Product Manager - Financial Services

About Us:

Sokowatch is transforming communities across Africa by revolutionizing access to essential goods and services. By connecting small merchants to the digital economy, we fix inefficient supply chains and provide services previously unavailable to informal businesses. Sokowatch aims to provide everything a retailer needs, no wholesalers or banks necessary.

Thousands of retailers across Kenya, Tanzania, Rwanda, and Uganda use Sokowatch's mobile ordering and delivery platform to receive the goods they need as quickly and cheaply as possible while also accessing growth financing for the first time. We’re looking to grow our team with highly talented and motivated employees who are excited to work in a fast-paced and dynamic startup environment.

Role:

Sokowatch is seeking an experienced, data-driven & highly technical product management professional with an extensive background in the financial services technology industry.

This role will be reporting directly to the Global Head of Product.

Location:

This role may be remote (as long as the time zone difference to East Africa is not impractical) or based out of one of our offices in

• Nairobi, Kenya (HQ)
• Dar es Salaam, Tanzania
• Kampala, Uganda
• Kigali, Rwanda
• Bangalore, India

Duties & Responsibilities:

• Take charge of developing the product vision and planning the roadmap for financial services at Sokowatch
• Perform in-depth qualitative field research with customers and credit management teams as well as quantitative research on credit disbursement and repayment behavior
• Determine essential features for development that will grow the loan book and minimize PAR
• Prepare meticulous make-or-buy analyses for key technology implementations
• Draft detailed product requirements for UX designers and engineering teams
• Lead sprint execution in collaboration with engineering management
• Communicate & coordinate diligently with technology stakeholders
• Plan and orchestrate feature releases
• Measure & report success on implementations

Requirements:

The ideal candidate has ≥3 years of experience in designing & implementing as well as integrating third-party financial services technologies for underserved communities in Africa or Asia and possesses the following skills & traits:

• Expert in agile product management practices and tools
• Deep knowledge of successful micro-lending approaches
• Experience in developing essential fintech features such as proprietary credit scoring algorithms and tools to optimize repayment behavior
• Excellent verbal & written communication skills
• Diligent and forthcoming collaborator across multi-disciplinary teams