Head of Product - Platforms

Kuda; Johannesburg; Hybrid; ZAR 1.000.000 - 1.500.000; Vollzeit

Benefits dieser Stelle

Pension

Career development & growth

Competitive annual leave plus bank holidays

Health insurance

Employee wellness app

Award winning L&D training

Zusammenfassung

A financial technology company is seeking a Head of Product to lead their Platform tribe, overseeing core banking and payments. The role requires extensive experience in product management and a strong understanding of financial platforms. The ideal candidate will drive the tribe's strategy and enhance delivery efficiency while managing vendor partnerships. This position offers a vibrant work environment and encourages a hybrid work model, ensuring work-life balance.

Qualifikationen

• 7+ years in Product Management, with 4+ years in payments or banking.
• Proven track record in building reliable financial platforms.
• Strong knowledge of local payment rails and core banking systems.

Aufgaben

• Define and own the Platform tribe strategy and roadmap.
• Prioritise investments improving system reliability and cost efficiency.
• Lead tribe planning and QBRs, providing visibility to leadership.

Kenntnisse

Product Management

Communication

Financial Modelling

Data-driven Decision Making

Vendor Management

Jobbeschreibung

Role Overview

The Head of Product, Platform will lead the Platform tribe at Kuda, overseeing Core Banking, Payments & Cards, and Internal Tooling. This tribe powers the reliability, scalability, and compliance of Kuda's infrastructure—enabling all product tribes to deliver customer-facing innovation. You will own the tribe's strategy, roadmap, and delivery, ensuring that platform investments translate into measurable business efficiency, regulatory readiness, and improved delivery velocity across the organisation.

Key Responsibilities

• Strategic roadmap: Define and own the Platform tribe strategy and roadmap, integrating business goals, regulatory needs, and market dynamics.
• Prioritisation: Prioritise investments that improve system reliability, cost efficiency, and scalability while enabling new business opportunities.
• OKR setting: Set and communicate SMART goals (OKRs) to align teams and stakeholders.
• Delivery & execution: Lead tribe planning and QBRs, managing alignment and dependencies across tribes; champion thin‑slice, iterative delivery with measurable impact; provide proactive visibility to leadership on roadmap progress, risks, and key decisions.
• Reliability, scalability & compliance: Establish standards for system reliability, uptime, and performance, tracking SLA targets; ensure compliance with card scheme rules, payment regulations, and data protection requirements; drive automation and tooling that reduce operational friction and enhance efficiency.
• Analytics & financial impact: Use financial analytics to optimise ROI, cost‑to‑serve, and scalability; analyse vendor costs, transaction volumes, reconciliation gaps, and efficiency gains to inform priorities; apply cohort analysis to identify internal adoption trends and guide smarter platform investment.
• People leadership & influence: Hire, coach, and develop Product Managers with strong infrastructure and financial services instincts; influence stakeholders by simplifying complex technical concepts into clear business narratives; foster an inclusive, collaborative culture where teams feel empowered to contribute and own outcomes.
• Change leadership: Lead structural enhancements to Kuda's infrastructure that benefit multiple business areas; oversee transformation initiatives in core processes (ledger, payments, tooling) to increase efficiency; act as a role model for learning, continuous improvement, and accountability.

Day‑to‑Day Collaboration

• With BLO (Platform): align on efficiency, uptime, and cost‑reduction objectives.
• With DM/TLs: plan capacity, define SLAs, and deliver roadmap initiatives.
• With Other Tribes: manage dependencies for payment flows, ledger, and tooling access.
• With Risk, Compliance, Legal, Finance: ensure audit readiness, reconciliation integrity, and regulatory compliance.
• With Vendors: manage partnerships, SLAs, and integrations with card schemes, processors, and banking providers.

Requirements

• 7+ years in Product Management, with 4+ years leading payments, cards, or core banking infrastructure products.
• Proven track record in building reliable, compliant financial platforms.
• Strong knowledge of local payment rails, card schemes, and core banking systems.
• Experience managing vendors and partners at scale.
• Data‑driven decision‑maker with financial modelling and ROI analysis experience.
• Excellent communication and influencing skills, able to simplify complex concepts.
• Experienced in mentoring Product Managers and building high‑performing teams.

Nice to Have

• Experience in Nigerian or emerging market financial infrastructure.
• Familiarity with CBN regulations, scheme certifications, ISO20022.
• Background in internal tooling or financial operations automation.

Benefits

• 💜 A great and upbeat work environment populated by a multinational team
• 👴 Pension
• 📈 Career development & growth
• 😁 Competitive annual leave plus bank holidays
• 🎁 Competitive paid time off (Parental, Moving day, Birthday, Study leave etc)
• 💯 Group life insurance
• 💖 Medical insurance
• 🎁 Well‑fare package (Wedding, Compassionate and etc)
• ✅ Perkbox
• 🏃♀️ Goalr - employee wellness app
• 🥇 Award winning L&D training
• 💒 We are advocates of work‑life balance, working in a hybrid in‑office schedule

Seniority level: Executive

Employment type: Full‑time

Job function: Other

Industries: IT Services and IT Consulting

Kuda are proud to be an equal opportunity employer. We value diversity and anyone seeking employment at Kuda is considered based on merit, qualifications, competence and talent. We don't regard colour, religion, race, national origin, sexual orientation, ancestry, citizenship, sex, marital or family status, disability, gender, or any other legally protected status. If you have a disability or special need that requires accommodation, please let us know.