Process Excellence Manager

Position Summary The Process Excellence Manager leads SFCU's corporate-wide efforts to improve how work gets done by partnering with business units to identify opportunities to simplify processes, improve efficiency, reduce expense, increase employee capacity, strengthen controls, and enhance the member and employee experience. The Manager works across the organization to understand business problems without assuming the solution, determining whether opportunities are best addressed through process redesign, policy or procedure changes, automation, artificial intelligence, data, technology development, integrations, vendor solutions, or other approaches.

Build Your Career. Make a Difference. Since 1949, Sidney Federal Credit Union (SFCU) has been committed to helping people achieve financial success and strengthening the communities we serve. What began as a small member-owned cooperative in Sidney, New York, has grown into a trusted financial institution with more than $1 billion in assets and a presence across New York. At SFCU, we believe great member experiences start with great employees. Were building a workplace where people can grow, contribute, collaborate, and build meaningful careers while making a positive impact on our members and communities. When you join SFCU, you become part of a team that values service, innovation, professional growth, and relationships. Whether youre helping members reach important financial milestones, improving processes, developing new solutions, or supporting the teams who serve our members, your work matters. Position Summary The Process Excellence Manager leads SFCU's corporate-wide efforts to improve how work gets done by partnering with business units to identify opportunities to simplify processes, improve efficiency, reduce expense, increase employee capacity, strengthen controls, and enhance the member and employee experience.This position serves as an internal consultant and strategic partner to business leaders, providing a white-glove approach to process discovery, opportunity identification, solution design, implementation, and benefits measurement.The Manager works across the organization to understand business problems without assuming the solution, determining whether opportunities are best addressed through process redesign, policy or procedure changes, automation, artificial intelligence, data, technology development, integrations, vendor solutions, or other approaches.The position is responsible for establishing and managing the Process Excellence methodology, pipeline, prioritization framework, and measurement of organizational benefits. Key Responsibilities Process Excellence Leadership Establish and lead SFCU's Process Excellence program and methodology. Develop an annual roadmap of priority process improvement initiatives in partnership with executive and business-unit leadership. Establish a structured approach for identifying, evaluating, prioritizing, implementing, and measuring improvement opportunities. Maintain a corporate-wide Process Excellence opportunity pipeline. Develop standards, tools, templates, and methodologies that enable consistent process improvement across SFCU including ownership of the Corporate Process Catalog. Establish and maintain appropriate measures for financial, operational, member, employee, and risk-related benefits. Business Partnership & Discovery Build strong relationships with leaders and employees across all areas of SFCU. Conduct and oversee structured discovery engagements with targeted business units. Facilitate interviews, workshops, process walkthroughs, and process-mapping sessions. Develop an understanding of how work is actually performed, including systems, people, processes, handoffs, controls, and pain points. Challenge assumptions and identify opportunities to eliminate unnecessary work before introducing new technology or complexity. Serve as a trusted, objective partner to business units rather than simply recommending technology solutions. Opportunity Identification & Solution Design Identify opportunities to eliminate, simplify, standardize, automate, integrate, redesign, or otherwise improve business processes. Evaluate opportunities for automation, artificial intelligence, including agentic AI, data and analytics, core development, system enhancements, integrations, vendor solutions, and other emerging technologies. Partner with Technology leaders and subject matter experts to evaluate technical feasibility. Partner with Information Security, Risk, Compliance, and other control functions as appropriate. Develop future-state process designs and solution recommendations. Identify opportunities that may be applicable across multiple business units. Business Cases & ROI Quantify the financial and operational impact of proposed improvements. Develop business cases that clearly articulate investment, expected benefits, risks, complexity, and anticipated return. Establish baseline measurements prior to implementation whenever practical. Track and validate actual results following implementation. Report measurable benefits including expense reduction, employee capacity created, revenue opportunities, risk reduction, and member and employee experience improvements. Develop executive-level reporting that demonstrates the value generated by the Process Excellence function. Implementation & Change Management Lead or coordinate implementation of approved Process Excellence initiatives. Partner with business owners to ensure solutions are practical, sustainable, and adopted. Coordinate work across Technology, business units, vendors, and other stakeholders. Support change management, communications, training, and adoption activities. Ensure process documentation and ownership are established following implementation. Conduct post-implementation reviews to confirm expected benefits were achieved. AI, Automation & Innovation Maintain awareness of emerging automation and AI capabilities and their potential application within financial services. Ensure AI and automation opportunities are evaluated through SFCU's established governance, risk, security, and compliance processes. Partner with Technology and business leaders to identify responsible opportunities to leverage AI and automation. Encourage experimentation and proof-of-concept development where appropriate while maintaining appropriate risk controls. Identify opportunities to scale successful solutions across the organization. Leadership & Team Development Lead, coach, and develop Process Excellence team members. Establish clear performance expectations and measurable objectives. Build a culture of continuous improvement, curiosity, accountability, and measurable results. Develop the team's capabilities in process improvement, business analysis, automation, AI, data, facilitation, and change management. Evaluate staffing and resource needs based on demonstrated organizational demand and return on investment.