Proxy Product Owner - Beyond Banking.Injaz-RBG-Ecosystems and Platform Banking.Retail Banking Group

The Proxy Product Owner – Beyond Banking has end-to-end responsibility for designing, launching, and scaling non-banking propositions integrated within Mashreq’s digital ecosystem.
The role focuses on building and managing a portfolio of third-party partner-led offerings (e.g. travel, lifestyle, telco, e-commerce), ensuring a seamless and compliant customer experience. This requires a broad skill set regarding the product, channel or market with end-to-end responsibility for the squad's activities.

Working within Mashreq’s Digital Studio, the role combines ecosystem development and partner integration, collaborating closely with internal stakeholders (technology, digital studio, solution architects, enterprise architects) and external partners to deliver customer-centric, revenue-generating solutions.

• Ecosystem & Marketplace Development

• Evaluate strategic partners across travel, lifestyle, and emerging ecosystem categories based on integration capabilities

• Ensure seamless integration of partner solutions into existing digital channels
• Requirements Gathering and Documentation:

• Acts as a bridge between business, partners, and technology teams

• Collaborate with stakeholders, customers, and the Product Owner to understand, define and document product requirements, user stories, and acceptance criteria.

• Conduct research and analysis to identify customer needs, market trends, and competitive landscape to inform product decisions.

• Assist in refining and clarifying requirements, ensuring they are clear, concise, and actionable for the development team.

• Squad Management

• Lead sprint planning, refinement, and delivery with cross-functional teams

• Deals with the most urgent incidents and improvement needs.

• Proposes and implements structural improvements to work processes, following improvement needs flagged up from within the touch point.

• Uses his/her technical expertise and experience to facilitate and contribute to all sprint events (planning, refinements, retrospectives, demos)

• Weighs up development of new products and services against procurement of possible sub- products.

• Backlog Management and Prioritization:

• Support the Product Owner in maintaining and prioritizing the product backlog based on business value, customer feedback, and market demands.

• Assist in backlog grooming activities, including story estimation, breaking down epics into smaller user stories, and ensuring user stories are ready for development.

• Collaborate with the development team to ensure a shared understanding of user stories and their priorities.

• Agile Ceremonies and Collaboration:

• Act as a liaison between the Product Owner and the development team, facilitating effective communication and collaboration.

• Participate in and facilitate agile ceremonies, such as sprint planning, daily stand-ups, sprint reviews, and retrospectives, providing insights and clarifications on user stories.

• Assist in resolving conflicts, removing impediments, and ensuring the development team has the necessary information to complete their tasks.

• Product Release and Stakeholder Management:

• Collaborate with the Product Owner and stakeholders to plan and coordinate product releases, ensuring alignment with business goals and timelines.

• Assist in managing stakeholder expectations and providing timely updates on product progress, risks, and dependencies.

• Gather feedback from stakeholders and customers to incorporate into future iterations and product enhancements.

• Proposes and implements structural improvements to product release processes, following improvement needs flagged up from within the touch point.

• Quality Assurance and User Acceptance Testing:

• Collaborate with the quality assurance team to define test scenarios, validate functionality, and ensure product quality meets the defined acceptance criteria.

• Participate in user acceptance testing (UAT) activities, working closely with stakeholders to gather feedback, address issues, and ensure a high-quality user experience.

Knowledge, skills & experience

Minimum of 5-8 years of digital banking, fintech or technologyexperience, other related project work experience, or demonstration of high level of understanding of the digital banking, fintech and/ or technology industry

Minimum of 5 years of experience gathering requirements and translating into user requirements, data engineering, data science, or software engineering experience

Experience in partnership-led models, marketplaces, or ecosystem platforms preferred

Core Skills

• Strong product management & agile delivery experience
• Experience working with APIs, SDKs, integrations, and platform architectures
• Experience in vendor/partner management
• Excellent stakeholder management and communication skillsBehavioural Attributes

• Strategic thinker with ability to execute tactically
• Strong ownership mindset with a “builder” mentality
• Comfortable navigating ambiguity and regulatory complexity
• Highly collaborative and cross-functionalPassion for innovation and customer-centric design