Product Owner – Customer Onboarding (Digital Banking)

We are currently looking for a dynamic and visionary Product Owner to lead the Customer Onboarding function at our esteemed client involved in the Digital Banking Sector. This crucial role will take ownership of the business of origination, converting marketing interest (app downloads) into concluded ‘sales†(new bank customers or new products for existing customers) through a seamless, efficient, and highly automated journey.

Position Info:

The team will design, build, and run customersâ€' first (and most complex) interaction with the bank, as well as all subsequent product and credit onboarding. The Business Owner will be responsible for shaping the strategic direction of customer onboarding, optimizing commercial outcomes, and delivering a superior customer experience. The functionâ€s vision is to create, refine, and maintain the world's most advanced and automated onboarding process that wows customers, maintains simplicity and intuitiveness, and is incredibly cost-efficient.

Requirements:

• Degree in business, technology, or a related field.
• Proven experience in a leadership role within the banking or fintech industry, preferably with a focus on digital customer onboarding.
• Strong strategic thinking and analytical skills.
• Exceptional leadership and team management abilities.
• Proficiency in understanding and implementing regulatory requirements, especially related to onboarding.
• Experience with automation, technology, and data analytics in a financial services context.
• Customer: Putting the customer at the heart of business decisions and driving to improve value for customers.
• Collaboration: Creates trust, respect, and builds meaningful relationships. Able to handle a wide range of relational challenges to ensure collaboration across boundaries.
• Leading with Influence: Influences and rallies people behind common goals; actively supports growth and inspires others to exceed expectations. Communicates clear strategies and objectives for own function.
• Innovation: Generates creative/out-of-the-box solutions. Challenges the status quo and/or demonstrates ability to relate to challenges from a range of diverse but relevant perspectives. Willing to take calculated risks when introducing novel ideas.
• Personal Mastery: Learns and actively works to build self-awareness; develops through experience and feedback from others. Copes effectively with stress and has the resilience to take on stretching and challenging assignments. Adjusts effectively to work within new work structures; processes; requirements, and cultures.
• Executing: Displays consistent energy, drive, and perseverance to deliver results. Demonstrates a willingness to take calculated risks to achieve stretch performance goals.

Strategic and Commercial Leadership:

• Participate in the development of the overall bank customer experience strategy and digital channel strategy, including (sub)segment value management (opportunity, profitability, and reporting) from concept to launch for retail and SME segments.
• Develop and articulate a clear vision and strategy for the Customer Onboarding function in line with the bank's broader goals.
• Set the direction for transforming onboarding into a world-class, fully automated, and customer-centric process.
• Drive revenue and cost efficiency by setting and monitoring targets for customer onboarding success and unit costs, trading off new build, running costs, and throughput.
• Manage a sizeable build and run budget, ensuring sound governance, controls, and outcomes.

People and Stakeholder Leadership:

• Manage a squad that will build, deploy, and refine onboarding technologies: Scrum Master, BAs, Solution, Back and Front-end engineers, QAs.
• Propose and establish frameworks for contributions from various departments.
• Account for project challenges related to constraints including risks, time, resources, and scope.

Operational Excellence:

• Oversee the end-to-end onboarding process, ensuring it is streamlined, efficient, and cost-effective.
• Implement innovative solutions and technologies to automate onboarding while maintaining security standards.
• Monitor the onboarding landscape, especially competitor activity, to understand evolving payment technologies.
• Drive continuous improvement aligning with customer needs and regulatory requirements.
• Collaborate on designing, building, managing, and growing digital platforms and ecosystems, including external partners.
• Define data ingestion processes and standards to ensure data quality and BI alignment.
• Continuously analyze KPIs to identify bottlenecks and areas for improvement.

Customer Experience:

• Champion a customer-centric onboarding approach to deliver a wow-worthy experience.
• Work with UX/UI teams to ensure the journey remains simple and intuitive.
• Collaborate with product teams to integrate product selection and credit onboarding seamlessly.
• Ensure customers understand and are engaged with available products and services, tailored to their needs.

Compliance and Risk Management:

• Partner with compliance and legal teams to meet regulatory standards, including identity verification, fraud prevention, and AML screening.