Product Lead, Ecosystem Partnerships at I&M Bank

Job Purpose:

• The Product Lead - Ecosystem Partnerships is responsible for designing, developing, and scaling ecosystem-driven financial and non-financial products while building and managing strategic partnerships that drive customer value, partner engagement, and sustainable business growth. The role ensures the bank positions itself as a trusted platform across key ecosystems (e.g., agriculture, health, education, MSMEs, fintechs, and digital platforms), while also advancing financial inclusion and deepening market relevance.
• This role is a market-facing function responsible for product vision, product strategy, and product design of the products across all ecosystem partnerships in all markets. The role-holder will ensure the delivery and monetization of the partnerships and products based on agreed ROI as per business cases. The role will oversee every element of the product from its conceptualization to its launch and postlaunch performance and customer experience.
• The role holder should be entrepreneurial and open to innovative ideas and able to draw and build on consultative inputs from other I&M stakeholders where needed. The role will interface closely with the delivery teams and will play a critical role in supporting the delivery of the business plans.

Key Responsibilities:

Financial:

• Develop and implement the ecosystem product roadmap aligned to the bank’s growth strategy.
• Manage the full product lifecycle: ideation, business case development, testing, launch, and scaling.
• Leverage customer insights and market intelligence to identify innovation opportunities.
• Identify, onboard, and manage strategic ecosystem partners (fintechs, agritechs, telcos, edtechs, regulators, development agencies, and corporates).
• Build strong, mutually beneficial relationships and maintain partner satisfaction and retention.
• Negotiate and structure win-win commercial agreements, ensuring clear value exchange.
• Serve as the primary relationship manager for key ecosystem partners, coordinating joint initiatives and performance reviews.
• Champion co-creation of solutions with ecosystem partners that combine financial and non-financial services.
• Track adoption, profitability, and impact of ecosystem products and partnerships.
• Deliver on KPIs including customer acquisition, revenue, transaction volumes, and ecosystem penetration.
• Ensure compliance with regulatory requirements and effective risk management.

Customer:

• Build both internal and external stakeholder relationships to position the bank as a collaborative, innovative financial services partner.
• Continuous improvement of product customer experience, through feedback analysis, complains review and closure, competition analysis.
• Communicating with partner companies on behalf of the organization to ensure that all parties are satisfied with the status of product performance.
• Establishing effective communication channels with partners to foster productive working relationships.
• Monitor industry developments and to stay up to date with developments in the financial services industry and related industries, such as fintech and technology, to identify emerging partnership opportunities.

Internal Processes:

• Establish frameworks for governance, monitoring, and reporting on ecosystem collaborations.
• Support the integration of partners’ platforms, APIs, and services into the bank’s offerings.
• Uphold operational excellence across all products in line with group policies.
• Play a leading role in evaluating market trends and competition strategies to develop recommendations on product pricing and positioning.
• Assure effective governance of the unit’s practices in line with the Group policies and service standards.
• Monitor operational excellence to meet the Audit and Enterprise risk framework of the Group.
• Collaborate with internal stakeholders such as product teams, marketing, legal, and compliance, to ensure that partnerships are aligned with the bank’s overall strategy and that all requirements are met.
• Regular reporting of product performance with clear insights and action plans.

Enablers:

• Ensure unit functions are executed in the most efficient way possible, leading to the overall efficiency of the team and meeting product and business goals.
• Foster continuous learning and job enrichment for high performance.
• Continuous demonstration of innovation using data to identify and develop high growth strategic partnerships.
• Collaborate with Technology, Digital Banking, Operations, Legal, Risk, and Marketing teams for seamless delivery.
• Influence and inspire internal teams to prioritize partnership-driven growth.

Academic Qualifications:

Bachelor’s Degree in a business field.

Professional Qualifications / Membership to professional bodies/ Publication:

• Relevant professional qualifications.
• Member of a relevant professional body.

Work Experience Required:

• Over Eight (8) years’ relevant experience with over four (3) years within leadership in a similar role.
• Has led successful business and product development projects and/or initiatives.
• Has worked with EXCO in reporting and managing deliverables.
• Understand the tech enabled business industry and its intersection with the banking industry.

Competencies:

• Experience in Fintech, Payments, Lending and Cards.
• Executive disposition and demonstrate high levels of integrity.
• Strategic and innovative with the ability to sell the vision of the Bank.
• Business/Financial acumen, business savvy and innovative.
• Ability to develop long-term integrated and cross-functional operational plans.
• Strong leadership skills.
• Good negotiation skills.
• Strong commercial acumen.