Humans of Tech
On a mission to keep humanity at the center of technology. Each episode features candid conversations with guests across the tech ecosystem—from engineers and founders to cybersecurity pros and sales leaders. We ask one random question, no prep, no re-records, and dive deep into career pivots, personal rituals, and lessons learned along the way.
Because at the end of the day, tech is powered by people.
New episodes on Spotify, YouTube, and LinkedIn.
Subscribe and follow along as we ask the questions that really matter.
Humans of Tech
Solving Tech's Toughest Days: Leadership Insights from Jay Moran at Fiserv
Use Left/Right to seek, Home/End to jump to start or end. Hold shift to jump forward or backward.
Jay Moran brings a refreshingly candid perspective to tech leadership as SVP and Distinguished Engineer at Fiserv, the global financial infrastructure company powering payments across 100+ countries. What makes his insights particularly valuable is the fascinating contrast between his public-facing leadership persona and his self-described introverted nature.
"I will come across extroverted," Jay explains, "but I would much rather not talk to anybody... be in my basement lab, just talking to people through emails." This honest acknowledgment of the tension many technical leaders face – needing to be visible while preferring to work behind the scenes – opens up a crucial conversation about authentic leadership in technology.
Jay's career journey spans from AOL's early days through VistaPrint to his current role building critical financial infrastructure, giving him a unique vantage point on how technology has transformed daily life. But what truly sets him apart is his approach to leading teams. He regularly tells his people, "Do as I say, not as I do," acknowledging that his personal work habits might not be healthy for everyone. When sending weekend emails, he deliberately adds notes like "do not reply until Monday" to maintain boundaries and respect his team's need to recharge.
Perhaps most compelling is Jay's perspective on diversity in tech. As a self-described "middle-aged white guy with gray in my beard," he recognizes he represents the demographic that has historically dominated technology leadership. Yet rather than being defensive, he actively works to change this reality through his involvement with Women in Tech initiatives, particularly their single mothers program. His personal connection – being raised by a single mother who had to get her GED after his father's death – drives his belief that "the best ideas often come from people who don't think the same way."
Ready to explore more authentic conversations with the humans shaping technology? Subscribe to Humans of Tech on your favorite platform and check out our merch store to represent the human side of the tech industry.
Introducing Jay Moran of Fiserv
Speaker 1Ever wonder what tech leaders would say if they had no prep and no redos ? Welcome to Humans of Tech . I'm Caroline and I'm Kelly . We're keeping humans at the center of technology through quick , authentic conversations with people shaping the industry .
Speaker 2Got three rules no prep , no editing and one live random question our guests never see coming . I asked Emma's in summer break . I asked her to please just give me 20 minutes because I need to record this podcast and she's like okay , fine , I hear the microwave . She's seven . She doesn't know how to use the microwave . Homegirl is putting a plate plastic plate in the microwave because her egg is cold . This is when she decides to become independent , when I can't go stop her .
Speaker 1Love that . Well , okay , we have such an exciting guest coming on , but before that , um , what do we talk about this morning ? What are we ? We're gonna be in another country together soon my goodness , yes , I'm turning four yay , and I don't know . I was thinking when you texted me and I was like , okay , south America for Caroline's birthday . Like you know , that's a little bit more than I do for for my friends . But I was like , you know what I'm gonna show up , because that's what we do for the people that we care about .
Speaker 2And uh , you're in my inner circle , so and if I can be an excuse , for you South America , like I'm all in , I feel like that's almost a good service .
Speaker 1It is . And y'all , I've never been to South America , so you're like exposing me to a new culture and I'm so excited . And , um , yeah , just a couple of months away , the land of my people , yeah , Um , so can you tell me about the guests ?
Speaker 2Oh yeah , I know . Look , we got humans of tech here . Everybody . Look at my adorable water mug .
Speaker 1I like go crazy for branding so I got my water bottle over here . I'm a little obsessed with the sweatshirt but yeah , really pumped that we now can , uh , let anyone rep our brand .
Speaker 2Um . Can you tell me about our yes ?
Speaker 1Okay . So I'm so excited because this guest is coming to us from a really unique perspective and I think it's so relatable . The company that he works for , so Jay Moran , is the SVP and Distinguished Engineer and Chief Infrastructure for Fiserv . So Fiserv is the reason why we can pay our friends for dinner or pay rent online . They power the payments for the world because they're global , they're in over 100 countries , and so he has a really interesting background , though , because he didn't come from , you know , the financial services side . Like he started at AOL .
Speaker 2Like , what do you think of when you hear I was stalking his , his profile just now and I know you're pumped because of the five serve background . I was like AOL . Do you know what my ? My original email , my very first email , was cielo , which means sky in Spanish . 77 , because seven was and is still my favorite number at AOLcom and the Vistaprint he worked at Vistaprint . I was like a serial entrepreneur when I was in my high school and college years . I can't tell you how many different Vistas cards I made on Vista print they could . They would give you like 50 for free . It was amazing .
Speaker 1Oh yeah , that's how they get you , though I mean I used it now for like all of our um , a lot of our printing , but yeah , so , like this guy has done it , done it all , seen all different industries , and I mean being in tech for so long like I can . Only I'm just so excited to learn more from him , and you know what ? I haven't shared this with you , but he is the leader of the women IT organization internally at Pfizer .
Speaker 2I just saw something . I saw one of his posts and it was women IT and I meant to go grab it , but then we just hopped on here . Wait , he runs an IT org at Pfizer .
Speaker 1I have to get a little bit more clarity . Let me ask him about this .
Speaker 2I'm curious because I love , so , like I'm part of the extra hop , women in IT scenario . You know that I do women in gov tech for New York state , but it's like run and managed by women , which I love but I also don't love . I would love to see more men involved in organizing some of the stuff . But I know that's kind of like is it like an oxymoron ? Is that the right word ?
Speaker 1it is to a point because , but I think , like men are our allies , like they're the ones like that , when we're not in the room , like they can , they can you know advocate for us . So I think that , like in this , they can you know advocate for us . So I think that , like in this , in a scenario where you know a man's leading it , it's like that is so powerful . I want to know , like kind of how they got started too .
Speaker 2Should he be co -leading ? I don't know this . I feel like this can bring up a really hot topic . I'm going to bring this up in my next women group .
Speaker 1Yeah , well , it's interesting because when I was a part of a women's group , the Women Technology Alliance in Charlotte , where I used to live , like we had board members and they were three of them were men and it was like they would lead our panels too , and so , even though it's women empowerment , like that's the focus , it doesn't say that a man can't be in a in the room so , and that they bring different perspectives .
Speaker 2So that's the whole point of elevating a different , either gender or background . It's the diversity . But if you only elevate one and then you start to exclude everyone else , you have the exact same group thing problem that you wanted to avoid from the beginning . I like that no , I'm very , I'm very excited to um , so can we just talk a little bit more about our that sweatshirt that you're wearing ?
Speaker 2yes um , well , first of all , to our listeners , we now have a live storefront , yes , where you can get humans of tech here , and we love it , because it's not just about supporting this little podcast of ours , but , like you , work in tech . Guess what ? You are a human of tech .
Speaker 1Yeah . I just had a story the other day that was like I work at Amazon but like I'm not in tech , but I'm going to give this to someone on the tech team and I was like a key chain . I love that . So , like we have the smaller items where it's a key chain , we have the sweatshirts , which , honestly , like I am all about the look and feel of sweatshirts and y'all . This hoodie is like the most comfortable thing ever .
Speaker 2And we were able to hand your signature one . And then my signature ask was the water bottle , because we all know I always have a water bottle .
Speaker 1I think what's really unique is , too , is , like Carolyn , we we picked out the items for everyone , for ourselves . Basically , we picked them out for ourselves . Yes , we have men and women in mind . We have definitely , you know , unisex , and we also have , you know , we we could have added like 100 items . I think that day . You know we we could have added like a hundred items . I think that day , um , but yeah , so anyone can go on now and and rep humans of tech .
Speaker 2And oh , I will say , can I ? Can I bring up chat GPT here in a minute for a second ? Hopefully we have to go through just for our listeners , like if you guys aren't double checking your chat GPT , during the process of us trying to get the website up and running , we were going to my chat GPT and um trying to understand what the customer experience would be to purchase through Exomo and we were getting massively erroneous information , basically telling me that I couldn't have a customer facing website , that they would need to get a discount code and I would need to place the order . And we put the same prompt into Kelly's account and it told us to just go into settings , change a couple settings so that we did have a customer-facing website .
Speaker 1My Chachi PT got a promotion and Caroline's got a demotion .
Speaker 2Yeah , I actually I yelled I legitimately yelled at it , told it it was wrong , told it that I went to another model and got the correct answer . So folks like if you are not challenging the output that you're getting from your chat GPT , you may be doing a lot of wrong things here .
Speaker 1And I think it's really important to note that chat , gpt and that all these models are made to give you a response as quick as possible . They could be pulling from the sources of a blog that is very biased . Like . You need to be checking your sources , you need to be asking it where it got that information from and , like , tell it . Like no , I don't know if I believe that . Show me where you got that .
Five Serve and Global Payments
Speaker 2And do you feel like you're becoming a more critical thinker ?
Speaker 1I think I think so . I think it challenges me . I mean , you challenged me this morning .
Speaker 2You're like girl , like when you're in the morning and you're thinking like don't use it , because your brain is thinking for yourself , like I just think that the amount of time I'm going back and forth telling it that it's wrong or asking for a different opinion , or or now looking like I read it , trying to find something incorrect in there , yeah , so I do feel like it's kind of working a different part of my brain at this point .
Speaker 1I totally think so , hi , jay . Good morning Good morning .
Speaker 2Jay , I don't think your LinkedIn profile had the beard .
Speaker 1Yeah , I like this so much more we try to match our guests sometimes with what we wear . But I don't know if I could rock . I don't know if I could , if I could grow a beard no , no , you , you were fine without the beard um , I actually was watching .
Speaker 2What is it wonka last night with my , with my daughter ? Yeah , and the chocolates that they eat turns everyone into like hairy monsters . It was great .
Speaker 1I love that . Well , before you got on , jay , I was telling Caroline a little bit about you and kind of like you know what I know and I mean we , we , we talked a lot about how like really five serve is the reason why we can pay rent online and like really powers , why we can pay people and split dinners and make it easy on sale , or you know . So I am so excited to learn more about you . We definitely have a question that we're going to ask you at random . But yeah , caroline , before we kick off , any questions for her Jay .
Speaker 2Well , jay , first , nice to meet you . I'm , caroline ,
AOL to VistaPrint Career Journey
Speaker 2glad to have you on here . Out of curiosity , what made you say yes to getting on to meet with us and this crazy thing that we're trying to do here ?
Speaker 3Good question , I don't know . It looked interesting . After I viewed one , I was like hang on for a second , what ? So ? I viewed one . I was like hang on for a second , what ? So ? I watched one that sounds interesting . I'm always up for a spontaneous question and answer .
Speaker 2Where are you based out of ?
Speaker 3Atlanta Georgia .
Speaker 2Atlanta oh , what a great city . I'm from South Florida and I live in the Northeast now , but Atlanta has a has a soft spot .
Speaker 3We've been here for almost nine years . We lived in Boston for two years . I hated Boston . It wasn't for us . Boston , my wife my wife was for both of the biggest storms ever in Boston , so 95 , 96 , when she was at Brandeis as an undergrad , and then again in 2014 , 2015 , when we moved there or , yeah , 14 , 2015 , we moved there and we pretty much like this is not for us . So we moved down here , had my work for and then , other than DC for 15 , 16 years , lived in Dallas for three years .
Speaker 2So very different from yeah , very different from Atlanta . I feel like you've got a little bit of a slower pace , but still the big city , big city vibes , yeah Good . And then we were just talking about AOL and VistaPrint . Those hit I mean soft spot . My first email was AOL and I was telling I can't tell you how many business cards I've printed on VistaPrint . I loved it , those free you could get like 50 free or whatnot back in the day .
Speaker 3I loved the company , loved everybody I worked with , hated Boston at that time . Now they're 100% work from home , which just irks me so much because I left , like you can't be a leader if you're here and not in Boston , because you know all of our technology leadership's here . So we want everybody here . And then they the buzz
Remote Work Perspectives
Speaker 3was after COVID they're like , yeah , we're selling all of our offices and we're converting one office , one floor of one office , into a community space where people will come back to to have meetings or whatever . But otherwise everybody worked from home . It worked great .
Speaker 2Do you think they'll ever go back to work from office ? I know there's a ton of companies kind of going back and forth , you know knowing the CEO like I do ?
Speaker 3no , I don't think so . I had a whole conversation , man , I don't know if you guys have a question in the bowl about RTO , but I can't go too off on it because we're so much getting in the office here . No , robert Keene , the CEO , he is an introvert big time right , and so he thinks , and I'm an introvert , I will come across extroverted and you guys will see me fully engage with you guys . This is all like . I think it is like yeah , much rather not talk to anybody . You're seeing anybody be in my basement lab , just you know talking to people through emails and I am so like that's what I prefer .
Speaker 3We'll text you later , you don't move you don't move up in the realm ranks if you're doing that and that's the problem . Like the vast majority of executives are extroverts by nature , right , and if you look at the companies that are kind of rto versus non-RTO , if you look at their leadership , a lot of them aren't the people that were the sales teams or the other teams . They were engineers . They were people who were really focused on delivering a solution not delivering necessarily all-in-the-market problems right now and product marketing . So the product marketing type slash , sales slash , whatever it took to kind of get them where they are . They're extroverted people and they think like that . They can't imagine anybody getting anything done sitting at home . Clearly , they're just on their couch in their underwear playing video games . Not , not so much . It's a topic that's come up a couple of days , but we were on a through Friday in the office .
Speaker 2So I have thoughts on the extrovert introvert piece because I think there's I personally find a misconception . People think that I'm an extrovert but I'm not in the sense that like I can go , put on the thing and do the show , but like , once I'm out and I've been around people for too long , I have to be alone , I have to be silent , I need to recharge in silence work .
Speaker 1I need to recharge in silence and I think that's why we kind of started this , this like form of humans , of tech , Cause I was like it's very like you know , low stakes .
Speaker 1I would say like we just pick a question at random . There's no prep , there's no edits , like we just like we asked um , I would say like easier questions , because they're just related to the human side . So it's like not a huge uplift from like a , you need to be a thought leader , because a lot of people in our in tech are like I don't want to really be that like a thought leader yet , or necessarily like you know that . So it's just , it's interesting . But yeah , I think , should we , we should pull the question .
Speaker 2Ready , let's see what you're gonna get . I I say this all the time . I always feel like the right question comes for the right person . We do have a follow-up question , though , for you that , in case this doesn't come up , the women and stuff , yeah the women in check you want to know more about all right how do you bounce back from a
Bouncing Back from Tough Days
Speaker 2tough day ? What's your , what's your process to get back on track ?
Speaker 3You know it's interesting . I think a tough day can be a lot of different things for a lot of different people . Sometimes a tough day is when you had a big outage or something and you spent the entire day . That was my yesterday , and that can be a tough day for a lot of people . And other people may look at that same situation as not a tough day , a coordination of a lot of different technical teams trying to come up with a solution for what was going wrong . How do we overcome this ? How do we make sure it never happens again ?
Speaker 3But I went home actually kind of revitalized , like so going home for me for that day was very different than , I think , some of the other people who were already like maybe we should just , you know , leave the call now and go get some sleep and come back and and and , and you could tell like it had worn them down right , and so I think everybody's going to be a little different and I think when you look at yourself and your personality , it can be kind of up to you to decide .
Speaker 3But for me , let's look at a tough day for me . A tough day for me is a day where I'm having to interact with a lot of different people , not as problem solving but as coordination or kind of the meeting heavy day or however you want to think about it , and those days for me are very draining . I'm an introverted person by nature I may not seem like it , but I much prefer to be by myself behind the screen , you know , typing emails and IMs messages to my organization and then kind of talking about what we need to get done than actually interacting , but that after that I go home and it's kind of the opposite , where I was energized last night and wanted to play with all four kids and talk to my wife and everything else .
Speaker 3Four kids I would rather just sit in my room . So that's you know . I guess it comes down to the person . But that's the big thing for me is you've got to figure out what gives you energy , what takes away energy , and then go from there . And solving problems always gives me energy . I really love it .
Speaker 2I think the key thing you're saying there , more than the solution , is to figuring yourself out a little bit . I think we missed that piece right . We kind of act on autopilot on a regular basis , and until you stop and try and understand , like , why do I do that , why do I act this way , why , why does that make me feel this way , why does that make me react that way , you're never going to find the way to solve that problem .
Speaker 1I think what also stuck out too is like what's a bad day for you is may not be a bad day for someone else , and like figuring that out , too is so powerful , because I think oftentimes we think there's little fires everywhere to be put out . It's like , okay , which one's burning bright and like sometimes that's you Like you . Sometimes you're like I need to prioritize my space because I need to go home and be the . You know , I need to go to my son's soccer game , or I need to go to something to be there for my family , and that matters most out of everything .
Speaker 2Something else . We've said a lot of eyes , eyes , eyes . But , jay , I'm assuming you manage a pretty big team and you're coordinating a bunch of folks . Do you ever take into consideration how other people manage those things and maybe what they might need , and how does that kind of influence the way you interact with other people ?
Speaker 3Yeah , it most definitely does , Right , and it's . It's also . It's . It's back to kind of the same point of like everybody's little different .
Speaker 3I constantly state like do as I say , not as I do , right , because to that point what works for me and what is comfortable for me is not comfortable for them and I want them to understand like I know that right , I'm empathetic to other people . Like everybody approaches things differently and so simple stuff , like for me Saturday mornings is a quiet time in our house , the kids are sleeping in , whatever else , and I do some emails but it's got nothing to do with . Like I want to work all weekend . Like I do not Like a couple hours or an hour , 30 minutes , whatever on a Saturday morning is fine . At the bottom of those emails I make sure it's clear . It's like do not reply until Monday . And a couple of you know they also like this easier to fit in now than waiting until Monday , so I'll just fit it in now . But like I want to make sure , like people hear that regularly from me same thing at all hands , same things , that other interactions I do skip levels with everybody new coming in I make it really clear to them . It's like there's .
Speaker 3My expectation is we deliver great results and you know , and outcomes that are actually beneficial and how we do that or you know where we do that or things like that are much less important to me , but I want to make sure the team understands it too right . So they have to take the time to get the R&R in , to be able to that relaxed recharge , to be able to come back and be fully refreshed and be able to deliver their best . So it's a lot of like preaching it multiple times over
Leading with Adaptability
Speaker 3the you know many , many years . I've been a leader since 2003 . So what is that ? 22 years of saying the same things Like look , I'm not like you , you're not like me . We have to figure out what works for each of us .
Speaker 1And it just sounds like you're so adaptable to like each person that you bring in . You're like your leadership you lead with being adaptable to each team member , and I'm sure that just like opens up for such a good culture too within the team and I love that .
Speaker 2I hope so , Jay . Before we turn off the recording , we were both curious about your involvement in women and IT groups . Can you talk a little bit about that and kind of some of your perspectives ?
Speaker 3Yeah , you know , first off white guy , gray in my beard , older white guy , middle-aged white guy , whatever you think , like , I am representative of so many people in technology . It's not even funny . I think the best ideas often come from the people who
Supporting Women in Technology
Speaker 3don't think the same way , right ? And so when you hear that thing that you never thought of before , you hear that perspective against something that you're presenting , like whoa , what did I think ? Like , how did I even think that ? Like whoa , you're exactly right , I never would have thought it . So that diversity of thought is extremely important to me , right . And in the end it's like you know , humans are humans . But what's going on the Women in Tech thing ? I am on the Atlanta , which is Southeast region I'll call it now because we've expanded a bit the Advisory Council for Women in Tech it a bit the Advisory Council for Women in Tech .
Speaker 3I took on the seat that my old boss here at Fiserv had and he was on there and when he was moving to Jacksonville , florida , you know different job . So I had already learned about the organization and the thing that struck me the most was they have a single mother's program and this is a program where you know women who have , you know , divorce , death , whatever you know , they're raising a child , children , by themselves . And that spoke a lot to me , because that was my situation when I was really young , two and a half years old . Half of my family died . We were all in a car accident . My father and two of my sisters died . My oldest sister was still there , but she was much older than me , about 15 years , 14 years , 15 years older than than me , and so it was just me and my mom , right , and this was a lady , my mom strongest woman I know in the world . But she had dropped out of high school when she was in 10th grade , so she did not have a diploma , did not have an education beyond 10th grade , but she was really smart , obviously . So she had to go back to get her ged because my dad wanted some company , a lot of insurance benefits or anything else to kind of rely on . So she had to go get a job right . So we had to live off of Social Security . We were very poor . She had to make sure that I had an understanding of what like , what's your passenger ? What do you want to do ? You can do it , you just have to put your mind to it . She enabled me to do all those things and she was just an amazing , amazing lady that I wouldn't be who I am today without her right .
Speaker 3So they have a single mothers program . I heard about that . I started contributing monetarily but also available as a mentor , advisor , whatever is needed . It really spoke to me and then I started thinking about the diversity that I've always sought and that really just struck home to me . So that's how I got involved . I'm very proud of being involved . I've been involved now as a board member for three years , I think . So four years yeah , three or four years and it's a wonderful program . I do it beyond them too . There's other women in technology kind of programs that I support around the country really as much as I can . So my wife and I both are adamant like we've got to get the diversity of thought . We've got to see other than middle-aged white guys kind of running IT to really get the best out of it .
Speaker 2Thanks for sharing that story . We were obviously involved in women in tech orgs around and one of the things we were talking about before you getting on here is specifically that like how do we create a space where men also feel comfortable to be part of that as well , so that doesn't just become because then you kind of create another form of groupthink right when you just separate women and we're all just here in this little bubble , versus creating a collaborative space ? I love the the um single mother uh initiative . I haven't seen that . Um , I , I'm a single mom , so it's it's nice to to hear things that are done for for that kind of group as well . Jay , we're gonna , we're gonna , we're gonna turn off the recording here . Don't hop off just yet . Yes , thank you so much . I know we lied to you . We said one random question , but we were all over . I appreciate you sharing a little bit about your personal life , your leadership style , and I learned a little bit here today too .
Speaker 1So I learned so many nuggets of information . Thank you so much .
Speaker 2Thanks for hanging out with us on humans of tech subscribe on Spotify , youtube or LinkedIn and join the conversation . Oh , and don't forget , you can now shop our store . Check the link on the show notes .
.jpeg)