Lead Product Owner
Tier 1 Bank | 6-Month Contract (Umbrella)
Overview
A leading Tier 1 bank is seeking a highly experienced Lead Product Owner (Director level) to define and deliver the strategic vision across its day-to-day banking, servicing, and mandates portfolio.
Operating within a large-scale, highly regulated environment, this role will be responsible for driving transformation across core banking capabilities, ensuring alignment with enterprise strategy while delivering customer-centric, compliant, and scalable product solutions.
You will play a key leadership role across the organisation, bridging senior business stakeholders, technology teams, and offshore delivery functions, ensuring effective execution of complex, business-critical initiatives.
Key Responsibilities
Strategic Product Leadership
- Define and execute the product vision and roadmap across day-to-day banking, servicing, and mandates
- Ensure alignment with enterprise-wide strategic priorities and regulatory frameworks
- Drive modernisation of product capabilities in line with evolving customer expectations and market trends
End-to-End Product Ownership
- Maintain accountability for the full product lifecycle, from strategy through to delivery and optimisation
- Lead the delivery of large-scale transformation initiatives across core banking products
- Ensure product roadmaps are aligned with business, risk, and operational priorities
Performance & Governance
- Define and manage product KPIs, OKRs, and performance metrics aligned to business objectives
- Ensure robust governance across product delivery, including adherence to:
- Regulatory requirements
- Risk frameworks
- Internal controls
Customer & Journey Focus
- Champion a customer-first, journey-led approach across all product initiatives
- Translate complex business and regulatory requirements into intuitive customer experiences
- Ensure alignment between customer outcomes and organisational goals
Stakeholder & Leadership Engagement
- Act as a key interface between product, technology, operations, and senior executive stakeholders
- Influence decision-making at senior leadership level across business and technology functions
- Drive alignment across multiple business units and delivery teams
Delivery & Offshore Team Leadership
- Lead collaboration across cross-functional teams, including engineering, architecture, operations, and risk
- Provide direction and oversight to offshore teams (India), ensuring delivery quality, consistency, and alignment
- Foster a high-performance delivery culture across distributed teams
Domain Expertise (Banking)
- Demonstrate deep expertise in:
- Business banking / retail banking operations
- Day-to-day banking products
- Servicing models and customer interaction channels
- Customer mandates, account structures, and controls
- Provide strategic insight into regulatory, operational, and market-driven changes
Experience & Requirements
- Proven experience operating at Lead Product Owner level within a Tier 1 or large financial institution
- Strong background in banking or financial services, with exposure to core banking products
- Experience delivering large-scale transformation programmes within complex, regulated environments
- Strong understanding of:
- Governance frameworks
- Risk and compliance requirements
- Enterprise delivery models
- Demonstrated ability to engage and influence senior stakeholders (C-suite / MD level)
- Experience managing distributed and offshore teams (India preferred)
Preferred Background
- Experience gained within Big 4 or top-tier strategy consulting
- Exposure to core banking transformation, digital modernisation, or platform migration programmes
- Experience working within Agile / scaled Agile environments (e.g., SAFe)
Core Capabilities
- Strategic thinking with strong execution capability in complex organisations
- Ability to navigate matrixed environments and competing priorities
- Strong leadership, stakeholder management, and influencing skills
- Ability to operate effectively in highly regulated, risk-aware environments
- Strong commercial awareness with a focus on value delivery and cost optimisation
Contract Details
- Duration: 6 months
- Engagement Type: PAYE
- Location: [London / Hybrid – 2–3 days onsite typical for Tier 1 bank]
- Start Date: ASAP
Summary
This is a critical leadership role within a Tier 1 bank, focused on delivering strategic transformation across core banking products. The successful candidate will combine strategic vision, hands-on product leadership, and deep domain expertise to drive outcomes in a complex, highly governed environment.