Product Owner – Cards | Banking

Socium - Teams Done Differently; Abu Dhabi; On-site; AED 670,000 - 1,004,000; Full time

Job summary

Socium - Teams Done Differently in Abu Dhabi is seeking an experienced Product Owner – Cards to take end-to-end ownership of Credit and Debit Card products within a leading digital-first banking organization undergoing a large-scale transformation.

The role focuses on driving the product vision, roadmap, customer journeys, and backlog prioritization for card issuance and lifecycle management, working closely with Visa, Mastercard, and external processors.

Qualifications

• Recent experience as a Cards Product Owner or Cards Product Manager in a bank.
• End-to-end ownership of card products including issuance and lifecycle.
• Experience with Visa/Mastercard schemes and card provisioning.
• Strong backlog, epics, user stories, and Agile/Scrum practice.
• Stakeholder management across business and technology teams.

Responsibilities

• Own product vision, strategy, and backlog for Credit and Debit Card products.
• Drive end-to-end development from discovery to launch.
• Manage customer journeys across the cards lifecycle.
• Lead new card launches, features, pricing, and experience improvements.
• Collaborate with Visa, Mastercard, and card schemes.
• Oversee tokenization, digital wallets, contactless payments, and card controls.
• Translate requirements into epics and user stories.
• Coordinate with Engineering, Risk, Compliance, Fraud, Finance, UX/UI, Marketing.
• Support authorization, settlement, fraud controls, disputes, rewards.
• Lead backlog refinement, UAT, releases, production rollout.
• Track KPIs, adoption, transaction performance, and commercial outcomes.

Skills

Cards product ownership

Credit and Debit cards

Backlog management

Agile/Scrum

Jira

Stakeholder management

Vendor collaboration

Visa/Mastercard schemes

Tools

Jira

Job description

Join a leading digital-first banking organization in Abu Dhabi undergoing a large-scale transformation across its Cards and digital banking products.

We are looking for an experienced Product Owner – Cards to take end-to-end ownership of Credit and Debit Card products, driving product vision, roadmap, customer journeys, backlog prioritization, and delivery across the full Cards lifecycle.

This is a specialist Cards Product Owner position rather than a general Digital Banking, Financial Services, Payments, or FinTech Product Owner role. We are specifically looking for professionals who have recently performed a dedicated Cards Product Owner / Cards Product Manager role within a bank, ideally within a leading UAE or GCC banking environment.

The successful candidate will bring hands-on experience across Credit and Debit Cards, card issuance and lifecycle management, card servicing, Visa/Mastercard schemes, digital wallets and tokenization, card controls, rewards, authorization, settlement, and related Cards capabilities.

This is a 3-month contract role (extendable) with full onsite presence in Abu Dhabi.

Key Responsibilities

• Own the product vision, strategy, roadmap, and backlog for Credit and Debit Card products
• Drive end-to-end Cards product development from discovery and requirements through design, development, UAT, launch, and continuous improvement
• Own customer journeys across the Cards lifecycle, including application, issuance, activation, servicing, card controls, limits, replacement, renewal, and closure
• Lead new Cards product launches, enhancements, propositions, features, pricing, and customer experience improvements
• Work closely with Visa, Mastercard, and other card schemes on mandates, certifications, compliance, and new capabilities
• Drive digital Cards capabilities including tokenization, digital wallets, Apple Pay / Google Pay / Samsung Pay, contactless payments, and card controls
• Translate Cards business requirements into epics, user stories, acceptance criteria, and prioritized backlog items
• Partner closely with Engineering, Architecture, Operations, Risk, Compliance, Fraud, Finance, UX/UI, Marketing, and external processors/vendors
• Support Cards capabilities across authorization, clearing and settlement, reconciliation, fraud controls, disputes/chargebacks, and rewards/loyalty
• Lead backlog refinement, sprint planning, UAT, release readiness, production rollout, and post-launch optimization
• Track Cards product KPIs, customer adoption, transaction performance, and commercial outcomes.

Required Skills & Experience

• Strong recent experience as a Product Owner / Product Manager specifically responsible for Cards within a bank
• Proven hands-on ownership of Credit and/or Debit Card products and their end-to-end lifecycle
• Experience working within a major bank, ideally in the UAE or GCC; experience with organizations such as ADIB, Emirates NBD, FAB, ADCB, Wio Bank, Mashreq, DIB, RAKBANK, or similar banking institutions is highly desirable
• Strong knowledge of card issuing, card lifecycle management, card servicing, card controls, limits, and card customer journeys
• Experience working with Visa and/or Mastercard, including scheme requirements, mandates, certifications, and compliance
• Knowledge of authorization, clearing, settlement, reconciliation, disputes/chargebacks, and fraud management
• Experience with digital wallets, tokenization, contactless payments, and mobile wallet provisioning
• Experience with rewards, loyalty, cashback, card propositions, and/or co-branded Cards would be advantageous
• Strong Product Ownership capability across roadmaps, backlog management, epics, user stories, acceptance criteria, Agile/Scrum, Jira, UAT, and releases
• Strong stakeholder management across Business, Technology, Operations, Risk, Compliance, Fraud, and external Cards ecosystem partners

This role requires a Cards specialist rather than a generalist banking or financial services Product Owner.

Candidates should have recently held direct ownership of Cards products within a banking environment. General Digital Banking, Payments, FinTech, Crypto, BaaS, or Financial Services Product Ownership experience without recent dedicated bank-side Cards ownership will not be sufficient for this position.