Product Owner

A leading global financial services organisation is looking to appoint a Vice President-level Platform Product Owner into its growing Manchester operation.

Sitting within a Global Clearing and Market Infrastructure function, this is an opportunity to take ownership of products and infrastructure that enable banks and broker-dealers to access global financial markets.

This is not a traditional technology Product Owner role with a dedicated software engineering squad. The successful candidate will need a strong understanding of financial markets and the post-trade lifecycle, combined with Product Ownership and Business Analysis capability.

The role

The Product Owner will take responsibility for specific products and market infrastructure initiatives, owning their backlog and helping shape their ongoing development.

Responsibilities will include:

• Owning, managing and prioritising the product backlog
• Working with institutional clients and internal stakeholders to understand and define requirements
• Translating complex business and market requirements into deliverable change
• Analysing how new products and market developments interact with existing clearing and settlement infrastructure
• Producing requirements, user stories and specifications
• Working across operations, product, technology and governance teams
• Understanding integrations between systems, including APIs, data flows and wider architecture
• Assessing the impact of infrastructure changes across the wider client and market ecosystem
• Taking long-term ownership of products and helping define their future direction

The key requirement is a strong understanding of capital markets and post-trade infrastructure.

Candidates should be able to demonstrate knowledge of how trades move through execution, clearing and settlement, including the interaction between banks, broker-dealers, custodians, CSDs and other market infrastructure.

They will also ideally have:

• Experience within investment banking, securities services, custody, clearing, broker-dealer services or a related capital markets environment
• Product Owner or closely related product experience
• Strong Business Analysis skills
• Experience owning and prioritising product backlogs
• Strong knowledge of clearing and settlement processes
• The ability to understand complex operating models and interconnected financial systems
• Enough technical knowledge to discuss APIs, integrations, data flows and architecture with technology teams
• Excellent internal and external stakeholder management skills
• Experience working within Agile and/or Kanban environments

Candidates do not need to come from a software engineering background.

Profiles that have developed through capital markets operations or Business Analysis before moving into Product Ownership are particularly relevant.

The opportunity

This is a high-profile role within a global financial markets business, offering genuine ownership of products and infrastructure rather than simply delivering against a technology roadmap.

The successful candidate will join a global Product function and have the opportunity to work on new market infrastructure, evolving technologies and emerging financial products while developing their career within a growing Manchester operation.

There is a strong track record of progression within the wider team, including progression beyond VP level.