Company Description

Be a part of something different

We may offer the same products and services as a big bank, but we couldn't be more different. We're rooted in purpose and we're on a mission to improve lives and strengthen communities. We support nearly 20,000 members and businesses digitally, over the telephone, and in-person across a network of six branches across Niagara and Haldimand.

At PenFinancial, our people are our greatest asset and our values speak for themselves: accountability, passion, integrity, respect, and knowledge. More than a poster on the wall, our values guide everything we do. They're values we live every single day – where everyone has a voice and where we listen. Just ask someone who works here to see what they think, and check out our latest annual report to see what we've been up to.

We provide all of our employees with a generous benefits package that includes a Living Wage salary, defined contribution pension plan and performance-based success sharing. Combine that with our commitment to contributing to the wellbeing of our employees through competitive benefits programs, wellness days and allowances for education, and it's no surprise that our employee engagement scores are consistently so strong.

Our commitment to community

We live our brand from the inside out, and our Truly Local Commitment starts with our employees. We support an inclusive, diverse, and caring internal culture. We encourage our employees to give back to the causes that are meaningful to them and their families by providing opportunities to volunteer and represent our truly local credit union through our Truly Local Ambassador program. And, we also commit to investing a portion of our profits directly back into our local communities.

We are a proud Certified B Corporation committed to doing business for good, and we choose 100% renewable energy with Bullfrog Power to support environmental sustainability.

Job Description

The Senior IT Specialist is responsible for providing direction and leadership in system applications, client end points, and data center infrastructure, with an emphasis on security to ensure the integrity of all areas. This role is responsible for the architecture, design and on-going operations of all information systems adhering to service level agreements, recovery point objectives and recovery time objectives. This position is tasked with conducting reviews of business processes and implementing automation capabilities where strategically appropriate.

This position is distinguished by the following:

• Level of technical expertise required to manage complex business and technical solutions to meet the business needs.
• Level of technical expertise related to designing and implementing security solutions and practices in order to ensure compliance and security of sensitive information.
• Requirement to train and grow the knowledge on the team of both security systems, networks, applications, and core banking system(s).
• Level of training skills to design and deliver user training for new and current software and systems.
• Level of interpersonal skill to foster a cooperative, motivated and innovative work environment.
• Demonstrate extensive knowledge of technology specific to Credit Unions and multisite environments, ensuring optimal performance and security across all platforms

Differentiating Accountabilities:

• Provide expertise in designing and implementing the environment to ensure the environment meets current and future needs. This includes strategic design for on-premise and cloud services while ensuring the proper security and recovery of services, data and other assets.
• Implement and proactively maintain all technology services including virtualization, SANs, servers, network (WAN/LAN), email, client end points, printers, applications etc. and all associated security to protect the environment.
• Lead the design, testing, implementation and maintenance of disaster recovery plans for existing and new services to ensure adherence to SLAs. Update the disaster recovery plans for new systems and key learnings that come from each test.
• Ensure the security and safety of all systems and data. Proactively monitor system performance and security to identify early threats and take required action, as needed. Implement appropriate controls to ensure the safety and availability of all systems, services and data.
• Ensure backups adhere to the data retention requirements.
• Provide proper data management protection based on data classification levels.
• Provide reporting and scorecards to executive management outlining the status of all systems and applications (availability, support status, patching levels, version status etc.).
• Lead the development of IT policies and procedures.
• Lead IT audits. Recommend controls and work with auditors in order to get an outside view of the environment and implement remediation steps as required.
• Work with all areas of the business to identify technology needs and process improvement opportunities.
• Work with 3rd party service providers to ensure system uptime, performance and stability. Follow vendor management guidelines for key partners.
• Stay current and apply your expertise in defining and implementing impacts and initiatives required to adhere to regulatory requirements (FSRA, PCI etc.) and ensure internal frameworks adhere to requirements. Understand and roll out core frameworks such as COBIT, NIST, ISO27001, CIS Top20/18 and build out organizational maturity that aligns to the frameworks.
• Perform other assigned responsibilities.

Qualifications

• Completion of a post-secondary education in engineering, computer science or equivalent, coupled with relevant years of experience in a senior infrastructure role
• 15+ years working in a Senior IT infrastructure role
• 12+ years of security experience focusing on frameworks, audits and implementing controls in a data sensitive environment
• Extensive experience with the implementation of advanced infrastructure technologies such as networking, storage area networks (SAN), collaboration solutions, security controls, cloud services etc.
• Proven ability to lead projects and work cohesively within a team environment
• Familiarity with banking systems (RFS, Wealthview, Ovation etc.) is considered an asset
• IT certifications related to VMWare, Exchange, Windows Server, cloud are required
• Security related certifications (Security+, CISSP, CEH etc.) are required and must be kept current
• Ability to work outside of regular business hours, which may include evenings and/or weekends

Additional Information

To learn more visit https://www.penfinancial.com/careers

While we welcome all applications, only those who are selected for an interview will be contacted.

Accessibility accommodations will be made for job candidates upon request.