Head of Product – Platforms at Kuda

Role Overview

• The Head of Product, Platform will lead the Platform tribe at Kuda, overseeing Core Banking, Payments & Cards, and Internal Tooling.
• This tribe powers the reliability, scalability, and compliance of Kuda’s infrastructure — enabling all product tribes to deliver customer-facing innovation.
• You will own the tribe’s strategy, roadmap, and delivery, ensuring that platform investments translate into measurable business efficiency, regulatory readiness, and improved delivery velocity across the organisation.

Key Responsibilities

Strategy & Roadmap

• Define and own the Platform tribe strategy and roadmap, integrating business goals, regulatory needs, and market dynamics.
• Prioritise investments that improve system reliability, cost efficiency, and scalability while enabling new business opportunities.
• Set and communicate SMART goals (OKRs) to align teams and stakeholders.

Delivery & Execution

• Lead tribe planning and QBRs, managing alignment and dependencies across tribes.
• Champion thin-slice, iterative delivery with measurable impact.
• Provide proactive visibility to leadership and stakeholders on roadmap progress, risks, and key decisions.

Reliability, Scalability & Compliance

• Establish standards for system reliability, uptime, and performance, tracking SLA targets.
• Ensure compliance with card scheme rules, payment regulations, and data protection requirements.
• Drive automation and tooling that reduce operational friction and enhance efficiency.

Analytics & Financial Impact

• Use financial analytics to optimise ROI, cost-to-serve, and scalability.
• Analyse vendor costs, transaction volumes, reconciliation gaps, and efficiency gains to inform priorities.
• Apply cohort analysis to identify internal adoption trends and guide smarter platform investment.

People Leadership & Influence

• Hire, coach, and develop Product Managers with strong infrastructure and financial services instincts.
• Influence stakeholders by simplifying complex technical concepts into clear business narratives.
• Foster an inclusive, collaborative culture where teams feel empowered to contribute and own outcomes.

Change Leadership

• Lead structural enhancements to Kuda’s infrastructure that benefit multiple business areas.
• Oversee transformation initiatives in core processes (ledger, payments, tooling) to increase efficiency.
• Act as a role model for learning, continuous improvement, and accountability.

Day-to-Day Collaboration

• With BLO (Platform): align on efficiency, uptime, and cost-reduction objectives.
• With DM/TLs: plan capacity, define SLAs, and deliver roadmap initiatives.
• With Other Tribes: manage dependencies for payment flows, ledger, and tooling access.
• With Risk, Compliance, Legal, Finance: ensure audit readiness, reconciliation integrity, and regulatory compliance.
• With Vendors: manage partnerships, SLAs, and integrations with card schemes, processors, and banking providers.

Requirements

• 7+ years in Product Management, with 4+ years leading payments, cards, or core banking infrastructure products.
• Proven track record in building reliable, compliant financial platforms.
• Strong knowledge of local payment rails, card schemes, and core banking systems.
• Experience managing vendors and partners at scale.
• Data-driven decision-maker with financial modelling and ROI analysis experience.
• Excellent communication and influencing skills, able to simplify complex concepts.
• Experienced in mentoring Product Managers and building high-performing teams.

Nice to Have

• Experience in Nigerian or emerging market financial infrastructure.
• Familiarity with CBN regulations, scheme certifications, ISO20022.
• Background in internal tooling or financial operations automation.