Principal Product Manager, Core Network

Circle; Bengaluru; Hybrid; INR 3,000,000 - 5,500,000; Full time

Job summary

Circle, a leading internet financial platform, is seeking a Senior Product Manager in Bengaluru to own the CPN Payments Engine—the core infrastructure for payment creation, routing, settlement and lifecycle management across the network.

You will define the long‑term vision and roadmap, work with Engineering, Compliance, Operations and commercial teams, and drive investments that improve reliability, latency and scalability while expanding payment use cases and corridors.

Qualifications

• 10+ years of product management in payments/fintech or financial infrastructure.
• Experience owning platform APIs, payment processing or settlement systems.
• Ability to lead complex initiatives across engineering and cross-functional teams.

Responsibilities

• Own the product strategy and evolution of the CPN Payments Engine.
• Define long-term vision and roadmap for scalability and reliability.
• Lead cross-functional decisions with Engineering, Compliance, Operations, and BD.
• Improve performance, latency, resilience, and processing efficiency.
• Develop frameworks and metrics for payment infrastructure.

Skills

Product strategy

Cross-functional leadership

Payments knowledge

Data analysis

Scalability focus

Job description

Circle (NYSE: CRCL) is one of the world’s leading internet financial platform companies, building the foundation of a more open, global economy through digital assets, payment applications, and programmable blockchain infrastructure. Circle’s platform includes the world’s largest regulated stablecoin network anchored by USDC, Circle Payments Network for global money movement, and Arc, an enterprise-grade blockchain designed to become the Economic OS for the internet. Enterprises, financial institutions, and developers use Circle to power trusted, internet-scale financial innovation. Learn more at circle.com.

What you’ll be part of

Circle is committed to visibility and stability in everything we do. As we grow as an organization, we’re expanding into some of the world's strongest jurisdictions. Speed and efficiency are motivators for our success and our employees live by our company values: High Integrity, Future Forward, Multistakeholder, Mindful, and Driven by Excellence. We have built a flexible work environment where new ideas are encouraged and everyone is a stakeholder.

What you'll be responsible for

You will own the product strategy and evolution of the CPN Payments Engine — the core infrastructure that powers payment creation, routing, settlement, and lifecycle management across the network. You’ll define the long‑term vision and roadmap for the engine, identifying opportunities to expand its capabilities while improving reliability, performance, and scale. Working across Engineering, Compliance, Operations, and commercial teams, you’ll lead complex product decisions and investments that enable OFIs and BFIs to move money efficiently across an expanding set of corridors and rails, translating platform improvements into measurable network and business outcomes.

What you'll work on

• Set the Payments Engine strategy: Own the long‑term product vision and roadmap for payment creation, processing, routing, and settlement, aligning investments with CPN and Circle priorities.
• Advance payment performance at scale: Establish the product strategy for improving success rates, latency, resilience, and processing efficiency, using data to identify systemic opportunities and prioritize investments.
• Evolve API and protocol capabilities: Define the direction for OFI Payments APIs and BFI quoting and settlement protocols, balancing developer experience, interoperability, compliance scalability, and network reliability.
• Expand the capabilities of the network: Identify and lead investments that unlock new payment use cases, corridors, rails, and partner capabilities while building reusable infrastructure that scales across the network.
• Shape observability and operational control: Define product capabilities for monitoring, alerting, exception management, and operational tooling that improve visibility into payment health and enable faster resolution of network issues.
• Lead complex cross‑functional decisions: Partner with Engineering, Compliance, Operations, BD, and other product leaders to navigate architectural and business trade‑offs, resolve ambiguity, and drive alignment on high‑impact investments.
• Establish product leadership for payment infrastructure: Develop frameworks, metrics, and product practices that improve decision‑making across CPN, mentor other product managers, and serve as a subject‑matter expert on payment infrastructure across Circle.

What you'll bring to Circle

Core requirements

• 10+ years of relevant experience, including significant Product Management experience building payments, fintech, or financial infrastructure products.
• Deep experience owning platform or infrastructure products such as APIs, payment processing systems, settlement platforms, routing systems, or developer‑facing capabilities.
• Demonstrated ability to define product strategy and lead highly complex initiatives spanning multiple engineering and cross‑functional teams.
• Strong analytical and technical fluency, with the ability to use payment performance, reliability, and operational data to identify systemic issues and guide product investment decisions.
• Track record of delivering measurable improvements to large‑scale systems, including reliability, success rates, latency, scalability, operational efficiency, or customer outcomes.
• Ability to evaluate complex technical and business trade‑offs and translate them into clear product decisions, priorities, and long‑term platform investments.
• Strong cross‑functional influence and communication skills, including the ability to build alignment with senior leaders and stakeholders across Engineering, Compliance, Operations, and commercial teams.

Preferred requirements

• Deep knowledge of payment networks, cross‑border payments, settlement systems, correspondent banking, stablecoins, or blockchain‑based financial infrastructure.
• Experience with enterprise API products, two‑sided networks, and compliance‑forward payment systems, including concepts such as SLAs, payment lifecycle events, exception handling, sanctions screening, RFIs, or the Travel Rule.

Circle is on a mission to create an inclusive financial future, with transparency at our core. We consider a wide variety of elements when crafting our compensation ranges and total compensation packages. Starting pay is determined by various factors, including but not limited to: relevant experience, skill set, qualifications, and other business and organizational needs. Please note that compensation ranges may differ for candidates in other locations.

We are an equal opportunity employer. We do not discriminate on the basis of race, religion, color, national origin, gender, sexual orientation, age, marital status, veteran status, or disability status, or any other protected status required by the laws in the locations where we hire. Additionally, Circle participates in the E-Verify Program in certain locations, as required by law. Should you require accommodations or assistance in our interview process because of a disability, please reach out to [e-mail] for support. We respect your privacy and will connect with you separately from our interview process to accommodate your needs.

Circle believes in a future where digital dollars work securely around the world to create a more prosperous global economy for everyone. To accomplish this, we created USDC, a digital currency backed by the US dollar and always redeemable 1:1. We work closely with regulators to ensure our digital dollar guides and surpasses the standards for stablecoins. By doing this, USDC has the potential to change how money moves around the world. Our values of Multistakeholder, Mindful, Driven by excellence, and High integrity drive us to succeed. Valuing our employees as stakeholders is about creating an environment where people can thrive and grow, be challenged and learn constantly – an environment that thrives on diversity by drawing competitive strength from within. Employees take pride in Circle’s culture and values. That’s why community members from around the world say we’re a top place to work.