I bring direct experience supporting technology operations inside a fast-growing, heavily regulated financial services environment — scaling infrastructure and security programs through 4x company growth while maintaining compliance readiness for FFIEC, SOC 1 Type 2, and partner-driven audits.
That background spans building layered security programs, leading vendor and compliance risk management, and integrating acquired businesses — all while keeping systems reliable for a company where uptime and data protection are business-critical, not optional.
Fractional IT leadership brings that same caliber of oversight to growing financial services businesses that need it, without the cost or commitment of a full-time executive hire.
A few things distinguish the technology environment at a regulated financial services company:
Audits are a constant, not an event. FFIEC, SOC 1, SOC 2, PCI, and partner-driven reviews often run concurrently, each with its own evidence requirements. Compliance readiness has to be a maintained program with documentation and controls kept current year-round, not a rush before the next review.
Growth strains security and access controls faster than most businesses expect. A company scaling headcount rapidly needs onboarding, offboarding, and access governance to scale with it — otherwise every new hire and every departure becomes a manual, error-prone process and a growing audit liability.
Vendor risk is a compliance issue, not just a procurement one. Every vendor with access to systems or data carries risk that has to be evaluated, documented, and revisited — which is why vendor management works best as a shared discipline between IT, Finance, and Legal/Compliance rather than an IT-only function.
Uptime and data protection are business-critical, not optional. In a financial services environment, a security incident or extended outage is not just an operational inconvenience — it is a regulatory and reputational event. Infrastructure decisions get made with that weight in mind.
Five areas where independent IT leadership consistently changes the outcome for regulated financial services operations.
Financial services technology decisions are made in the shadow of audits — FFIEC, SOC 1, SOC 2, PCI, and partner-driven reviews, often more than one running at a time. I treat compliance evidence and policy work as an ongoing program, not a scramble before the auditor shows up, and I work directly with Finance and Legal/Compliance rather than handing IT decisions off in isolation.
A layered security program — identity and access management, MFA/SSO, Zero Trust network access, endpoint and vulnerability management, email security, SIEM, and penetration testing — built and run as one coordinated program rather than a collection of point tools. Risk assessments get translated into an actual budget and roadmap, not a report that sits unread.
Onboarding and offboarding are compliance events, not just IT tickets — especially during rapid headcount growth. I build identity and access processes that integrate directly with HR systems, hold up under audit, and keep pace whether the environment runs traditional domain controls or a modern cloud-identity setup.
Vendors get held to the same accountability standard as internal teams — defined SLAs, KPIs, and escalation paths tied to what actually matters to the business, not vague service promises. That includes the technology side of growth events like acquisitions: integrating new locations, people, and equipment into existing operations without disrupting the business already running.
Technology budgets in a regulated environment need the same rigor as any other line item — multi-million-dollar budget ownership, cost governance, and savings work done in partnership with Legal and Finance, not IT operating as its own silo.
Balanced Bandwidth’s work in financial services is grounded in direct leadership of IT operations for a high-growth consumer finance company that scaled from roughly 550 to 2,000+ users in about two years — a 4x increase in headcount inside a heavily regulated lending environment, with a technology budget of $6M or more.
Over that period, that role owned compliance evidence and policy programs supporting successful audits for FFIEC, SOC 1 Type 2, and additional key business-partner reviews; built a layered security program from the ground up, including an enterprise identity platform with single sign-on across 15+ applications, modern email security, and unified risk alerting across cloud platforms; and co-chaired a cross-functional vendor management committee with Finance and Legal/Compliance to keep vendor risk, security, and accountability working as one connected discipline rather than separate checkboxes.
The role also included leading the technology side of an acquisition — coordinating the relocation and onboarding of roughly 100 acquired employees and their equipment into existing office space, covering space planning, provisioning, and continuity of support through the transition — alongside data retention policy work done in partnership with Legal that delivered more than $150K in annual savings.
For Orange County financial services businesses navigating similar regulatory weight and growth pressure, that is direct, hands-on experience with what compliance-ready IT actually takes — not theoretical familiarity with the frameworks involved.
The fastest way to find out is a direct conversation. You’ll leave with a clear picture of whether there’s a real gap — and if there is, what it would take to close it.
No pitch. No commitment. Just a direct conversation about where your business’s technology stands.