Technical Product Manager – Hybrid – JHB at Datafin Recruitment

ENVIRONMENT:

• Our client, a leading South African fintech, is looking for a Technical Product Manager to take ownership of BizFlex, the lending platform powering Standard Bank's SME lending solution.
• This is a highly visible role sitting at the intersection of Product, Technology and Business, where you'll work closely with internal stakeholders and Standard Bank to drive the ongoing evolution of a mission-critical financial platform.
• This is more than a traditional Product Manager role. You'll combine technical product ownership with stakeholder management, delivery coordination, roadmap planning and release governance, ensuring business requirements are translated into high-quality technical solutions that deliver real commercial value.

DUTIES:

• Translate business and partner requirements into detailed functional specifications for the development team.
• Own and maintain the product backlog, ensuring development priorities remain aligned with business objectives.
• Work closely with engineering teams to scope, prioritise and deliver product enhancements.
• Lead planning sessions with key stakeholders and coordinate delivery against agreed timelines.
• Build and maintain a strategic product roadmap that balances internal priorities with partner commitments.
• Drive end-to-end release management, including UAT coordination, deployment planning and production readiness.
• Coordinate the resolution of technical incidents, defects and production issues while driving continuous product improvement.
• Partner closely with Product Operations to identify system enhancements and translate operational feedback into future development initiatives.
• Monitor delivery progress, identify risks, and communicate project status to both internal leadership and external stakeholders.
• Produce governance reports, maintain project documentation and present delivery updates to senior management.
• Ensure all delivered functionality meets agreed quality standards before release into production.

REQUIREMENTS:

• Proven experience as a Technical Product Manager, Product Owner or Technical Business Analyst within a software development environment.
• Strong experience writing detailed functional specifications and translating business requirements into technical solutions.
• Solid understanding of Agile delivery methodologies, backlog management and software development lifecycles.
• Experience working closely with software development teams and managing multiple technical stakeholders.
• Strong analytical and problem-solving skills with the ability to prioritise competing business requirements.
• Experience coordinating UAT, release management and deployment planning.
• Comfortable working with data, reporting and product performance metrics.
• Previous experience within fintech, lending or financial services would be highly advantageous.
• Exposure to PI Planning or SAFe Agile methodologies is beneficial.

ATTRIBUTES:

• Excellent communication and stakeholder management skills.
• Strong organisational and planning ability.
• Commercially minded with excellent business acumen.
• Confident influencing without direct authority.
• Highly analytical with exceptional attention to detail.
• Calm under pressure and comfortable managing multiple priorities.
• Collaborative, proactive and solutions-driven.