Product Owner Cards & Payments Digital Banking

About the Opportunity

Strike IT Recruitment Services is seeking an experienced Product Owner with specialized expertise in Cards & Payments for a contract position in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. This role is part of a significant digital banking transformation program and requires a candidate with 5-10 years of experience, specifically within the Cards and Payments domain, covering the end-to-end card lifecycle and associated customer journeys.

Role Responsibilities

• Own the product vision, roadmap, and backlog for Cards & Payments capabilities.
• Lead product requirements across the end-to-end card lifecycle, from application and issuance through activation, transaction processing, servicing, and closure.
• Define and prioritize epics, features, user stories, and acceptance criteria.
• Collaborate with Cards, Payments, Operations, Risk, Compliance, Technology, and Architecture stakeholders.
• Drive digital card journeys across mobile and online banking channels.
• Define requirements related to card authorization, clearing, settlement, transaction processing, and reconciliation.
• Support capabilities including card issuance, activation, PIN management, limits, controls, replacement, renewal, and dispute management.
• Work with engineering, architecture, UX, QA, and delivery teams throughout the product lifecycle.
• Manage dependencies between card platforms, payment systems, core banking, and digital channels.
• Support User Acceptance Testing (UAT), releases, and post-production improvements.
• Ensure Cards & Payments products meet relevant regulatory, security, and compliance requirements.

Required Experience and Qualifications

• Strong experience as a Product Owner or Senior Product Owner within the banking sector.
• Significant and recent experience specifically within Cards & Payments.
• Strong understanding of the end-to-end card lifecycle.
• Experience across debit and/or credit card products.
• Knowledge of key card processes including application, onboarding, issuance, activation, physical and virtual cards, authorization, transaction processing, clearing, settlement, controls, transaction limits, PIN management, replacement, renewal, disputes, chargebacks, refunds, and lost/stolen card journeys.
• Understanding of Visa and/or Mastercard card schemes and associated processes.
• Experience delivering digital Cards & Payments capabilities within mobile or internet banking.
• Strong experience managing product backlogs and translating business requirements into epics, user stories, and acceptance criteria.
• Experience working within Agile/Scrum delivery environments.
• Strong stakeholder management skills across both business and technology teams.

Highly Desirable Skills

• Experience with card issuing and/or card processing platforms.
• Knowledge of payment gateways, payment switches, and payment processing.
• Experience with 3D Secure, tokenization, and digital wallets.
• Exposure to Apple Pay, Google Pay, or similar wallet integrations.
• Understanding of PCI DSS and card security requirements.
• Experience with APIs, microservices, and modern digital banking architectures.
• Experience working for a digital bank, challenger bank, or a major Cards transformation program.
• Previous experience working with clients or teams in Saudi Arabia or the Middle East.

Work Environment

This is a contract position based in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, focusing on a major digital banking transformation program.