Contract Product Manager

About YLD:

Everything we do is to empower our clients to move forward. Our purpose is to help our clients develop the capabilities they need to outperform their competitors. Our success is a consequence of ensuring our clients are successful. Our company is built on extraordinary people; we aim to attract, inspire, develop and retain them. YLD is a software engineering and design consultancy; we create digital capabilities for our clients that last beyond our engagement. We have offices in London, Lisbon, Porto.

About the role:

As a Product Manager consultant, you’ll be a part of a client team building innovative products. We expect you to be curious, passionate, driven, and enthusiastic. You’ll be proficient at problem-solving, an effective communicator and a team-player. You and your team will move in a fast-paced engineering environment, define product strategies, achieve outstanding results and deliver exciting projects.

Your day-to-day responsibilities will look like this:

• Collaborate with the client on product vision, help set your team goals and guide the team to ensure OKRs are achieved;
• Translate the product vision and roadmap through to delivery, operation and continuous improvement;
• Develop a deep understanding of customer personas, jobs-to-be-done and product behaviours;
• Lead multiple cross-functional squads to deliver innovative solutions, in line with roadmap and stakeholder expectations;
• Develop and prioritise a roadmap with the team along with a coherent product backlog that supports it;
• Manage and rigorously prioritise the backlog to ensure that it is up-to-date, relevant, and actionable, confidently narrowing 30+ incoming requests down to the 4–5 highest-impact initiatives;
• Optimise the best technical solutions to avoid over- and under-engineering problems, making sure that Development effort focuses on the right areas;
• Support multiple engineering squads working largely independently, while reporting into a dedicated Product/Delivery Manager to ensure alignment and clarity of expectations;
• Demonstrate high agency and ownership, able to push back constructively, defend product decisions with data and reasoning, and operate with genuine self-sufficiency.

Technical Competencies:

• At least 5+ years of Product Management experience;
• Experience within fintech, crypto, digital assets, payments, or other highly regulated financial services environments (strongly preferred);
• Strong regulatory awareness, with experience working in regulated environments and incorporating compliance considerations into product decisions;
• High level of technical fluency, including: Strong understanding of backend operational systems; Experience working with API integrations; Familiarity with high-level system architecture;
• Exposure to onboarding, KYC/KYB, and verification workflows;
• Experience collaborating with stakeholders to define and prioritise product features based on business goals, stakeholder expectations and market dynamics;
• Experience tracking and monitoring features’ performance and functionality after launch to ensure continuous improvement and iterations;
• Experience working with 2+ products simultaneously;
• Ability to identify, filter and prioritise stakeholder complaints and feedback effectively;
• Experience interpreting and applying user research and analytics to product decisions;
• Clear communication skills to present product plans, benefits, and results to the wider team, including C-level execs, external vendors and partners;
• Experience in ensuring timely delivery of features, as per previously agreed roadmap.

Non-Technical Competencies:

• Driven by performance measurement, analytical, with strong business acumen;
• Strong prioritisation skills under pressure;
• High agency and accountability, comfortable making decisions, challenging assumptions, and defending trade-offs when required;
• Product-oriented, with an analytical mindset;
• Focused on quality and understands what it means to ship high-quality, scalable solutions;
• Self-motivated, proactive and always looking for ways to improve yourself, the team and the product;
• Comfortable operating across multiple squads and stakeholder groups simultaneously;
• Diplomatic and emotionally intelligent, with the ability to listen and remain open to others’ points of view;
• A strong communicator, both in writing and verbally, able to explain technical ideas and concepts in business-friendly language;
• A genuine believer in diversity, fairness, and inclusion.

What you’ll get in return:

• The chance to work with a forward-thinking, ethical, and fun group of people and to develop and grow your skills in a fast-moving business.

Our typical Recruitment Process looks like this:

• 1st Interview with someone from the Talent team (30/45 mins)
• 2nd Interview with our Client Partner team (60 mins)

We live and breathe our values, and know you will too:

• Growing every day
• Including everyone
• Relationships built on honesty and ethics
• Inspiring solutions
• Winning together

We’re an equal-opportunity employer and value diversity of all kinds. We don’t discriminate based on race, religion, colour, national origin, gender, sexual orientation, pregnancy or maternity, age, marital status, or disability status. We also believe in work-life balance and offer flexible working around our core hours.