Product Designer

Sept 2017 Branding; Greater London; On-site; GBP 30,000 - 50,000; Full time

Job summary

A financial services organization in Greater London is seeking a Product Designer to support the design and development of products in the FX market. The successful candidate will work directly under the Head of Product Design, contributing to product oversight and industry engagement. A degree and exposure to financial markets are essential. Strong analytical and interpersonal skills are crucial for success in this role.

Qualifications

• Exposure to industry products or trading/settlement processes within Banks.
• Previous experience in Financial markets, preferably FX.
• Knowledge of FX, cash, risk, and/or treasury services markets.

Responsibilities

• Support product design and delivery oversight for new products.
• Participate in industry engagement and contribute to discussions.
• Maintain accurate assessment of existing product capabilities.

Skills

Exposure to FX related products

Commercial thinking

PowerPoint design skills

Analytical skills

Interpersonal skills

Team working

Education

Degree educated

Job description

CLS is at an inflection point in its development as an organization. While its core settlement business continues to go from strength to strength, with volumes and revenues growing year on year, CLS is looking to continue its strategy of commercialization and diversification by both product and client type, with a number of new products either recently launched (such as CLSNet) or in development (PvP for ‘non CLS currencies’). CLS has bold aspirations for growth.

CLS recently hired a new Head of Product Design responsible for the design of new and existing CLS settlement and processing services.

CLS has identified:

The need for market leading talent in both product design and business development within the Product function.

The necessity to enhance the capability/experience within the Product team to deliver against a challenging forward book of work (such as PvP for ‘non CLS currencies’) and board commitments.

As such there is an immediate requirement to hire an individual in who’s in the early stages of their career in Product Design in the role of a Product Designer, reporting directly to the Head of Product Design.

Essential Function / major duties and responsibilities of the job

Strategic

• Support elements of Detailed Product Design and delivery oversight for new products/services (including PvP for ‘non CLS currencies’).
• Participate in the industry engagement led by the Head of Product and Head of Product Design and contribute into these conversations a deep understanding of the evolution of CLS and its products.
• Remain current with, and investigate into the actual detail (rather than marketing hype) behind FX ecosystem evolution (including potential partners and emerging competition).

Operational

• Supporting the Design Authority (Head of Product Design) for existing products/services.
• Contribute detailed product capability knowledge and domain expertise to business development efforts (including external engagement) related to both existing and new products.
• Create precise and impactful material to aid in the process of developing new product ideas with industry participants.
• Maintain an accurate assessment of the core capabilities within the range of services CLS already offers; highlight opportunities to reuse core components during new product design (rather than create yet another new code base).
• Engage as a trusted partner with CLS technology functions so that architectural decisions are made ‘right’ early in the process and are consistent with the long‑term product roadmap.
• Support ‘project level’ relationships with all key FX ecosystem partners.
• Support detailed analysis of upcoming regulatory requirements (partnering with other CLS functions) including associated mandatory change to existing products and opportunities to create new products which will assist settlement members to comply.

Leadership

• Maintain constant interaction and oversight with project managers and technology delivery teams to ensure that project deliveries are 100% accurate with respect to functionality agreed with market participants and/or partners.
• Progressively become a “go to” person for design related matters across CLS’s range of products.

Experience / essential and desired for successful job performance

• Exposure to industry products or trading/settlement processes within Banks or vendors (providing services to Banks).
• Previous experience of Financial markets - preferably FX, payments industry.
• Knowledge of FX, cash, risk and/or treasury‑services markets.
• Knowledge of buy‑side settlement processes, preferences and platforms.
• Knowledge of “EM” currency FX trading/settlement.

Qualifications / certifications

• Degree educated.

Knowledge, skills and abilities / competencies required for successful job performance

• Exposure to FX related products or product development.
• Commercial and creative thinker, grounded in pragmatic experiences of delivering initiatives, plans and projects underpinned by strong commercial reasoning.
• Ability to take concepts and evolve them into go‑to‑market products.

Success factors / ‘How’. Personal characteristics contributing to an individual’s ability to excel in the position

• Good interpersonal skills.
• Strong team worker – collaborative and relationship‑based approach to working.
• Strong PowerPoint design and analytical skills with the ability to distill complex subject matter into easily digestible summaries and/or visuals.
• Effective co‑ordination skills to ensure that the Product Design team continues to deliver across multiple workstreams.
• Builds effective working level relationships.
• Able to see the bigger picture, interpret trends and drivers into a clear strategy and be an enabler to achieve business goals and objectives.
• Effective operating in a changing and dynamic environment.