Product Owner Trade Finance

Product Owner – Trade Finance

Contract: 6 months initially, with a view to extend

Location: Dubai – onsite

Seniority: Senior Manager / Director level

We are seeking an experienced Trade Finance Product Owner to join a wholesale banking transformation programme. You will provide business and product ownership for the Trade Finance workstream, ensuring requirements, customer journeys and vendor solutions align with business priorities and the target operating model.

This role requires strong Trade Finance domain expertise, hands-on product ownership and the ability to bridge business stakeholders and technology vendors throughout delivery.

Key Responsibilities

• Own Trade Finance business requirements, the product backlog and prioritisation.
• Work closely with China Systems product teams throughout discovery, design, build, testing and rollout.
• Define and validate business requirements, user stories, business rules and acceptance criteria.
• Lead business process and customer journey design, aligning solutions with target operating model objectives.
• Maintain requirement traceability from business goals through implementation and testing.
• Drive decisions on product configuration, process design, scope and business outcomes.
• Support UAT planning and execution, including defect prioritisation and business sign-off.
• Manage functional sign-offs and resolve requirement queries across business and vendor teams.
• Build strong relationships with stakeholders across Trade Finance, Operations, Technology and delivery teams.

Required Skills & Experience

• Proven experience as a Product Owner, Business Product Lead or Senior Business Analyst within Trade Finance transformation.
• Strong understanding of Trade Finance products and processes, including letters of credit, guarantees and documentary collections.
• Experience delivering banking platform implementations or upgrades in partnership with external vendors.
• Strong capability in backlog management, requirements definition, user stories and acceptance criteria.
• Experience in business process design, customer journeys, UAT and functional sign-off.
• Ability to assess standard platform capabilities against business needs and make informed configuration and scope decisions.
• Excellent stakeholder management, communication and decision-making skills.

Desirable Experience

• Experience working with China Systems Trade Finance platforms.
• Exposure to wholesale or corporate banking transformation and target operating model implementation.