Head of Technical Program Management - Banking

When medieval Europe raised its cathedrals, the master builder rarely carved the stone. They held the entire structure in their head, sequencing masons, glaziers, and carpenters across decades, reconciling a patron's ambitions with the physics of load-bearing walls, so that a thousand independent efforts added up to one coherent thing built to stand for centuries. Mercury is building something that demands the same architectural coherence. We're pursuing a bank charter and standing up the governance, infrastructure, and operational rigor that becoming a bank requires. The work that spans every engineering, product, design, and data team in our banking* org. As Head of Technical Program Management, Banking, you'll be the master builder: the person who holds the whole program in their head, sequences the work, and makes sure it all stands up. You'll act as the control center for all banking workstreams:, core banking build, credit and lending, customer migration, risk systems, and incident coordination, while defining, from scratch, the technical program management operating system the org runs on. You'll own exec-level reporting and you'll build and lead the TPM team. Early on, you'll also operate as a player-coach, directly running select program areas like credit and lending while you hire behind yourself. *Mercury is a fintech company, not an FDIC-insured bank. Banking services provided through Choice Financial Group and Column N.A., Members FDIC. What you'll do: Own the program for Mercury's bank charter and governance work: the sequencing, dependencies, risks, and decisions across engineering, product, design, and data teams Define the TPM operating system for the banking org: the rituals, tooling, reporting, and standards that make complex cross-functional work legible and fast Build automation and agentic flows to run programs with efficiency and high quality Build and run exec-level reporting, synthesizing a high volume of information into self-serve dashboards and crisp narratives about what matters most Pressure-test timelines, sequencing, and estimates with engineering and product leaders, knowing when to challenge assumptions Build, manage, and develop a team of TPMs while directly running select program areas Drive decisions through ambiguity: clarify ownership, force tradeoffs into the open, and use productive conflict to get to the right answer Operate with the auditability and documentation rigor that regulated, governance-heavy work demands What an incredible candidate looks like: 10+ years of program management, engineering, or product leadership experience, including 3+ years managing TPMs or PMs A technical background, ideally engineering, technical program management or senior product, with the fluency to work through architecture-level tradeoffs, timelines, and estimates with eng leaders Experience in regulated industries; fintech or banking strongly preferred A track record of building program management functions or operating systems, not just running individual programs Exceptional communication and the ability to influence cross-functionally, up to execs, across to peers, and down to teams you don't manage A solutions-first orientation: comfortable being dropped into ambiguity and known for leaving clarity behind Nice to have: Experience at a fintech operating on (or building toward) its own banking infrastructure The total rewards package at Mercury includes base salary, equity (stock options/RSUs), and benefits. Our salary and equity ranges are highly competitive within the SaaS and fintech industry and are updated regularly using the most reliable compensation survey data for our industry. New hire offers are made based on a candidate’s experience, expertise, geographic location, and internal pay equity relative to peers. Our target new hire base salary ranges for this role are the following: US employees in New York City, Los Angeles, Seattle, or the San Francisco Bay Area: $269,700 - $337,100 USD…