Pretoria, South Africa | Posted on 07/30/2024

We are a proudly South African-based company that provides fast and secure payment processing solutions to businesses and financial institutions across 17 countries in Africa. As a one-stop, omnichannel payment solutions partner, Ecentric brings businesses the very best payment processing software & services for in-person payments, online payments, as well as for efficient back-office administration and reconciliation.

Launched in 1998, Ecentric is characterised by innovation and a strong culture of excellence. Twenty-five years ago, the founders identified the need for a payments partner that serves more than one retailer, across more than one payment channel. Fast forward to today, Ecentric now processes 20% of South Africa’s card transactions (trusted by two thirds of South Africa’s leading retailers), we bring credibility built on quality and serves as a payments partner to 65% of JSE-listed retailers - serving their in-store, online, mobile and omnichannel payments requirements.

Job Description

Purpose of the position

You will work closely with team members across varied teams to enhance and bring to market products and improved features that align to the company reputation as a leader in the Fintech industry. In this role you will take ownership of the Recon Assist and Recon Assist+ product. The incumbent will be required to define the vision and execution for this product to ensure that there is significant escalation in scale, impact and user experience. You will work on enhancing the customer experience of users, relying on analytics, feature experimentation, and an understanding of building an industry-leading product. Furthermore, a good understanding of software development concepts is essential in order to communicate effectively with all stakeholders.

Duties and Responsibilities:

Market Assessment

Determine, define and provide in-depth market, industry, competitive analysis and positioning and identify new opportunities;
Generate new product ideas and research product feasibility within the market;
Represent the customer’s views and understand the problems they need solved;
Improve customer journey of our users, relying on data analytics, feature experimentation, and your understanding of building a world-leading edtech product;
Investigate competitor offerings and continually strive to ensure we offer the superior product;
Develop Business Cases for new product proposals considering business viability, obtaining approval from stakeholders and overseeing successful implementation;
Prepare and coordinate the completion of various data and analytics reports;
Identify shortcomings in existing processes, systems and procedures, and use established change management programs to address them; and
Ensure products remain of a high standard by interpreting, guiding and refining requirements.
Translate ideas into product strategy and developing and implementing product strategies consistent with the company vision and strategy;
Develop, implement, and report on roadmaps and product plans with senior management;
Define the vision and execution for this product to drive it to the next level in terms of scale, impact and user experience;
Translate product roadmap items and business requirements into detailed requirements for development by technical teams;
Elicit complex business requirements using a variety of methods such as interviews, document analysis, workshops, and workflow analysis to express the requirements in terms of target user roles and goals;
Analyze and evaluate the feasibility and relevance of proposed complex products and services;
Communicate the local action plan; explain how this relates to the function's strategy and action plan and the broader organization's mission and vision; motivate people to achieve local business goals; and
Articulate product strategies in support of business objectives.

Planning and Release

Determine, develop, and implement high level product features;
Writing, presenting, guiding, and reviewing product business and financial cases;
Develop pricing framework by product;
Engage and negotiate contracts between Ecentric and Vendors or partners;
Lead or facilitate pre-sales solutioning with potential customers;
Identify blockers that will impact timeline, scope, cost or other project variables and escalate to the appropriate stakeholders; and
Monitor all aspects of a product life cycle, including long- and short-term development and marketing. Perform analyses to stay abreast of trends in the marketplace to ensure the product's competitive position. Managing product/concept implementation in partnership with relevant stakeholders.

Design and Development

Select, contract with and manage development vendors, including in-house dev shop;
Collect and critically analyze feedback from stakeholders to shape requirements, features and end products;
Ensure that all product enrichments are in line with the product success, profitability, and company strategy;
Establish operational processes to be implemented (Onboarding, Support, etc.);
Publish thought leadership papers;
Define and maintain product/feature specs with inputs from all stakeholders;
Ensure requirements are fully understood and that implementation plans match expectations;
Assess and address risks of all forms; and
Define success criteria for testing and product acceptance.

Rollout and Launch

Provide internal and external stakeholder support and service;
Take new products to market;
Ensure products are developed according to spec and on time and in budget;
Ensure product feasibility, efficiency and profitability;
Build strong trusted relationships with customers;
Ensure establishment and execution of a well-planned marketing strategy for your product;
Ensure establishment and execution of a well-planned sales strategy;
Ensure requirements are fully understood and that implementation plans match expectations; and
Track budgets and report variances to more senior colleagues.

People Engagement

Lead cross functional teams;
Manage selected product managers;
Work closely with team members across multiple teams to optimize and bring to market the products and/or features that make Ecentric payment systems a world leader in the FinTech space. You will report to the Head of Product. In this role you will take ownership of our Product; and
Respond to personal objectives and use performance management systems to improve personal performance; and
Collaborate with our tech teams to spec requirements where necessary.

Requirements

Education and Experience

3+ years of experience across technical and product roles;
2+ years of product management experience;
Experience with scrum and agile methodologies;
Experience working and coordinating effectively in a remote-first environment;
3-year degree or diploma in Business Management/ BComm or similar;
Post graduate qualification in Business Management/ BComm or similar (advantageous);
Experience in Short Term Insurance environment (advantageous);
5+ years Financial Service experience in a Product Development or similar areas;
FinTech background, with developer education preferred.

Skills and Behavioral Competencies

Business Skills

Understanding requirements for internal and external stakeholders;
Maintaining the relationship between internal and external stakeholders;
Be organized;
Have problem solving skills.

Behavioral Skills

Be an open thinker;
Be willing to learn;
Have good networking skills;
Be a team player.

Leadership

Be respectful;
Be a leader for change;
Be a strategic influencer;
Be able to build your team;
Shape the performance of yourself and your team;
Environmentally astute;
Ensure alignment between customer needs and the company’s product.

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