractual requirements in implementation design and configuration decisions.

• Reports on delivery performance, services revenue, training completion, and client satisfaction to senior leadership on a defined cadence.

Performs other related duties as assigned.

Required Skills/Abilities:

• Demonstrated ownership of a departmental budget or equivalent financial accountability.

• Proven success running concurrent, complex implementations across multiple products or business lines.

• Working knowledge of financial institution operations and core banking systems, including data conversion methodology and integration concepts.

• Demonstrated ability to establish delivery metrics and drive measurable improvement against them.

• Strong problem-solving, troubleshooting, and analytical abilities.

• Outstanding written, verbal, and presentation skills, with proven executive presence in client-facing settings.

• Proficiency with project and knowledge management tooling — for example [Jira / Confluence / Smartsheet / Salesforce / LMS platform].

• Proficiency with Google Workspace or similar productivity tools.

Education and Experience:

• Bachelor's degree in Business,Information Systems, or related field (Master's degree preferred).

• 8+ years in client implementation, project management, professional services, technical onboarding, or delivery leadership within financial technology, SaaS, or financial services.

• 4+ years leading and developing a client-facing delivery team, with accountability for team performance and outcomes.

• Experience scoping and estimating project effort and documenting solutions in Statements of Work.

• Experience managing third-party delivery partners or subcontracted implementation resources, with accountability for their performance to the client.

Physical Requirements:

• Prolonged periods of sitting at a desk and working on a computer.

• 25% travel to client sites, training sessions, or conferences may be required.

• Must be able to lift up to 15 pounds at times.

What We Offer

• Company-paid medical, dental, and vision insurance for employees
• Company-paid life and AD&D insurance
• Company-paid short- and long-term disability
• 401(k) retirement plan
• Flexible Spending Accounts (FSA)/ Dependent Care Spending Account (DCSA)
• Unlimited PTO
• Employee Assistance Program (EAP)
• Voluntary supplemental insurance options