Product Manager - Merchant Experience

Nicfurniture; South Africa; On-site; ZAR 900,000 - 1,300,000; Full time

Job summary

Network International is expanding its product leadership to shape strategy and roadmaps across payment solutions for merchants in the Middle East and Africa. The role emphasizes merchant experience, data-driven decision making, and cross-functional collaboration with Technology, Sales, Marketing, and Finance.

You will own end-to-end product development, drive market-ready launches, and continuously optimize performance through metrics, testing, and stakeholder feedback.

Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree required in business, technology, engineering, computer science, finance, economics, or related discipline.

Responsibilities

• Develop and manage the product strategy and roadmap aligned with business objectives, merchant needs, and market opportunities.
• Identify new product propositions, capabilities, and enhancements through research and insights.
• Own end-to-end product development lifecycle from concept to release readiness.
• Develop go-to-market plans for new products, features, and enhancements.
• Define product KPIs and drive optimization based on data and merchant feedback.
• Collaborate with Sales, Marketing, Operations, and Finance to align on pricing and monetization when applicable.

Skills

Product management

Cross-functional collaboration

Requirements gathering

Education

Bachelor's degree in Business, Technology, Engineering, Computer Science, Finance, Economics, or related discipline

Job description

About Us:

Network International is the largest Financial Technology company in Middle East and Africa. Payments is our core business where we provide services in more than 50 countries – UAE, Jordan, South Africa, Egypt are some of our key markets. Apart from payments, we provide services on Data and Insights, Lending, Insurance, Risk Solutions, etc. Our core customers are businesses at every scale and segment, though recently we are growing in direct to consumer card segment as well.

Our EVP's:

At Network International, we always stay ahead. In the fast-paced world of financial services, we thrive on innovation, agility, and purposeful collaboration. We invest first in our people, empowering you to make bold decisions, learn fast, and grow your expertise alongside industry leaders. Here, solving complex problems means more than using cutting-edge technology; it’s about creating meaningful value for our customers, together. We foster a culture where trust, accountability, and achievement go hand in hand—because success isn’t just a goal; it’s how we work, every day, as one team.

Job Description:

1. Product Strategy & Roadmap

Develop and manage the product strategy and roadmap aligned with overall business objectives, merchant needs, and market opportunities.

Identify new product propositions, capabilities, and enhancements through merchant feedback, competitive analysis, market research, and product performance insights.

Define clear product objectives, value propositions, and success measures for new and existing products.

Prioritize product initiatives based on customer impact, commercial value, strategic importance, technical feasibility, regulatory requirements, and delivery effort.

2. Merchant Experience & Product Discovery

Develop a strong understanding of merchant journeys, operational challenges, and evolving payment acceptance requirements.

Conduct merchant interviews, research, journey analysis, data analysis, and market benchmarking to identify pain points and unmet needs.

Translate merchant insights into clearly defined problem statements, product opportunities, and prioritized features.

Champion merchant experience throughout product design and development to ensure solutions are simple, scalable, and commercially relevant.

3. Product Development & Delivery

Own the end-to-end product development lifecycle, from concept and requirements through development, testing, launch, and optimization.

Translate business and merchant requirements into product requirements, user stories, functional specifications, and acceptance criteria.

Work closely with Technology and Engineering teams to ensure product requirements are clearly understood and delivered according to agreed scope and timelines.

Participate in solution design, sprint planning, product demonstrations, UAT, and release readiness activities.

Manage product dependencies, risks, issues, and trade-offs to support timely and effective delivery.

Continuously maintain and prioritize the product backlog based on business and customer value.

4. Go-to-Market & Product Launch

Develop and coordinate go-to-market plans for new products, features, and enhancements.

Work with Sales, Commercial, Marketing, Operations, and Merchant Support teams to ensure organizational readiness for product launches.

Define appropriate approaches for pilots, controlled rollouts, phased launches, and full-scale commercialization.

Ensure relevant product documentation, training materials, sales collateral, operational processes, and support models are established before launch.

Monitor early-stage merchant adoption and feedback and translate learnings into subsequent product enhancements.

5. Product Performance & Optimization

Define appropriate product KPIs and success metrics covering areas such as adoption, activation, transaction volumes, feature utilization, merchant satisfaction, retention, reliability, and revenue.

Monitor product performance and identify opportunities to improve merchant experience and commercial outcomes.

Leverage A/B testing, user segmentation, product analytics, and merchant insights to validate hypotheses and support product decisions, building on the analytical capabilities required in the existing role.

Develop recommendations and enhancement plans based on product performance and merchant feedback.

Drive continuous product optimization throughout the product lifecycle.

6. Commercial & Business Management

Support the development of business cases and commercial models for new product propositions and enhancements.

Assess market opportunity, revenue potential, investment requirements, operational impact, and expected business benefits.

Work with Commercial and Finance teams to define appropriate pricing and monetization strategies where applicable.

Track business performance against approved product objectives and investment assumptions.

7. Market & Competitive Intelligence

Monitor developments across payments, fintech, e-commerce, merchant acquiring, and emerging technologies, expanding on the industry-monitoring responsibilities of the existing role.

Conduct competitive benchmarking to identify capability gaps and opportunities for differentiation.

Evaluate emerging technologies and changing merchant expectations to inform future product strategy.

Recommend new capabilities and propositions that strengthen the organization's competitive positioning.

8. Stakeholder Management

Act as the central product point of contact across Business, Technology, Engineering, Operations, Sales, Marketing, Finance, Risk, and Compliance.

Facilitate product and requirement workshops to align stakeholders on scope, priorities, business outcomes, and delivery timelines.

Present product strategies, business cases, roadmap updates, performance results, and recommendations to senior stakeholders.

Ensure effective governance and stakeholder communication throughout the product lifecycle.

Responsibilities:

• Bachelor's degree in Business, Technology, Engineering, Computer Science, Finance, Economics, or a related discipline.
• Relevant professional experience may be considered in lieu of formal qualifications.

Experience

• 3+ years of experience in Product Management, Product Ownership, Business Analysis, or a related product role, preferably within payments, fintech, banking, e-commerce, or technology.
• Experience managing or contributing to products through multiple stages of the product lifecycle.
• Experience translating customer and business requirements into actionable product requirements.
• Demonstrated experience working with cross-functional Technology and Business teams.
• Payments, merchant acquiring, payment processing, e-commerce, or merchant-facing product experience would be advantageous.

Network International is an equal opportunity employer. We welcome and encourage applications from candidates of all backgrounds, nationalities, and experience levels. We are committed to creating an inclusive workplace where innovation, diversity, and performance thrive.