We’re embarking on something BIG... 

Central 1 is the partner of choice for financial, digital banking and payment products and services – fueling the success of businesses across Canada. With $16.9 billion in assets, we leverage our scale, strength and expertise to power progress for more than 225 credit unions and other financial institutions, enhancing the financial well-being of more than five million customers from coast to coast. For more information, visit Central1.com.

Because of COVID19, all Central 1 offices are currently closed to non-essential employees. This role will see you working remotely until our offices are reopened. The timeline to reopen is still under consideration, as are our future remote working policies.

We are the credit union system's financial institution connection point to Payments Canada and responsible for delivering payments safely, efficiently, and cost-effectively. This all means we are well-positioned to anticipate the changes that are afoot and to advise the credit union system on the steps it must take now to prepare. Central 1 is dedicated to providing technologies and partnerships that meet or exceed Payments Canada and Interac requirements and allow our members and clients to innovate safely and efficiently.

The Product Manager/Director is the overall product owner for a suite of products focused on Payments Modernization including major upgrades to the core infrastructure and rules of its payments systems to create a faster, more flexible and secure payments infrastructure.  

What you'll be doing: 

• Support the overall payments product organization
• Think strategically, conceptually and analytically to define product vision for products of significant scope, complexity and revenue potential
• Lead cross-functional product teams through the process of designing and delivering digital solutions that solve business problems and capture opportunities
• Utilize human-centric design=based development approaches to determine client needs and desires and evaluate changes in the market place to generate insights and ideas to incorporate in the product design; drive market research and provide market segment, product positioning, industry and competitive analyses, and specifies market requirements for the products
• Ensure success and growth of the product by supporting in the development of a product vision, strategy, roadmap and lifecycle management framework, ensuring the developed/enhanced product meets requirements as defined in the product vision and roadmap
•  Responsible for ownership of product voice and vision; understands product vision and articulates vision to the development team
• Supporting innovation to support credit unions product sales, member loyalty and retention and think creatively to deliver first class digital solutions that create rapid impact
• Involved with story definition, providing clarifications necessary to assist the team with their estimates and story sequencing
• Conducts analysis to support the Senior Product Manager to ensure products and platform are tracking against their KPIs
•  Evaluates data and insights for comprehensive strategy planning, establish timelines and product benchmarks
• Supports the marketing and sales efforts in defining and executing a comprehensive digital marketing strategy
• Supports sales teams in their conversations with potential clients
• Defines the business and operational requirements for the products; defines product functionalities and assesses if the current technology infrastructure has the required capabilities to support the product
• Develops and presents business cases or other supporting rationale for product changes, new features or services, development projects or other business initiatives; sets priorities and contributes to the preparation of the overall product plan
• Collaborates with Agile teams regarding the design and development of the product; makes tactical decisions as required to manage unplanned but required changes to the product and ensures product revisions are aligned with priorities and strategy
• Works closely with product Marketing staff to contribute to developing the product marketing strategy and identifies and defines documents and processes require to support the sales, training, support and ongoing operation of the products
• Acts as an advocate for the product and makes presentations to potential and existing clients
• Contributes to various documents including product materials, project documents, competitive analyses, support processes and guides, project charters, technical specifications and release notes
• Maintains current knowledge of Central 1’s family of products, application functionality and the high-level architecture of Central 1’s IT environment
• Performs other duties as required to deliver exceptional service and to support Central 1’s business goals
• Responsible to the day-to-day management and development of Payment products pricing
• Provide marketing/communications support on products, features & services collateral, including product positioning & ensuring that product content is up-to-date
• Act as the subject matter expert with various internal business partners in order to author business cases, define requirements, product/feature enhancements, industry working groups, etc.
• Contribute to strategy, annual business plans, development of recommendations and business cases for programs supporting Commercial Banking clients
• Provide ongoing, high-quality support to our internal sales and service/operations partners
• Manage execution of projects including responsibilities for supporting and individually managing other key stakeholders in the analysis, development and implementation of projects and project related work packages (in conjunction with the project managers and technology leads)
• Provide input into, and recommendations regarding, the ongoing improvement of sales capabilities and C1’s channel distribution effectiveness.  This includes the development and management of internal sales support programs and communications
• Represent Central 1 at senior forums, payment functions, with regulators and with clients.

What you'll have:

• The ideal candidate will have 10+ years of experience in product management/product owner roles with payment related products, and/or building digital banking products

Leadership experience:

• Experience in agile methodology, working in teams to focus on the right priorities, building excellent team relationships, fostering a sense of urgency and dedication to delivering on commitments
• Demonstrated thought and servant leadership and ability to influence multiple stakeholders (leadership, clients)
• Situational fluency, ability to influence and motivate others, and perseverance to handle challenging business and technical situations
• Strong operational and risk management experience and knowledge

Product management experience

• Solid understanding of the product lifecycle, ability to think strategically conceptually and analytically to contribute in defining the product vision for a variety of product features, sometimes of significant complexity
• Excellent knowledge of product development/product management principles, methodologies, tools and techniques
• Experience with designing creative, quality products, as well as enabling business capability and objectives through technology
• Experience in utilizing human-centric design based development approaches to determine client needs and desires.
• Able to evaluate changes in the market place to generate insights and ideas to incorporate in the product design; drive market research and provide market segment, product positioning, industry, and competitive analyses, and specifies market requirements for the products       

Customer focus

• Experience with conducting user research, usability testing and analytics
• Exposure to human-centric design-based development, and customer journey map
•  Experience with designing creative, quality products, as well as enabling business capability and objectives through technology

Education: 

• University degree in business administration computer science, engineering or a related discipline

As much as we believe in working hard, we also believe in personal growth and taking time for ourselves. Accordingly, our total rewards philosophy amounts to one of the best compensation and benefits packages in the industry – from performance-based incentives and extended benefits, to training and education reimbursements and ample vacation time.

Central 1 is committed to building a diverse and inclusive workforce by creating an environment where everyone feels like they belong and has the opportunity to be successful. We are welcoming of all applicants and we will provide an accessible candidate experience.

Reporting to: Payments Modernization Executive 
Grade: I
Date Posted: November 27, 2020
Internal Applicant due date: December 10, 2020
External Applicant due date:  December 18, 2020
Location: Vancouver, British Columbia or Toronto/Mississauga, Ontario