Product Manager - Merchant Payments at Airtel

Key Responsibilities

The Role Holder’s duties will include but not limited to:

Execute and implement the merchant payments strategy aligned with the company's overall goals.

• Expand formal and informal merchant acquisition through the development of compelling value propositions such as mini-apps, Financials Services and other VAS.
• Grow the penetration of Airtel Money pay use case within the customer base, focusing on in-store and ecommerce payments.
• Support the country teams to manage the end-to-end business development process for all opportunities including pipeline development, prospecting, sales pitch, on-site presentations, Request for Information (RFI) response, multi-day customer workshops, Request for Proposal (RFP) submission, negotiation and deal signing.
• Review existing products and services regularly to improve merchant and customer experience and develop tactical plans to stimulate increased usage.
• Plan and coordinate the implementation of business plans and penetration of new opportunities.

Support in the delivery of commercial results and financial returns.

• Ensure delivery of all financial targets including revenue & margins.
• Develop the respective business cases required to approve the delivery of new products and services for the merchant segment.
• Support the team’s market research and competitive positioning analysis together with cross-functional stakeholders including marketing and product development teams.
• Support to negotiate pricing with vendors and revenue share with partners.
• Analyze market trends, technology trends in mobile financial services planning.

Support the development and enhancement of payment-related features and functionalities.

• Ensure the roll out of digital payment product such as the Merchant App, portal, Open APIs, and others across all the 14 markets.
• Support to Define use cases for the OPCOs, product design and product requirements for customization to meet specific enterprise customer needs and liaise with the technical team to ensure correct implementation.
• Provide market feedback to Airtel leadership regarding competitive offerings, prospect needs and generate product development ideas.
• Work with the OPCO teams to develop the relevant path to launch and scale (products & service, distribution, business processes, contracts, compliance).
• Work together with business analysts and technical architects to design, configure and deliver the Airtel Money systems, products and services to meet customers’ requirements and deadlines.

Identify, secure and build on strategic partnerships.

• Manage strategic partnerships with key payment and technology companies across the world.
• Work out joint go-to-market plans and set out clear KPIs for the identified suppliers while monitoring and evaluating performance.
• Manage an outsourced channel of business partners to expand penetration of our Airtel Money services including developing the sales and commission models used to incentivize and remunerate these partners.
• Maintain current knowledge of technologies, products, services, methods and applications and implement new approaches and practices as required through partners.

Compliance and Risk Management

• Ensure all products adhere to regulatory requirements and industry standards.
• Identify and mitigate risks associated with product development and deployment.

Coordinate effective internal and external operational support of Airtel Money Pay Merchants and customers.

• Manage and review service level agreements (SLAs) with internal shared services – Sales, Marketing, IT, Customer Service and Network sections and ensure adherence to the set standards.
• Manage and review service level agreements (SLAs) with external partners, integrators, aggregators and ensure adherence to the set standards and superior enterprise customer experience.

Team and stakeholder engagement

• Drive engagement with the multi-level, cross-functional stakeholders to justify prioritization and roadmap delivery for merchant solutions.
• Support Business Development Executives to drive the increase of usage of Airtel Money products and services within the Sector Focus Areas.
• Provide required product reports as input to the Airtel money weekly, monthly report, including roadmaps and performance against target dates.

Academic and Qualifications and Experience:

Must have:

• Undergraduate degree in marketing, Finance, Business, Sales, Commerce or Administration or Equivalent OR
• Relevant validated tertiary education qualifications in product management, commercial management, mobile money products or other equivalent education qualifications

Relevant Experience

• More than 7 years of professional experience with at least 5 years in digital payments, acquiring merchants or similar.
• Mobile Money product experience preferred.