SERVICE PRODUCT OWNER - DIGITAL ONBOARDING

Overview

Role Overview

Job Purpose

KEY RESPONSIBILITIES**1. Product Roadmap & Vision

• Define and own a clear product roadmap for the digital onboarding suite, aligned with the bank's retail strategy and AI-led transformation agenda
• Collaborate with senior stakeholders to establish product vision, quarterly goals, and release milestones
• Prioritize the product backlog based on business value, compliance requirements, technical feasibility, and customer impact
• Balance competing demands across UX, technology constraints, regulatory timelines, and business OKRs

2. Agile Delivery & Ceremonies

• Lead and facilitate all Agile ceremonies: sprint planning, daily standups, backlog refinement, sprint review, and retrospectives
• Partner with Engineering Leads and Scrum Masters to ensure sprint capacity and velocity are managed effectively
• Drive rigorous backlog refinement — stories must be clearly defined, acceptance criteria unambiguous, and dependencies resolved before sprint entry
• Manage delivery risks, blockers, and escalations; maintain transparency through Jira and reporting dashboards

3. Requirements Definition & Product Specification

• Translate complex business and regulatory needs into structured user stories, epics, and acceptance criteria
• Conduct gap analysis between current-state onboarding journeys and target-state digital experiences
• Lead stakeholder workshops and brainstorming sessions to surface requirements and validate proposed solutions
• Produce clear, actionable product documentation that engineering teams can build from — without reliance on a separate BA function

4. Compliance, KYC & Onboarding Domain

• In-depth understanding of retail onboarding workflows: KYC, AML, CDD, identity verification, account opening, and servicing journeys
• Ensure all product decisions account for CBUAE regulations, internal compliance policies, and risk frameworks
• Partner with Compliance and Risk teams to embed regulatory controls into product design without degrading customer experience
• Champion automation of compliance-heavy processes through intelligent workflows and AI-assisted decisioning

5. Stakeholder Management

• Serve as the single point of accountability for product delivery — own the narrative with business sponsors, technology teams, and senior leadership
• Communicate product updates, risk flags, and roadmap changes clearly to VP and C-level stakeholders
• Manage expectations and resolve conflicts across Branch Operations, Compliance, Digital, IT, and third-party vendors

6. User-Centric Design & Experience

• Conduct user research and journey mapping to identify onboarding friction points and conversion drop-offs
• Advocate for UX best practices across all digital touchpoints — mobile, web, and branch-assisted journeys
• Collaborate with UX/UI designers (Figma-based workflows) to validate wireframes and prototypes against product requirements
• Own post-launch performance monitoring and drive iterative improvement based on data and user feedback

7. Technology Enablement & AI

• Maintain strong technical understanding of how systems enable product outcomes — APIs, core banking integrations, CRM platforms, and third-party services
• Actively contribute to the AI-first roadmap: identify automation, ML, and AI use cases within onboarding and servicing journeys
• Partner with architecture and engineering on system design decisions — feasibility and scalability of proposed solutions
• Own SIT, UAT, and production rollout phases with clear go/no-go governance and sign-off accountability
• **Requirements** **Mandatory**
• Minimum 3 years in a banking environment — retail, RBWM, or corporate banking *(non-negotiable)*
• 5–8 years total experience with proven end-to-end product delivery ownership in banking or financial services
• Deep functional knowledge of retail onboarding: KYC, AML, CDD, account opening, servicing, and compliance workflows
• Strong hands-on Agile experience — Scrum or SAFe — including ceremony facilitation and backlog ownership
• Proficiency with Jira (including add-ons) for backlog management, sprint tracking, and delivery reporting
• Ability to write user stories, define acceptance criteria, and drive requirements independently — no BA dependency

Preferred

• Figma experience for wireframe review and design validation — strong positive
• CRM platform exposure — Siebel CRM or equivalent — within banking or financial services
• Corporate banking exposure in addition to retail background
• Knowledge of AI, intelligent automation, or ML applications within onboarding or servicing
• Familiarity with CBUAE regulations and UAE open banking frameworks

Skill Mix

Education & Certifications

• Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Business, Finance, or related discipline
• No certification required — delivery track record and banking domain depth take priority
• CSPO, PSPO, or equivalent Agile certifications are a positive signal, not a screening gate