Hybrid Product Director at Thunes

Context of the role

Reporting directly to the Head of Product Management, the Product Director will be a central advocate for both our customers' and internal teams' needs. Leveraging a strong problem-solving mindset and understanding of technology, your primary goal will be to enhance customer value and drive business growth through the optimization of internal processes and tooling, ensuring sustainable scalability.You will play a critical role in shaping the direction of Thunes' products and maximizing the value our services deliver to both our external customers and internal stakeholders. A strong passion for FinTech and prior experience within the payments industry are essential. You should possess a deep understanding of what constitutes effective APIs, how to achieve scalability through automation and operational excellence, and how to deliver the right value to our customers in alignment with our company objectives.

This role will have direct responsibility for our ACCEPT Core product, focused on augmenting our ACCEPT Core platform to facilitate seamless cross-border payment services for our customers and driving internal operational excellence. You will be responsible for the entire product lifecycle, from understanding customer and internal stakeholder needs to building a compelling vision and strategy, and translating this into actionable roadmaps, development plans, go-to-market strategies, and key performance indicator (KPI) tracking.

As the internal and external champion for your product, you will have full ownership and accountability for driving your roadmap and will be presented with opportunities to deliver innovative solutions for both external customers and internal stakeholders.

Key Responsibilities

Driving CORE Platform Evolution and Scalability:

• Define and own the strategic vision and roadmap specifically for the evolution of the ACCEPT Core platform, with a strong emphasis on architectural improvements, modularity, and future scalability.
• Identify and prioritize opportunities for core platform enhancements that will unlock new product capabilities and improve overall system performance and resilience.
• Lead initiatives focused on designing for high availability, fault tolerance, and efficient resource utilization within the ACCEPT Core platform to support sustainable growth.

Championing Scalable Solutions and Automation:

• Drive a "scalability-first" mindset within the product development process, ensuring that new features and enhancements are architected for future growth and increasing transaction volumes.
• Identify and champion automation opportunities within the ACCEPT Core platform and related processes to improve operational efficiency, reduce manual effort, and enhance scalability.
• Collaborate with engineering teams to define and implement technical strategies that enable horizontal and vertical scaling of the platform.

Ensuring Sustainable Growth through Product Optimization:

• Define and track key performance indicators (KPIs) related to platform performance, scalability, and operational efficiency to ensure sustainable growth.
• Analyze platform performance data and identify bottlenecks or areas for optimization to improve efficiency and reduce operational costs.
• Drive initiatives to enhance the maintainability, observability, and resilience of the ACCEPT Core platform, contributing to long-term sustainability.

Technical Leadership and Collaboration:

• Serve as a technical product leader, deeply understanding the underlying architecture of the ACCEPT Core platform and effectively communicating technical requirements to engineering teams.
• Collaborate closely with engineering architects and development teams to ensure alignment between the product roadmap and technical feasibility, driving the development of scalable and robust solutions.
• Provide technical guidance and support to cross-functional teams on matters related to the ACCEPT Core platform and its integration with other systems.

What we are looking for

• Result-oriented with at least 7 years of progressive experience in product management, with a significant portion focused on building and scaling complex platforms, ideally within the financial services or payments industry.
• Strong academic background in a technical field such as Computer Science, Software Engineering, or a related discipline. Advanced degree preferred.
• Deep understanding of modern software architectures, distributed systems, and cloud technologies.
• Proven ability to engage in technical discussions with engineering teams and understand the implications of architectural decisions on scalability and performance.
• Demonstrated track record of successfully delivering products that have achieved significant scale and operational efficiency improvements.
• Exceptional analytical and problem-solving skills with a strong ability to identify bottlenecks, inefficiencies, and opportunities for process optimization within complex systems.
• Detail-oriented with a passion for leveraging data and technology to drive improvements in operational performance and scalability.
• Proven ability to define and drive product initiatives focused on improving platform scalability, reliability, and operational efficiency.
• Deep familiarity with Agile/Lean product development methodologies (Scrum or Kanban) and a strong understanding of how to apply these principles to deliver scalable and efficient solutions.
• Excellent verbal and written English skills are critical to craft clear technical requirements, design documentation, and effectively communicate complex technical information to diverse stakeholders.

 About Thunes

Thunes is the Smart Superhighway to move money around the world. Thunes’ proprietary Direct Global Network allows Members to make payments in real-time in over 130 countries and more than 80 currencies.

Thunes’ network connects directly to over 7 billion mobile wallets and bank accounts worldwide, as well as 15 billion cards via more than 320 different payment methods, such as GCash, M-Pesa, Airtel, MTN, Orange, JazzCash, Easypaisa, AliPay, WeChat Pay and many more.

Thunes’ Direct Global Network differentiates itself through its worldwide reach, in-house SmartX Treasury System and Fortress Compliance Platform, ensuring Members of the network receive unrivaled speed, control, visibility, protection and cost efficiencies when making real-time payments, globally.

Members of Thunes’ Direct Global Network include gig economy giants like Uber and Deliveroo, super-apps like Grab and WeChat, MTOs, fintechs, PSPs and banks.

Headquartered in Singapore, Thunes has offices in 14 locations, including Abidjan, Barcelona, Beijing, Dubai, Hong Kong, Johannesburg, London, Manila, Nairobi, Paris, Riyadh, San Francisco and Shanghai.

For more information, visit: https://www.thunes.com/