The Opportunity
We are hiring a Director of Product to lead Fintel Connect's product team and own how development effort is allocated across our platform. You are accountable for three things: the quality and growth of the team, the processes and workflows that make the function efficient, and the effective delivery of the priorities set by our Product Roadmap Committee.
Why this role exists now
Product prioritization at Fintel Connect is owned by a cross-functional leadership committee rather than by one individual. That gives us better decisions, and it creates a clear need for someone to run the function underneath it: preparing the analysis the committee decides on, turning its decisions into a credible roadmap, and holding delivery to what was agreed.
In your first twelve months we would expect you to:
- Establish a consistent standard of work across the product team, from discovery through to specification and handover
- Build the roadmap into a source of truth that leadership can plan against with confidence
- Raise the technical and product knowledge of the team, so every product area has more than one person who can carry it
What you will do
Lead the product team
- Lead the team day to day, covering line management, one to ones, performance reviews and development plans for product managers, product owners and the business analyst, and define the success metrics for the function and each role that those goals and reviews are set against
- Set the standard of work across discovery, requirements, specification, acceptance criteria, documentation and handover to engineering and QA, and coach the team up to it
- Raise the level of technical and product knowledge across the team, so features are documented and the team can train the business on them to a consistent standard
- Own team structure, hiring and onboarding as the function grows, and make the case for headcount when the roadmap outgrows capacity
- Allocate people across products and initiatives, manage workload and cover, and keep enough working knowledge of each product area to step in directly when the team is short
Work with the Product Roadmap Committee
- Own intake and evaluation of new initiatives, preparing the analysis the committee needs to decide: commercial opportunity, operational efficiency, customer need, technical health and the effect on capacity
- Bring options, evidence and trade-offs to the committee, and carry its decisions back into the roadmap, the team and the wider business
- Own the Leadership Roadmap as the single source of truth, keeping it current as discovery progresses and engineering estimates change
- Hold the team to the priorities and timelines the committee has agreed, and flag slippage, risk and capacity pressure early
Deliver with engineering and the wider business
- Run the operating rhythm of the product function, covering discovery, roadmap planning, release planning and post-launch review in step with engineering and QA, and make the day to day prioritization calls that keep work moving between committee cycles
- Partner with engineering and QA leadership to balance new feature work against platform stability, release readiness, technical debt, security and compliance requirements
- Own the success of feature rollout and adoption, coordinating with marketing, client services and engineering so launches land with clients rather than stopping at release
- Act as the point of entry for product requests from across the business, and return clear decisions and timelines teams can plan against
- Represent product in leadership, client and prospect conversations where product direction, capability or timelines are in question
What we are looking for
- Five or more years in product management, including at least two leading a product team, ideally within SaaS, fintech, compliance or performance marketing
- A track record of framing trade-offs across competing commercial, operational and technical demands, and putting them to an executive audience in a form they can decide on
- Experience running a roadmap process that reports into a governing group such as a product committee, steering group or executive sponsor
- Strong commercial judgement, with the ability to size opportunity, cost and risk quickly and know when a full business case is warranted
- Enough technical depth to hold a credible conversation with engineering about architecture, delivery risk and technical debt
- Strong organizational and prioritization skills, with the ability to hold multiple concurrent initiatives and resolve problems without escalating every one
- Excellent written and verbal communication, with the ability to explain technical concepts and requirements to any business stakeholder and set clear expectations on trade-offs, risk and progress
- Experience coaching product managers and raising the standard of discovery, specification and delivery practice
- Familiarity with compliance, privacy and regulatory considerations in fintech is an asset
What we offer
- $110,000 - $120,000 per year, plus comprehensive health and wellness benefits
- Five paid personal days and paid volunteer time
- A seat at the table on how the product function is built, with direct exposure to the executive team
- Summer Fridays and regular team events
