About the position
ENVIRONMENT
Our client is a scale-up fintech with a start-up mindset, combining the agility and innovation of a startup with the stability of an established payments business. They are building world-class card payment solutions for South Africa and need a Product Owner with deep card payments expertise to own this critical domain. you will own the card payments domain end-to-end, translating complex banking and scheme requirements into scalable, merchant-ready payment solutions. This is a hands-on role for someone who has implemented payment gateways or card paymentsolutions before, either within a gateway, fintech, or banking environment.
DUTIES
Product Ownership & Strategy
- Own the card payments and payment gateway roadmap, balancing business objectives, regulatory requirements, and technical constraints.
- Define and prioritise features for online card acceptance, transaction flows, security, and performance.
- Act as the primary payments SME for stakeholders across Product, Engineering, Risk, Finance, and Operations.
Business Analysis & Delivery
- Analyse and define detailed requirements for new and enhanced card payment functionality.
- Map and optimise end-to-end card payment flows including authorisation, settlement, reconciliation, 3D Secure, tokenisation, refunds, and chargebacks.
- Translate business and banking requirements into clear user stories, functional specifications, and acceptance criteria.
- Support delivery teams across the full SDLC — from discovery and refinement through to UAT and production rollout.
Payments & Banking Alignment
- Ensure solutions comply with South African acquiring requirements, scheme mandates (Visa / Mastercard), PASA rules, and regulatory standards.
- Collaborate with banks, processors, and third-party providers on integrations and compliance.
- Partner with merchants and internal teams to explain payment flows, troubleshoot issues, and improve transaction success rates.
REQUIREMENTS
Must-Have Experience
- Proven experience working within a payment gateway, fintech, or bank on card payment solutions.
- Strong understanding of:
- Card-not-present payment processing
- Payment gateway integrations
- Card rails and banking requirements
- 3D Secure (1 & 2), tokenisation, card vaulting
- Settlement, reconciliation, refunds, and chargebacks
- Fraud prevention and transaction risk analysis
- Experience with API-driven payment platforms and technical integrations.
Product & BA Skillset
- Experience in a Product Owner or Senior BA capacity, owning features or domains.
- Strong business analysis fundamentals: requirements gathering, process mapping, user stories, and UAT.
- Comfortable in Agile environments using tools such as Jira, Confluence, Miro, Swagger/OpenAPI.
Nice to Have
- Banking or acquiring experience with direct exposure to card rails.
- High-volume transaction platform or fintech experience.
ATTRIBUTES
- Strong communicator bridging technical, business, and banking stakeholders.
- Detail-oriented with a systems-thinking mindset.
- Confident owning a specialised domain while collaborating within a broader product and BA team.
- Passionate about building reliable, compliant, and scalable payment experiences.
Desired Skills:
- Communication
- Payment Gateway Integration
- Risk Analysis
About The Employer:
A fast-growing FinTech company
