FinTech Product Manager

Overview

You will help customers develop breakthrough FinTech products and will be able to apply your strengths by creating compelling proposals based on the latest technology.

At Star, we connect strategy, insights, design and engineering into a seamless workflow devised to support our clients every step of the way—no matter how long or complex their journey. We anchor everything we do in clear and compelling endgames, which in turn enable our multidisciplinary teams to create superior solutions and impressive commercial returns for our clients.

Star is truly global. That is why we are the first major consulting company that does not have headquarters. Instead, we have many front doors spanning Silicon Valley, Tokyo, London, Munich, Copenhagen, Kyiv, Wroclaw, Ho Chi Minh City and other vibrant design, technology and creative nuclei of the world. Our spirited and growing 750 strong Star Crew takes great pride in working side by side with their trailblazing counterparts at some of the world’s most disruptive “unicorn” startups and iconic global brands like Lufthansa, Dolby Laboratories, BMW, Panasonic, Walmart and Zeiss.

Our mission is to make every great person, every great idea, and every great company shine. That’s why we’re called Star.

The Opportunity

This United States-based role will be a critical contributor to driving sales and strategic growth both for Star’s UK practice and its global Fintech proposition. The FinTech Product Manager will report to Star’s FinTech Product Director and work closely with the FinTech Managing Director, FinTech Product Lead, and Commercial Leads. Their key responsibilities will be to:

• Help define the strategy for the FinTech business at Star, with a particular focus on the specificities of the US market;
• Provide expertise and thought leadership while working together with marketing to generate content promoting Star’s vision and expertise in the FinTech space;
• Identify, pursue and lead high potential pre-sales opportunities;
• Kickstart customer projects, with a particular focus on identifying the initial scope of the project and fostering relationships with key stakeholders.

The ideal candidate has both a technology solutions background (preferred technical consulting, professional services, time at a start-up or in a product management role), as well as an entrepreneurial mindset and is someone who’s willing to roll up their sleeves and contribute to the growth and vitality of Star.

Charisma, ambition and confidence will be essential, yet the successful candidate will also need to be humble, disarming, and above all, a team player. We value pragmatism, which means creating real solutions to real challenges for real people. Last but not least, attention to detail and always striving to do better is critical because ‘good enough’ is never good enough.

Due to its matrixed nature, the ideal candidate will also need to be nimble, highly commercial and operate autonomously at a C-Suite level. You should be dedicated to building partnerships, collaborating with customers to understand their needs, identifying complex business and technical challenges, creating winning propositions and proposals and architecting, planning and managing the development of technology solutions that create a profound and tangible impact.

While the role is pre-sales in its focus, you will collaborate with technical delivery teams to support your initiatives and define delivery approaches and work packages for new engagements. As customer opportunities turn into projects and programs, you will support the core project team’s efforts as a subject matter expert and lead select research, discovery and delivery engagements. You will also partner with other Product Managers and Technology Directors globally, along with Star Project Management, Customer Success, Design and CTO offices, to share best practices that contribute to creating and expanding our technology, product management, and solutions delivery practices.

You will also be central to further developing and refining our brand in UK territory and for our global Fintech practice. You will have the opportunity to have your thoughts, ideas, and perspectives crafted into public thought leadership, as well as helping to educate fellow team members globally on key trends. A strong point of view and a preparedness to share it in verbal or written form (whether with clients or as wider thought pieces, webinars, presentations or some other form of marketing) will be essential.

You

• 5 years of professional experience in Agile software development or in technology consulting or sales (with a strong technology background);
• Deep understanding of software development processes, including Agile engineering, QA, DevOps practices;
• Hands-on experience in engineering complex software solutions, within all of the cloud, web and mobile layers;
• Experience and strong interest in supporting pre-sales activities, leading client workshops and meetings and a real desire to be with customers;
• Demonstrated experience in FinTech and ideally banking, insurance or with start-ups, demonstrating wider experience in other categories;
• Depth Payments, e-Commerce and Open Banking;
• Excellent spoken and written English;
• Ability to travel domestically and internationally 10-20% of the time.

Nice to have:

• Prior work experience in a Consulting/Architecture position within a software and/or services company;
• Experience with the entrepreneurial dynamics of a start-up.

Responsibilities

• Analysis of technology aspects of prospective client’s businesses and identification of their technology-related needs and challenges;
• Prospective client-facing communication in business development contexts, from early exploratory discussions to Q&A session to final pitch presentations, comfortable in front of C-level audiences;
• Coordination with the rest of the participating team, planning and facilitating workshops with customers to define high-level system and software architectures as well as solution scope and being comfortable with the white-board and workshop-style problem analysis;
• Crafting compelling proposals and pitches that are built on a strong narrative, and are technically state-of-the-art;
• Contributing to thought leadership and other marketing initiatives via internal R&D initiatives and industry events participation, the publication of white papers and blog posts, organization of webinars, etc.;
• Contributing to refining and enhancing software development and business development processes;
• Contributing to delivery projects, helping defining the requirements and scope (in particular at the start of projects), overseeing the product delivery and acting as counterpart to key customer stakeholders.

Compensations and Benefits

Star is an Equal Opportunity Employer. We believe that equity, diversity and inclusion are key to our ability to provide our clients and crew members with unique business and career outcomes. Your race, color, ancestry, religion, gender, identity, sexual orientation, age, marital status, disability have no effect on our hiring decisions. If you have a special need that requires accommodation, please let us know.