At Stearns Bank, we’re helping people, entrepreneurs, small businesses, and local communities nationwide reach their full financial potential. Sound like something you want to be a part of? If so, we’re currently looking for a Fintech Program Manager. This is a Connected Mobile Work Environment.
Come see how we’re doing business unusual and charting our own path to reimagine a more inclusive financial services and banking ecosystem for all.
BENEFITS
Stearns Bank understands and respects that everyone is managing unique career, family, and wellness needs. That’s why we offer industry-leading benefits to employees to help them live healthy lives and bring their full selves to work every day. Benefits may vary for part-time positions. Some of those benefits include:
Employee Stock Ownership Plan & 401k Plan
Healthcare (Medical, Dental, Vision, Telehealth, Life insurance)
12-week Paid Parental Leave and Medical Leave: With a cap of 20 weeks for eligible team members who qualify for both Medical and Parental Leave related to the birth of a child.
$5,000 Family Care Reimbursement: Childcare, Elder Care, Student Loan Debt, Pet expenses, Down Payment Assistance
PTO from 13 to 23 days depending on tenure. Cashout and Carryover options
10 Days Sick Time
11 Paid Holidays
4 Days Volunteer Time
2 Days Self Allowance Time
Tuition Assistance
For this position, we anticipate a salary range between $100,000 - $120,000. Final employment offers will be dependent upon the selected candidate’s relevant qualifications and experience.
JOB SUMMARY
The Fintech Program Manager is responsible for designing, standardizing, and delivering the technical integrations that connect the Bank’s direct partnerships to its own technology stack. Working closely with IT and Fintech Operations, this individual defines repeatable integration patterns, file formats, and delivery mechanisms, along with the documentation, onboarding playbooks, and technical standards partners follow to connect to us.
RESPONSIBILITIES
Solution Design & Integration Architecture
- Act as primary architect and, in partnership with Fintech Operations and IT, lead the design of how direct partners integrate onto the Bank’s core platform, APIs, file-based interfaces, and payment rails.
- Develop and maintain a working understanding of the Bank’s technology environment and data/funds flows, partnering with those that own the internal mechanics.
- Lead integration design discussions with partner product and technical teams; translate between teams and the Bank’s internal technology and operations teams.
- Produce integration designs, data mappings, and solution documentation that balance partner needs with the Bank’s operational, compliance, and risk requirements.
Integration Standardization & Enablement
- Build and maintain standardized integration patterns, file formats, delivery mechanisms (e.g., SFTP/file exchange, APIs), and naming/validation conventions partners use to connect to the Bank.
- Create and maintain partner-facing onboarding playbooks, technical specifications, and integration checklists that make partner integration repeatable, faster, and lower-risk across the direct pipeline.
- Coordinate connectivity, testing, and validation of partner file feeds and interfaces, bringing internal flow and funds-flow questions to the appropriate teams.
- Coordinate with Fintech operations to support integration oversight and FBO/sub-ledger reconciliation design for mature partners.
- Continuously improve the integration toolkit and standards library based on lessons learned across programs.
Program Delivery & Implementation
- Own end-to-end technical onboarding and implementation for assigned partnerships from integration planning through testing, go-live readiness, and launch.
- Manage implementation plans, timelines, dependencies, and testing/UAT cycles, ensuring launches meet regulatory, operational, and contractual requirements.
- Coordinate due diligence with the Bank’s third-party risk management process and account structuring in partnership with the relevant teams.
- Support funds-flow and payment-rail enablement (ACH, wire, RTP, FedNow) in coordination with Fintech Operations.
Business Development & Relationship Management
- Support a pipeline of direct partnership opportunities aligned with the Bank’s strategic priorities, risk appetite, and target verticals.
- Contribute a technical and feasibility perspective to early partner conversations, business cases, and deal structuring in collaboration with the Fintech and Partnership Banking team and leadership.
- Serve as the ongoing relationship owner for assigned partnerships after launch, conducting business reviews and identifying integration or expansion opportunities.
- Represent Stearns Bank at select industry conferences and events, including those serving cannabis and other high-risk industries, positioning the Bank as a credible, compliant partner.
- Ability to travel as needed, estimated at 15–25% for conferences, partner meetings, site visits, and team gatherings.
Regulatory, Compliance & Oversight
- Execute ongoing oversight activities in partnership with Compliance, BSA, and Risk, ensuring programs remain in full compliance with regulatory and contractual obligations.
- Maintain working knowledge of BSA/AML, KYC, third-party risk management, and payments regulations as they apply to bank partnership programs.
- Act as a trusted advisor to partners on the Bank’s expectations for integration, compliance, operations, and growth.
High-Risk Industry Programs
- Support the design and scaling of banking programs for cannabis-related businesses and other high-risk industries, such as money services businesses.
- Work closely with BSA/AML teams on the requirements of FinCEN’s 2014 marijuana banking guidance, associated SAR filing regimes, enhanced due diligence, and state licensing verification.
- Monitor the evolving state and federal landscape for cannabis banking and other high-risk verticals and advise leadership on program implications.
- Support partnership development within the Bank’s Salaam Banking Division as assigned.
QUALIFICATIONS
- Bachelor’s degree in business, finance, technology, or a related field, or equivalent combination of education and experience.
- 5+ years of experience in banking, fintech, or financial services spanning implementation, solutions/integration, program management, or partnership roles.
- Demonstrated ability to design or coordinate technical integrations — file-based interfaces, APIs, or data exchanges — and to lead integration discussions with technical counterparts, with a clear trajectory toward owning integration architecture.
- Ability to rapidly develop fluency in a new technology environment and translate that understanding into partner-facing solutions and standards.
- Working knowledge of BSA/AML, KYC, third-party risk management, and payments concepts as they apply to bank partnership programs.
- Excellent written and verbal communication skills, with the ability to articulate technical and regulatory concepts to diverse audiences.
- Self-motivated, organized, and able to manage multiple concurrent partnerships and implementations.
PREFERRED QUALIFICATIONS
- Direct experience banking cannabis-related businesses (CRBs/MRBs) or other high-risk industries requiring enhanced due diligence programs.
- Familiarity with FinCEN’s 2014 marijuana banking guidance and the associated SAR filing framework.
- Experience implementing direct (non-middleware) fintech integrations on a bank’s core or issuer-processor platform.
- Experience defining or standardizing partner integration processes, file specifications, or onboarding playbooks.
- Experience at a sponsor bank or partner bank in a fintech partnership, BaaS, or payments capacity.
- International banking, cross-border payments, or international fintech experience.
- Familiarity with Islamic banking principles (e.g., Riba-free structures) in support of the Bank’s Salaam Banking Division.
- Experience with data analysis and reporting tools used to monitor program performance.
REQUIREMENTS
- Occasionally lift and/or move up to 10 lbs.
- Ability to sit for extended periods of time, twist, bend, sit, walk use hands to twist, handle or feel objects, tools, or controls, such as computer mouse, computer keyboard, calculator, stapler, telephone, staple puller, etc., reach with hands and arms, balance, stoop, kneel, talk, or hear.
- Specific vision abilities required by the job include close vision, distance vision, peripheral vision, depth perception and the ability to adjust focus.
THE COMPANY
Founded in 1912, Stearns Financial Services Inc. (SFSI) is a $3.2 billion, independently owned financial institution with locations in Minnesota, Florida and Arizona, and over 35,000 small business customers nationwide. Specializing in affordable housing financing, USDA and SBA lending, and small business and equipment financing, Stearns Bank is regularly recognized as one of the country’s top-performing banks and “Best Banks to Work For” by American Banker.
As a Star Tribune Top Workplaces award recipient and an award recipient of the Minnesota Business Magazine 100 Best Places to Work in Minnesota, Stearns takes pride in their team and holds their employees in extremely high regard. We offer a competitive salary and benefit package including our Employee Stock Ownership Program-one of the best long-term incentive programs in the nation. To learn more about Stearns Bank, visit www.StearnsBank.com
EQUAL OPPORTUNITY EMPLOYER /AFFIRMATIVE ACTION PLAN
We are an equal opportunity employer and all qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, or creed, religion, sex, marital status, familial status, sexual orientation, national origin, age, disability, veteran’s status, status with regard to public assistance, or any other class protected by Federal, State, local laws governing nondiscrimination in employment.
