Technical Product Manager - International Money Transfers at Equity Bank Kenya

 THE ROLE PURPOSE (LINK TO OVERALL BUSINESS OBJECTIVES, EG. ARRP)

• The Technical Product Manager (TPM) role ensures that systems and products are deliverable aligned with the business goals and objectives by ensuring that they are both technically sound and meet customer needs.  The role is responsible for the technical success of payments products and technologies by driving product roadmap implementation.
• The payments digital solutions and products are geared towards facilitating digital connectivity and financial inclusion for our customers and supporting the Bank’s objective of increasing transactional volume and value as well as growing the customer base.
• This is a leadership role whose purpose is to guide the development and release of digital products that support the Bank in attaining strategic pillars such as Food and Agriculture, Manufacturing, Trade and investments, MSMEs, social and environmental transformation and Technology enabled ecosystem.

THE KEY RESPONSIBILITIES (DUTIES)

• Build effective relationships with internal business team, operations, ICT, product and design team, and external partner.
• Participate in stakeholder management: strategize, execute, and communicate. ensure alignment of business goals with the incremental delivery of solutions.
• Work collaboratively with C-level executives, Product owners and other key stakeholders in the organization.
• Lead the definition of product requirements using input from various sources including external sources such as market trends, technology innovations, industry standards, bold intelligence, and customer research, as well as internal sources such as analytics, marketing, operations, and customer feedback.
• Manage feature prioritization & tradeoff decision making while leading other Technical Product Managers, business & engineering teams.
• Lead the design and conceptualization of the customer experience including the look & feel of the customer journeys, development of functional designs and wireframes, creation of product collateral, and user interfaces.
• Ensure delivery of scalable, reliable, and maintainable platforms and solutions
• Assess the business impact of different solutions and the trade-offs between customer needs, technology requirements and costs.
• Lead and work closely with technical product managers across all products and channels capabilities to prioritize initiatives, share insights on customer demands, identify opportunities for teamwork, and coordinate product development and delivery.
• Ensure Knowledge Transfer and hand off to Support teams and users. 

CORE ACCOUNTABILITIES AND DELIVERABLES 

• Financial:
  • Deposit mobilization
  • Non-Funded income (Transaction Fees, loan fees)
  • Funded income (interest on digital loans)
  • Cost management through efficient resource management and scope control
  • Cost savings through advising on Buy/Build decisions
• People:
  • Management of cross functional teams
  • Technical stakeholder management
• Processes:
  • Adherence to Product house processes, procedures such as Project Governance framework
  • Responsible for the product alignment with the technical solution design
  • Ensures completeness and correctness of Product and system requirements
• Systems:
  • Delivery of quality products
  • Delivery of efficient and reliable systems
  • Delivery of scalable systems
  • Cost optimized and efficient operational systems
• Customers/Clients:
  • Ensuring happy and satisfied customers through quality products
  • Accountable for product-feature completeness
• Technical vendor management
• Technology and API integration
• Research

KEY DECISIONS MADE BY THE POSITION -HOLDER (NOT RECOMMENDATIONS) AND HOW OFTEN

• Defines and governs product roadmap
• Evaluates requirements and features for completeness
•  Module placement in the architecture
• Resource requirements and implementation timelines
• What Technologies products should be built and run on
• The integration and interface technologies, formats and protocols
• How often: For every product implementation

5.0 COMPLEXITY EXPECTED IN THE ROLE (EG.  MULTIPLE COUNTRIES, CROSS-FUNCTIONAL RESPONSIBILITIES, DELIVERING THROUGH OTHER THIRD PARTIES/PARTNERSHIPS, ETC..) 

•  Multi-Country Scope
• Cross-Functional Collaboration:
• Third-Party & Partnership Management
• Regulatory & Scheme Compliance
• Data-Driven Decision Making
• Innovation & Digital Transformation
• Resource and Influence Leadership

CRITICAL RELATIONSHIPS/STAKEHOLDERS/CONTACTS   

 Internal:

• Commercial Business owner
• Product owner
• Solution architects
• Business Analysts
• Technical leads and developers
• Quality Assurance
• Project managers/EPMO
• Support and Trainers
• CIO
• Network and Infra resources
• Risk and infosec
• Data & Analytics Teams
• Procurement
• Other product houses

External:

• Agencies,
• Suppliers,
• Public institutions
• Card Schemes (Visa, Mastercard, UnionPay, etc.)
• Fintech Partners & Vendors, Regulatory Bodies, Consulting & Advisory Firms,
• 3rd party technology partners
• Customers and clients
• Regulators

Qualifications

KEY TECHNICAL AND LEADERSHIP COMPETENCIES REQUIRED FOR SUCCESS IN THE ROLE

• Demonstrated leadership, maturity, and organizational abilities.
• Strong written & verbal communication skills
• superior interpersonal & collaboration skills with demonstrated ability to use diplomacy & communication skills to influence outcomes and influence others without authority.
• Experience and expertise in project planning, product definition, feature prioritization, and roadmap creation.
• Strong analytical skills with hands on experience in conducting technological analyses of business problems developing technical roadmaps, story outlines, writing user stories, refining product backlogs, and coordinating/prioritizing conflicting requirements in a fast-paced, demanding environment.
• Ability to work across geographies, understand the diverse cultures and manage people and partners cross culturally is a must.
• Demonstrated ability manage multiple products delivery.
• Experience leading a team of Technical Product Managers and maintain an organized oversight of specific product delivery schedules to ensure the proper balance of speed, features, timing, and integration.
• Ability to set expectations and hold individuals and team members accountable to their commitments.
• Experience with Design Thinking or similar empathy-driven customer-focused design methodologies.
• Customer-centric mindset with a passion for discovering consumer behavior, trends, and opportunities for innovation.
• Business Analysis experience in a high-tech company or a reputable fintech is a plus.
• Basic understanding of programming languages, software architecture, data analytics, MI reporting etc.
• Ability to Keeps up with industry trends.

EXPERIENCE REQUIREMENTS  

• Number of  years : 7+
• Markets : Africa and Middle East
• Functional areas : Technology, Fintech and Banking

ACADEMIC QUALIFICATIONS AND CERTIFICATIONS 

Specify the Must- Haves

• Bachelor’s degree in information technology, engineering, or related field required. MBA in addition is preferred.

Specify the Nice to Have

• IT and Professional certifications
• Product and Project management certifications
• Any other relevant industry certification