Role Summary

The Product Head will lead the strategy, design, and delivery of the middleware layer that connects our core financial systems, loan management systems (LMS), third-party integrations, and front-end applications. This role ensures that all internal and external systems communicate efficiently, securely, and at scale — enabling a seamless customer journey across our lending, payment, and credit ecosystem.

You will serve as the key bridge between product, engineering, and business teams, ensuring that all integrations, APIs, and data exchange mechanisms are standardized, governed, and aligned with business goals and regulatory requirements

Key Responsibilities

1. Product Strategy & Roadmap

• Define and own the middleware product vision, strategy, and multi-year roadmap aligned with business priorities (e.g., LMS integration, AI risk engine, credit bureau APIs, partner ecosystems).
• Drive architecture modernization and scalability of middleware services, supporting new products such as cash loans, credit builder, and corporate personal loans.
• Establish frameworks for API management, microservices orchestration, and service catalog governance.

2. Platform Design & Development

• Oversee the design and delivery of integration services, message queues, and data pipelines between systems (e.g., loan origination → LMS → risk engine → payment gateway).
• Ensure the middleware supports high-volume, low-latency communication and adheres to SLAs and regulatory uptime requirements.
• Lead technical discussions with internal teams and vendors (e.g., FintechOS, Camunda, FinnOne, AECB, M2P) to ensure seamless system interoperability.
• Manage version control, release management, and backward compatibility across all middleware APIs.

3. Team Leadership & Governance

• Build and mentor a team of product managers, integration engineers, and solution architects focused on middleware services.
• Define and enforce standards for documentation, code reusability, and system observability (Grafana/Kibana dashboards).
• Implement product governance for API lifecycle management, access control, and change management.

4. Security, Compliance & Quality

• Ensure all middleware services comply with CBUAE, AECB, and data protection standards (including encryption, tokenization, and logging).
• Collaborate with Risk Engineering and Data teams to enforce data lineage, auditability, and access control.
• Establish robust monitoring, error handling, and recovery mechanisms for all middleware services.

5. Stakeholder Management

• Work closely with Product, Risk, Operations, and Business teams to translate functional needs into API-based workflows.
• Manage relationships with external partners, fintech vendors, and enterprise clients for integrations and data-sharing agreements.
• Present platform performance metrics, uptime dashboards, and roadmap updates to executive leadership.

Key Requirements

• Bachelor’s or master’s degree in computer science, Engineering, or related field.
• PMP, Agile Product Owner, or TOGAF certification is a plus.

• 10+ years of experience in product management, middleware architecture, or systems integration, preferably within fintech, banking, or lending.
• Proven experience managing API gateways, microservices platforms, and integration architectures.
• Hands-on experience with tools and technologies such as Azure Service Bus, Kafka, RabbitMQ, REST/GraphQL APIs, Camunda, Kubernetes, and GitLab CI/CD.
• Strong understanding of lending systems, payment gateways, risk engines, and credit bureau integrations.
• Prior experience leading cross-functional engineering and product teams.

• Deep knowledge of system integration patterns (synchronous/asynchronous, event-driven).
• Strong understanding of data privacy and regulatory requirements in financial services.
• Excellent stakeholder communication and documentation abilities.
• Strategic mindset with the ability to balance business value, scalability, and compliance.
• Analytical thinking with experience in system performance optimization and API design.