SVP Chief Technology Officer

Charter Oak is looking to hire an SVP Chief Technology Officer. The Chief Technology Officer provides enterprise-wide leadership for technology strategy, infrastructure, core systems, data architecture, project governance, and innovation. This role ensures that technology investments strengthen member experience, employee productivity, operational resilience, cybersecurity, and the credit union’s long-term strategic growth.

Reporting to the CEO or designated executive leader, the CTO works closely with executive leadership, Risk Management, Information Security, Operations, Member Experience, Digital Banking, and business line leaders to align technology priorities with enterprise strategy, regulatory expectations, member needs, and organizational capacity.

ESSENTIAL DUTIES AND RESPONSIBILITIES:
• Leadership & Management
• Lead technology architecture including infrastructure, key applications, data and project management to ensure technology capabilities support the credit union’s strategic priorities, regulatory requirements, operational needs, and member experience goals.
• Develop, maintain, execute, and adapt a comprehensive technology roadmap that directly supports the Strategic Plan, organizational goals, annual metrics, risk appetite, member experience priorities, and operational efficiency objectives.
• Develop and manage the technology operating and capital budgets, ensuring effective prioritization of investments, resource allocation, cost optimization, and measurable return on technology expenditures.
• Partner with the Member Experience team to identify technology-related service delivery friction and drive automation, workflow improvement, efficiency, and faster service delivery.
• Develop and champion comprehensive strategies for data-driven decision-making through robust data architecture, reliable reporting solutions, high-quality data governance, and accessible business intelligence tools.
• IT Infrastructure
• Design, maintain, secure, and continuously improve technology infrastructure to support business needs, strengthen operational resilience, optimize industry-leading security, maintain reliable service delivery, and drive operational efficiency.
• Design, implement, and maintain a layered network security architecture that protects the network perimeter, secures internal network segments, and supports a Zero Trust security model. Establish defense-in-depth controls across external and internal network interfaces to prevent unauthorized access, minimize attack surfaces, enforce least-privilege access, and protect critical systems and data. Integrate next-generation firewalls, network segmentation, intrusion detection and prevention, secure remote access, identity-aware access controls, and continuous monitoring to provide comprehensive threat prevention, detection, and response.
• Identify and implement technology solutions to support employee productivity and efficiency with focused training to support adoption.
• Continuously improve Charter Oak’s security posture in partnership with Risk Management and Information Security by aligning organizational security policies, risk management requirements, and industry best practices, while continuously evaluating and improving the architecture to address emerging threats and evolving business needs.
• Oversee enterprise technology disaster recovery capabilities, technology resiliency planning, testing, and recovery readiness to support business continuity objectives.
• Project Management
• Oversee key technology vendor relationships, contracts, service-level expectations, due diligence, implementation performance, and ongoing third-party risk considerations to ensure vendor solutions remain secure, reliable, cost-effective, and aligned with credit union objectives.
• Ensure all projects are strategically aligned, prudently scoped, properly approved, and sufficiently resourced with clear outcome-based metrics.
• Lead project resource capacity planning through the Project Management Office to support proper resource management and workforce planning.
• Develop and document project management governance and methodologies for consistent application in support of proper organizational governance.
• Orchestrate and lead large, strategic cross-functional projects to ensure ROI and objective outcome tracking.
• Core Systems, Applications, & Integrations
• Ensure proper management and maintenance of all core business applications to maintain maximum uptime and optimize efficiency.
• Lead design, execution, and modification of data flows between systems and ensure efficient workflows and optimal data availability to support staff efficiency and member service experience.
• Build and maintain seamless integration of systems through the best available tools and methodologies that optimize both security and operational efficiency in alignment with immediate and long-term business objectives.
• Emerging Technologies and Innovation
• Monitor emerging technologies to identify, evaluate, recommend, and prioritize practical technology solutions that align with the credit union’s strategy, business needs, risk appetite, member expectations, and implementation capacity.
• Cultivate key technology partners to support strategic implementation and member outcomes.
• Foster and support a culture of innovation throughout the organization to continuously improve member and employee experience through process and technological improvement.

EDUCATION and/or EXPERIENCE: BS/BA Degree in Technology, Information Management, Business Administration or related field. At least 5 years work experience in a financial institution and a total of at least 10 years of total IT related experience. Must be an innovative, proactive leader who possesses sound analytical and critical decision-making capabilities. Requires well-developed interpersonal skills in order to communicate effectively with members, employees and vendors.

Equal Opportunity Employer Veterans/Disabled

Charter Oak offers paid time off, paid sick time, a variety of health, medical, and supplemental insurance plans, and a 401(k)-retirement plan with an employer match.