Investec - Where Out of the Ordinary Happens

At Investec, we do things differently. We're a leading international bank and wealth manager built on a culture of curiosity, entrepreneurial spirit and human connection. Ideas are heard, ambition is celebrated, and impact is encouraged. As part of a team that challenges convention and strives for outperformance, you'll help shape bold solutions for clients who expect something more than the ordinary.

The Mission To build and scale a best-in-class payments product portfolio that is modular, API-first, AI-enabled, and always-on (24x7x365), delivering seconds-level execution for instant payments while balancing customer value, commercial outcomes, regulatory integrity, and strategic partnerships through smart build-versus-buy decisions.

Role Purpose The Payments Product & Strategy Lead owns the end-to-end payments product vision and strategy, translating business objectives, customer needs, and regulatory requirements into scalable, resilient, and increasingly intelligent payment capabilities across domestic and cross-border schemes.

This role sits at the intersection of product, strategy, technology, and data, driving the evolution of payment platforms into commercially differentiated, insight-led products. The role is accountable for product roadmap ownership, scheme participation strategy, vendor and fintech partnerships, value realization, and the responsible integration of AI-driven capabilities within the payments ecosystem.

Key Responsibilities

1. Payments Product Strategy & Vision

Define and execute the payments product strategy aligned to business growth, customer needs, regulatory change, and emerging industry trends. Shape a roadmap that incorporates AI-enabled product differentiation, including:

Intelligent routing optimization

Predictive liquidity management

Real-time anomaly detection

Intelligent reconciliation and exception handling

Identify opportunities where AI and advanced analytics can improve:

Customer experience

Operational efficiency

Risk mitigation

Revenue generation

Act as the internal authority on payments strategy, intelligent product evolution, and emerging AI-driven payment innovations.

1. Product Roadmap Ownership

Own and prioritize the end-to-end payments product roadmap, covering: Instant payments (FPS, SEPA Instant)

High-value payments (CHAPS, TARGET2, SWIFT)

Emerging rails and digital channels

Legacy decommissioning

Incorporate data and AI-led insights into prioritization decisions, including:

Usage analytics

Cost-to-serve optimization

Performance patterns

Risk indicators

Ensure AI-enabled capabilities are embedded as product features where appropriate, not isolated technical experiments.

Embed non-functional requirements (availability, resilience, latency, scalability) alongside intelligent performance optimization and predictive observability.

1. AI-Enabled Payments Capability Strategy

Define how AI can responsibly enhance the payments product portfolio, including:

Intelligent payment routing

Automated exception management

Predictive service performance insights

Fraud and anomaly signal enrichment (in partnership with Risk & Fraud)

Establish guardrails for responsible AI adoption, ensuring:

Explainability

Auditability

Data governance compliance

Alignment with regulatory expectations

Evaluate emerging AI vendors and fintech capabilities within the payments landscape.

1.



Build vs Buy & Intelligent Partner Strategy

Lead build-versus-buy decisions grounded in strategic value, cost, speed, long-term flexibility, and AI capability maturity. Assess vendors not only on functional coverage but also:

AI capability robustness

Data transparency

Model governance

Integration flexibility

Own vendor and fintech evaluation from RFP to value realization.

Ensure AI-enabled vendor solutions align with enterprise governance, resilience expectations, and customer fairness principles.

1. Modular Payments Platform & Capability Design

Champion a modular, composable payments capability model that supports: Rapid onboarding of new schemes

AI-enabled feature augmentation

API ecosystem participation

Define transparent product boundaries and service contracts that allow AI-driven features to plug into core flows without compromising stability.

Balance abstraction and flexibility with the strict performance and reliability demands of real-time payments.

1. Data-Driven & Insight-Led Product Management

Promote a culture of data-informed decision-making across the product function. Leverage AI-supported analytics for:

Customer behavior analysis

Volume forecasting

Liquidity demand prediction

Operational performance insights

Establish measurable KPIs that reflect both commercial and intelligent automation outcomes.

1. Leadership & Team Development

Lead and grow the geographically distributed payments product capability. Build product management maturity in:

AI-informed prioritization

Data-driven product discovery

Commercial modelling using predictive insights

Encourage experimentation within controlled governance boundaries.

Work closely with Engineering Delivery Leads to ensure AI initiatives are technically feasible, secure, and scalable.

1. Regulatory, Risk & Scheme Readiness

Own product readiness for scheme participation, certification, and regulatory deadlines. Ensure AI-driven capabilities comply with:

PSD2

ISO 20022

AML obligations

Data protection requirements

Partner with Risk and Compliance to ensure AI usage in payments:

Is explainable

Does not introduce bias

Meets regulatory scrutiny standards.

1. Stakeholder & Industry Engagement

Represent the organization in industry forums relating to payments innovation and AI adoption in financial services. Engage clearing houses, vendors, fintech, and regulators on evolving intelligent payments infrastructure.

Clearly articulate trade-offs between automation, cost, customer experience, and risk.

Key Skills & Competencies

1. Payments & Product Expertise

Deep experience across instant, high-value, and cross-border payments. Strong understanding of ISO 20022 and scheme migrations.

Experience evolving platforms into commercially differentiated products.

Awareness of AI applications within payments and financial services ecosystems.

1. Product & Technology Acumen

Proven ability to bridge product strategy, technology execution, and intelligent capability design. Experience with modular platforms, API ecosystems, and cloud-native delivery.





Familiarity with AI-enabled analytics, predictive modelling, or intelligent automation in enterprise environments.

1. Vendor & Commercial Strategy

Strong vendor evaluation capability including AI maturity and governance considerations. Experience leveraging fintech ecosystems to accelerate innovation responsibly.
1. Leadership & Influence

Ability to articulate AI strategy in business terms. Confident influencing senior stakeholders on intelligent automation trade-offs.

Comfortable operating at the intersection of commercial, regulatory, and technology domains.

1. Performance Measures

Delivery of scalable, resilient, and AI-enhanced payments products. Improved operational efficiency through intelligent automation.

Data-informed roadmap decisions.

Successful scheme participation and regulatory compliance.

Tangible commercial value delivered through strategic vendor and AI-enabled capabilities.

What's in it for me?

At Investec, you'll be empowered to bring your authentic self, contribute new ideas, and grow alongside colleagues who share your drive for excellence. You will be part of a collaborative and creative culture where we encourage and are committed to sustainability across our global business. You will share in our purpose of creating enduring worth and together, we'll achieve things tomorrow that hardly seem possible today

As part of our collaborative & agile culture, our working week is 4 days in the office and one day remote. We believe that being together enables us to live our values and support our clients and communities in an extraordinary way.

Investec offers a range of wellbeing benefits to make our people feel healthier, balanced and more fulfilled in their lives inside and outside of work.

Embedded in our culture is a sense of belonging and inclusion. At Investec we want everyone to find it easy to be themselves, and to feel they belong. It's a responsibility we all share and is integral to our purpose and values as an organisation. We believe that innovation thrives when everyone feels respected, included, and empowered to contribute.

We actively seek out diverse talent and foster an inclusive environment, encouraging applications from people of all backgrounds and experiences. Here, you'll find networks, benefits, and development opportunities designed to support your career journey, wherever it may lead.

If this role excites you but you don't meet every requirement, we'd still love to hear from you. Your unique perspective and experience could be exactly what we are looking for. Get in touch!

At Investec, we're deeply invested in our clients, our colleagues, and our communities. It's more than a mindset; it's how we show up every day.

Be part of something Out of the Ordinary.

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📌 Payments Product and Strategy Lead (Mumbai)
🏢 Investec
📍 Mumbai