Product Manager — Lending

Purpose of role

The Product Manager — Lending is accountable for defining and delivering the end-to-end product strategy, roadmap, and execution for the micro-lending product portfolio. Operating within an Agile environment, this role translates customer needs, market trends, and regulatory requirements into seamless, high-impact lending solutions.

Acting as the voice of the customer while ensuring strict adherence to compliance standards, the Product Manager drives the delivery of user-focused features that align with South African credit regulations and support responsible lending practices.

Responsibilities:

Product Strategy & Roadmap

• Own and drive the vision, strategy, and forward roadmap for the micro-lending product suite, aligned to business goals.
• Identify growth opportunities through market analysis, customer insight, and ongoing regulatory awareness within the South African lending landscape.
• Prioritise initiatives using structured, data-led frameworks (e.g. RICE, MoSCoW) to maximise impact.
• Build and maintain strong business cases to support new features, enhancements, and strategic investments.

Agile Product Ownership

• Fulfil the Product Owner role within Agile squads, defining clear epics, user stories, and acceptance criteria.
• Lead core Agile ceremonies, partnering closely with engineering, design, and QA to drive delivery.
• Make pragmatic trade-off decisions across scope, quality, and timelines to maintain delivery momentum.
• Define and uphold the “definition of done,” ensuring outputs meet quality, compliance, and user experience expectations.
• Keep a well-structured, prioritised backlog that enables consistent team velocity.

Regulatory & Compliance

• Ensure full compliance of the lending product suite with the National Credit Act (NCA) and all relevant amendments.
• Work closely with Legal, Risk, and Compliance teams to embed regulatory requirements into product design from inception.
• Stay abreast of updates from the National Credit Regulator (NCR) and proactively assess product implications.
• Ensure responsible lending practices, including affordability checks and credit bureau integrations, are correctly implemented and auditable.
• Support compliance with NCR registration, reporting, and consumer protection obligations.

Stakeholder Engagement

• Act as the central point of coordination across Product, Technology, Risk, Legal, Compliance, Operations, and Sales.
• Communicate product direction, progress, and outcomes clearly to both technical and non-technical stakeholders, including executives.
• Develop and manage relationships with external partners such as credit bureaus, payment providers, and integration partners.
• Lead workshops and discovery sessions to align stakeholders on priorities and delivery plans.

Data, Analytics & Performance

• Define, track, and report on key product metrics, including OKRs and KPIs.
• Leverage data insights to guide decisions, improve customer journeys, and optimise conversion and repayment rates.
• Run controlled experiments and A/B tests to validate ideas before scaling.
• Monitor post-release performance and continuously feed insights back into the product roadmap.

Experience

• Bachelor’s Degree in Commerce, Business Science, Computer Science, Engineering, Information Systems, or a related field (essential).
• Postgraduate qualification (Honours, MBA, or equivalent) in a relevant discipline is advantageous.
• Certified Scrum Product Owner (CSPO), SAFe Product Owner/Manager, or equivalent Agile certification is highly desirable.
• Courses or formal training in credit, lending, or financial services regulation will be an added advantage.

Product Management

• 5+ years in a formal Product Manager role

Micro-Lending or Credit Product Experience

• 3+ years in SA micro-lending environment

Agile / Scrum development environment

• 3+ years as Product Owner in Agile squads

National Credit Act working knowledge

• Demonstrated applied experience

Credit bureau & affordability assessments

• Practical integration and design experience

Fintech or financial services industry

• 3+ years in a regulated fintech/FSP context

Stakeholder & executive communication

• Proven track record required

Skills

Technical & Domain Knowledge

• Strong understanding of the South African micro-lending environment, including informal, short-term, and developmental credit markets.
• In-depth knowledge of the National Credit Act (NCA), National Credit Regulator (NCR) requirements, and the Credit Ombud framework, including SACCRA.
• Solid understanding of the end-to-end credit lifecycle, including origination, underwriting, affordability assessment, disbursement, collections, and recoveries/write-offs.
• Experience with credit bureau integrations (TransUnion, Experian, XDS, Compuscan) and interpretation of bureau data.
• Working knowledge of open banking, South African payment rails (e.g. PayShap, EFT, DebiCheck), and digital identity verification solutions.
• Proficiency in Agile delivery frameworks (Scrum, Kanban) and tools such as Jira, Confluence, and Miro.
• Ability to translate regulatory and compliance requirements into clear, actionable product specifications.

Product Owner Skills

• Strong ability to define and structure user stories, epics, and acceptance criteria.
• Experience in product discovery, including customer interviews, journey mapping, and Jobs-to-be-Done (JTBD) techniques.
• Skilled in roadmap planning, backlog management, and prioritisation under tight constraints.
• Analytical mindset with experience using data tools (e.g. SQL, Looker, Tableau) to support decision-making.
• Experience designing and executing A/B tests and structured experiments to validate product hypotheses.

Leadership & Interpersonal Skills

• Proven ability to lead and align cross-functional teams without direct authority.
• Strong communication skills, with the ability to tailor messaging for both technical and non-technical audiences.
• Effective negotiation and conflict resolution skills in high-pressure environments.
• High emotional intelligence with the ability to manage ambiguity and competing priorities while remaining decisive.
• Collaborative, proactive, and action-oriented working style.