Vice President, Operations

Where it began…

In 1951 SF Fire Credit Union first opened its doors from a modest 10′ × 15′ office space in 17 Engine. It was from those humble beginnings—where everyone pitched in to help one another in their community—that the organization forged its way of business forever. Today, the San Francisco-based credit union has grown to $1.7B in assets and a membership that extends from the regional firefighters we trace our roots back to throughout our many neighbors in San Francisco, San Mateo and Marin Counties. Our members benefit from the ideas and principles that have shaped us: Shared trust, continuous innovation of products and services, competitive rates, and excellent member service. These qualities foster a true sense of member-ownership and strengthen the credit union’s bond with the people for whom this credit union was created.

What we stand for...

There are a few things we look for those we hire at SF Fire Credit Union, regardless of role or team.

First, do they align with our values?

• Be Personal – Walk the Member/Employee Path

• Be a Leader – Empower, Collaborate, Own

• Be Outside the Box – Innovate, Educate, Engage

• Be Real – Integrity and Transparency Matter

• Be the Connection – Serve our Community

Second, will they thrive in a culture like ours, where we default to trust, embrace feedback, and desire to innovate? Finally, do they share our vision to help empower members to accomplish their dreams and build lasting financial security in whatever way is most relevant to their role?

What it feels like…

Most days it feels more like going to work with a big family. Whether it’s a pot luck lunch, baking birthday cakes for colleagues in the kitchen, or after-hours get together, we’re here to do a great job and have a good time while doing it! We value a good sense of humor, are motivated by a higher purpose, and always bring an “in-this-together” attitude. While we’re driven to do great work, we also value real work/life balance.

The Opportunity

The Vice President, Operations leads the Credit Union’s non-lending operational organization, including Contact Center and Member Services, Branch Operations, Virtual Branch, Deposit Operations, Payments Operations, and Card Services. The Vice President is accountable for reliable day-to-day operations, strong member and employee experiences, sound controls, effective people leadership, and measurable operating performance.

This is an operations leadership role with a meaningful modernization mandate. The successful candidate will bring broad banking or credit union operating experience and the ability to improve performance through a practical combination of reengineered processes, clearer accountability, stronger management disciplines, data and analytics, and well-selected technology.

The Vice President will remain the accountable business owner for operating results while partnering with the VP, Strategy & Transformation and Technology leaders on larger cross-functional initiatives.

The Vice President will also shape the future Operations organization by developing leaders, evaluating organizational structure and staffing, clarifying roles and decision rights, and building the capabilities required for an increasingly integrated, digital, data-informed, and scalable operating model.

THE MANDATE

Run the business. Improve the business. Build a future-ready Operations organization.

What You Will Do

Lead Operational Performance

• Lead Contact Center and Member Services, Branch Operations, Virtual Branch, Deposit Operations, Payments Operations, Card Services, and related non-lending operational support functions.

• Establish clear objectives, service standards, operating procedures, decision rights, escalation paths, and accountability across the Operations organization.

• Maintain strong day-to-day performance across service, productivity, quality, member experience, operational risk, compliance, controls, and cost.

• Implement practical performance measures, dashboards, capacity plans, and recurring management routines that enable timely decisions and sustained accountability.

• Ensure operational issues are identified early, resolved with appropriate urgency, and addressed at their root cause.

• Oversee business continuity, vendor performance, issue remediation, and operational resilience for assigned functions.

Contact Center and Member Services

• Improve service levels, availability, wait times, first-contact resolution, quality, member satisfaction, employee effectiveness, and cost-to-serve.

• Strengthen workforce forecasting, staffing, scheduling, intraday management, quality assurance, coaching, knowledge management, and performance management.

• Identify and reduce avoidable contacts, repeat work, transfers, and member effort through root-cause analysis and cross-functional action.

• Advance effective use of self-service, digital assistance, automation, call analytics, and other service technologies where they improve member and employee outcomes.

• Create consistent service expectations and effective handoffs across Contact Center, Virtual Branch, Branch Operations, and back-office teams.

Branch and Virtual Branch Operations

• Lead safe, consistent, efficient, and member-focused operations across physical and virtual service channels.

• Establish appropriate staffing, scheduling, performance, cash and transaction controls, procedural standards, escalation practices, and management routines.

• Improve coordination among branches, Virtual Branch, Contact Center, Deposit Operations, and other operational partners.

• Support evolution toward a more integrated omnichannel service model while preserving the differentiated value of in-person and virtual service.

• Evaluate branch and virtual operating processes, roles, and capabilities and recommend practical improvements aligned with member needs and strategy.

Deposit, Payments, and Card Operations

• Ensure accurate, timely, controlled, and compliant execution of deposit, payment, and card operational activities.

• Improve processing quality, reconciliations, exception management, dispute and servicing workflows, vendor performance, and service-level accountability.

• Partner with Risk, Compliance, Finance, Technology, and Member Experience on fraud, controls, member-impacting issues, product changes, and platform decisions.

• Identify opportunities to simplify and automate operational workflows while maintaining appropriate controls and clear ownership.

• Support payments and card modernization and ensure operational readiness for new or changed products, services, vendors, and technologies.

Drive Operational Excellence and Modernization

• Evaluate end-to-end processes and identify opportunities to simplify work, improve handoffs, reduce manual effort, strengthen controls, and improve service and productivity.

• Lead continuous-improvement and process-reengineering efforts that produce measurable and sustainable operating results.

• Apply structured problem-solving and root-cause analysis rather than treating technology, staffing additions, or outsourcing as the default solution.

• Partner with Technology to define business requirements and determine where workflow, automation, analytics, artificial intelligence, knowledge tools, and self-service can improve outcomes.

• Ensure technology-enabled improvements include operating-model changes, controls, training, adoption, performance measures, and accountable business ownership.

• Use operational, financial, member, employee, process, and risk data to prioritize opportunities and evaluate results.

Partner with Strategy & Transformation

• Partner with the VP, Strategy & Transformation to assess current-state operations, define practical target-state solutions, and sequence larger cross-functional improvement initiatives.

• Contribute operational expertise to business cases, operating-model decisions, investment priorities, requirements, roadmaps, and implementation planning.

• Serve as the accountable operational sponsor or business owner for initiatives affecting the Operations organization.

• Translate approved strategic direction into operating plans, accountable owners, resource needs, milestones, management routines, and sustained business results.

• Provide a grounded point of view on the operational implications of proposed products, services, policies, organizational changes, and technology investments.

Lead People and Organization Development

• Build, coach, and develop a high-performing Operations leadership team and a strong pipeline of operational talent.

• Assess organizational structure, spans of control, management layers, role clarity, staffing models, workforce capabilities, and succession needs.

• Provide a clear point of view on organization design and recommend changes needed to create a future-ready Operations team.

• Define the roles, skills, leadership capabilities, and development priorities required as operations become more integrated, data-informed, digitally enabled, and scalable.

• Create a culture of accountability, collaboration, inclusion, disciplined execution, continuous improvement, and member service excellence.

• Lead change transparently, engage employees in improvement, and protect service and control continuity during transitions.

Manage Risk, Controls, and Partnerships

• Ensure assigned functions operate in accordance with applicable laws, regulations, policies, contracts, and internal standards.

• Partner with Risk, Compliance, Internal Audit, Information Security, Legal, Finance, and People leaders to identify and address operational risks, control gaps, and workforce needs.

• Integrate controls into redesigned processes and technology-enabled workflows rather than treating compliance as a separate activity.

• Ensure timely remediation of audit, examination, compliance, vendor, and operational issues within the function.

• Represent Operations in enterprise planning, governance, incident response, prioritization, and investment discussions.

• Communicate performance, risks, decisions, dependencies, and resource needs clearly to executive leaders and stakeholders.

What You Bring

• At least ten years of progressive leadership experience in banking, credit unions, payments, fintech, consumer financial services, or another complex regulated service environment.

• Broad operating experience across multiple banking or credit union functions, including a meaningful combination of contact centers or member services, branches or virtual service, deposit operations, payments, card services, or related back-office operations.

• Demonstrated success leading complex operational teams with accountability for service, productivity, quality, risk, controls, financial performance, and employee outcomes.

• Proven ability to improve operational performance through process redesign, organizational change, technology enablement, analytics, and disciplined performance management.

• Strong people leadership, coaching, talent development, workforce planning, succession, and change leadership capabilities.

• Experience evaluating organizational structures, staffing models, spans of control, roles, leadership capacity, and future capability needs.

• Strong understanding of operational risk, internal controls, regulatory compliance, vendor management, business continuity, and issue remediation within financial services.

• Ability to partner effectively with strategy, technology, risk, finance, people, lending, and member-experience leaders while maintaining clear operational ownership.

• Ability to lead through ambiguity, communicate with executive audiences, influence stakeholders, make timely decisions, and convert plans into sustained operating results.

• Bachelor’s degree in business, finance, operations, technology, engineering, or a related field, or equivalent relevant experience.

Preferred Experience

• Credit union, community bank, or regional financial institution experience.

• Direct leadership experience across both member-facing service channels and back-office operational functions.

• Experience improving contact center workforce management, service quality, first-contact resolution, knowledge management, self-service, or omnichannel delivery.

• Experience with deposit, payments, and card operations, including related vendors, controls, dispute or exception workflows, and operational technologies.

• Experience implementing workflow automation, operational analytics, workforce management, CRM, contact center, knowledge management, artificial intelligence-enabled, or digital self-service capabilities.

• Experience designing or implementing organization, operating-model, and process changes while maintaining operational continuity.

• MBA or other relevant graduate degree, or a professional credential such as Lean Six Sigma, Prosci, PMP, or a comparable certification.

How Success Will Be Measured

• Operations reliably delivers member service and maintains appropriate quality, controls, compliance, and resilience.

• Service levels, member experience, productivity, cycle time, quality, employee effectiveness, risk, and cost-to-serve improve against established baselines.

• Leaders have clear accountability, useful performance information, effective management routines, and timely escalation practices.

• Contact Center, branches, Virtual Branch, and back-office functions operate with stronger coordination and more consistent member and employee experiences.

• Process and technology improvements are implemented, adopted, controlled, and sustained, with measurable benefits.

• The Operations organization has a credible future-state design, capability roadmap, staffing model, and leadership-development plan.

• Strong operational leaders and talent are developed and retained.

• Partnership with the VP, Strategy & Transformation and other enterprise stakeholders produces practical solutions and sustained operating results.

Salary

This compensation range takes into account the wide range of factors that are considered in making compensation decisions including but not limited to skill sets; experience and training; licensure and certifications; and other business and organizational needs. At SFFCU, it is not typical for an individual to be hired at or near the top of the range for their role and compensation decisions are dependent on the facts and circumstances of each case. A reasonable estimate of the current range for the San Francisco Market is annual base salary of $156,000 to 236,000.

Our Benefits

We have a competitive compensation and benefits package, but the true reward of working for SF Fire Credit Union goes beyond what you’ll see on a pay-stub. We genuinely care our employees and we strive to invest in their professional and personal growth. We’re a relatively small organization at about 200 employees, so you can see the impact of your efforts and the value your contributions bring to our members and fellow employees.

• 401(k) and Employer Match

• Health, Vision, Dental and Life Insurance

• Annual Incentive/Bonus Program

• Tuition Reimbursement Program

• 11 Paid Holidays + Competitive PTO package

• Home & Consumer Loan Program (Discounted Rates)

• Professional development and training programs

• On-demand personal coaching resource

• Wellness Program (Discounted Gym Membership)

“Pursuant to the San Francisco Fair Chance Ordinance, we will consider for employment qualified applicants with arrest and conviction records.”

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