Payments Product Owner

PAYMENTS PRODUCT OWNER LONDON – HYBRID CONTRACT UNTIL JUNE 2026 – LOOKING TO GO PERM AFTERWARDS INSIDE IR35

We are seeking a highly skilled and motivated IT Product Owner to take end-to-end accountability for the suite of applications supporting SEPA Instant Payments in EMEA. This role is critical in ensuring the reliability, performance, and continuous improvement of real-time payment services, aligning with regulatory standards and customer expectations for 24/7 availability. The ideal candidate will have a strong background in IT payments processing, a deep understanding of banking payment systems, regulation and messaging formats.

Business Area: The Business Application Payments Team is a specialized group within the Information Technology & Security Department responsible for designing, developing, maintaining, and supporting the systems and infrastructure that enable secure and efficient financial transactions across EMEA. The team plays a critical role in ensuring that all day to day payment processing is executed reliably and in compliance with regulatory standards. Through the building, maintaining & managing of change for platforms & applications that support payment processing for the customers. This requires working closely with our internal stakeholders and external technology vendors to deliver business needs.

Project Description:

• Product Owner for the end-to-end SEPA Instant payments product offering, responsible for the applications that underpin processing of this payment rail
• Own the lifecycle of SEPA Instant Payments applications, including incident management, change control, capacity planning, and service continuity
• Ensure high availability, performance, and resilience of the SEPA Instant Payments platform, meeting strict SLAs and compliance requirements.
• Act as the primary point of contact for internal business units (including Operations, Compliance & Transactional Banking), IT and external vendors, regarding service performance and enhancements.
• Lead root cause analysis and resolution of major incidents. Drive problem management to reduce recurring issues and improve service stability.
• Manage projects involving any future enhancements or regulatory changes required with the SEPA Instant payment solution, including the management of both internal & external vendors
• Implement and maintain robust monitoring tools. Provide regular service performance reports and dashboards to stakeholders.
• Ensure services comply with SEPA regulations, PSD2, and internal security policies. Participate in audits and risk assessments
• Identify and implement service improvements, automation opportunities, and cost optimizations.
• Working within the Payments & Compliance Application Support Team, this role with be responsible for support the delivery of IT change for the Banks across the EMEA region.
• Working closely with each of the IT teams and functions, the role will require engagement with senior management and key stakeholders.

Attributes:

• Works autonomously but maintains an open dialogue with management and escalating as appropriate.
• Manages vendors, negotiates contracts, commercials, legal terms etc.
• Works effectively across regulatory, geographic and cultural boundaries throughout the EMEA region.
• Facilitate communication between IT delivery teams and business stakeholders.
• Assist in developing mitigation strategies and tracking the implementation of action plans.
• Provide general administrative & documentation support to the IT delivery team, such as managing solution design with requirement definition

Knowledge & Experience:

• Understanding of Payments and/or Compliance business areas.
• Knowledge of payments processing (including SEPA Instant Payments & ISO20022 message formatting) and payments regulation (including Instant Payment Regulation & PSD2/3)
• Experience in working with a complex matrix of business SMEs & IT teams.
• Ability to analyse and describe a 'problem' simply and clearly.
• Excellent communication skills (written and spoken)
• Well organised and structured in work output.
• Experience of working at a senior level in a customer facing role.

Skills:

• Strong analytical and problem-solving skills.
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills with the ability to communicate appropriate, concise and accurate information.
• Excellent interpersonal skills, in particular service orientation, organisational awareness and people empathy.
• Fluency in written and spoken English.
• Ability to operate sensitively and effectively in a multicultural environment.
• Results driven, with a strong sense of accountability.
• The ability to manage large workloads and tight deadlines.
• The ability to operate with urgency and prioritise work accordingly.

Preferred Qualifications & Experience:

• Bachelor’s or Master’s degree in Computer Science, Information Technology, Business Management or related field.
• Experience in IT service management or application support, preferably in financial services or payments.
• Strong knowledge of SEPA Instant Payments, ISO 20022 messaging, and real-time payment systems.
• Previous experience in a similar role within a financial institution or payment processing company.
• Experience with ITIL practices and tools (e.g., ServiceNow, JIRA, Sharepoint, Confluence).
• Proven ability to manage vendor relationships and third-party service providers.

If you believe you have the experience required, please apply with your CV now for instant consideration!

TO APPLY - PLEASE APPLY WITH AN UP-TO-DATE CV

Candidates will ideally show evidence of the above in their CV in order to be considered. Please be advised if you haven't heard from us within 48 hours then unfortunately your application has not been successful on this occasion, we may however keep your details on file for any suitable future vacancies and contact you accordingly.

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