Strategic Initiatives Program Lead, Risk Operations

About Team / Role

As a Global Risk Operations Program Manager, you will be the strategic engine behind an organization managing over $100B in annual payments (inbound and outbound) and safeguarding over $10B in client and consumer assets. You won't just track projects; you will provide strategic oversight and drive critical initiatives across financial operations domains such as Collections, Billing, and Treasury Operations that directly protect WEX's bottom line and transform the customer experience. This is a high-visibility role where your ability to navigate a complex global financial ecosystem ensures operational integrity and fuels our next phase of growth.

How You'll Make an Impact

STRATEGIC PLANNING & INITIATIVE IDENTIFICATION

• Pipeline Development: Partner with Risk Operations Leadership to identify and document critical initiatives required to deliver operational risk targets and achieve customer experience goals.

• LOB Alignment: Maintain a deep understanding of Global Risk Operations across Mobility, CPS/Travel, and Benefits LOBs to ensure initiatives align with unique regulatory, financial integrity, and operational needs.

PROGRAM EXECUTION & PROJECT LEADERSHIP

• Capital & Tech Liaison: Serve as the primary Global Risk Operations oversight lead for Capital Funded Initiatives and Product/Technology roadmaps, ensuring operational requirements are prioritized and tracked across the enterprise. 

• Cross-Functional Governance: Provide rigorous oversight of the project portfolio, acting as the bridge between technical teams and Risk Operations to ensure product releases align with the organization's capital funding objectives.

• Executive Visibility: Manage and report on a wide variety of projects with varying complexity, providing leadership with a high-level view of progress, roadblocks, and financial impacts to eliminate the need for leadership attendance at every project-level meeting. 

• Risk Mitigation Oversight: Maintain constant visibility into issues and risks across the portfolio, driving teams toward closure and escalating only the most critical items to senior leadership for intervention. 

STAKEHOLDER MANAGEMENT & COMMUNICATION

• Facilitation: Conduct effective facilitation sessions with multiple stakeholders to move complex projects forward and reach consensus.

• Visual Artifacts: Translate complex workflows and technical specifications into visual artifacts using standard tools to ensure cross-functional understanding.

• Cross-Functional Partnership: Build strong relationships and facilitate alignment across senior management, sales, account management, legal, audit, and risk departments.

These statements are intended to describe the general nature and level of work being performed rather than give an exhaustive list of all duties and responsibilities.

Experience You'll Bring

Minimum Qualifications for Consideration:

• Bachelor’s degree OR an equivalent combination of education and relevant experience.

• 7-10 years of experience managing a portfolio of interrelated initiatives (programs) within a financial risk operations environment, with a proven ability to align multiple projects to achieve overarching operational risk targets.

• Demonstrated ability to deconflict resources and timelines across multiple workstreams to ensure consistent delivery of high-scale financial initiatives. 

• Proficiency in project management and visualization software (e.g., LucidChart, Draw.io) to translate complex workflows into visual artifacts.

• Functional understanding of compliance and operational risk management to ensure Domain Leaders are engaged for the validation of SOX, SOC, and regulatory control integrity.

• Strong analytical skills with the ability to research, analyze, and present complex findings to drive decision-making. 

• Must successfully pass a background investigation.

Competencies:

• 2+ years of experience building consensus and driving results through cross-functional partners rather than direct reporting lines. 

• Excellent writing and verbal communication skills, with the ability to facilitate alignment and consensus among senior management, legal, and audit departments. 

• Ability to work effectively in a high-pressure, fast-paced environment while managing multiple shifting priorities. 

• A dynamic self-starter who can work independently to drive projects to closure while also functioning as a collaborative team member. 

• Ability to develop and maintain strong relationships with global leadership and functional SMEs to ensure project success. 

• High degree of attention to detail, specifically in documenting initiatives and measuring them against defined financial and operational metrics.

Preferred Qualifications:

• Experience managing projects within Collections, Payment Operations, or other Risk Operations domain.  

• Experience with international financial regulations.

• Strong analytical skills including ability to research, analyze and present findings

• Demonstrated organizational skills, attention to detail and multitasking skills

• Must be dynamic and a self-starter, able to work independently or as part of a team

• Ability to work in a high-pressure environment

• Experience in compliance or operational risk management.