Senior Product Manager (Card Issuing)
This position is listed on behalf of a partner company, who manages all applications and next steps. Our partner is looking for a Senior Product Manager (Card Issuing) based in United Arab Emirates.
This is a senior, hands-on product leadership role focused on a large-scale migration of live card programs between issuing platforms.
You will own the product workstream end to end, from documenting current-state configurations to defining the target operating model and migration roadmap.
The role requires deep expertise in card issuing, BIN sponsorship, processor capabilities, scheme requirements, and cardholder lifecycle management.
You will work closely with engineers, architects, processors, schemes, BIN sponsors, and senior client stakeholders to manage complex dependencies and risks.
A major focus will be protecting customer experience while migrating live cards, balances, credentials, tokens, and transaction data with minimal disruption.
You will also lead readiness, testing, cutover, reconciliation, and post-migration monitoring for high-consequence financial technology changes.
The environment is collaborative and international, requiring strong ownership, technical fluency, commercial judgment, and confident stakeholder leadership.
Accountabilities
Own the product workstream for migrating existing card programs from an incumbent issuing platform to a target platform, taking responsibility for product direction, scope, sequencing, and delivery outcomes.
Document current-state card program configurations, including BIN structures, product codes, card profiles, fees, limits, authorization rules, and scheme parameters, and define equivalent target-state configurations.
Lead detailed capability and gap analysis between platforms, determining where existing functionality should be replicated, simplified, redesigned, or replaced.
Coordinate with BIN sponsors, card schemes, processors, and other partners on BIN sponsorship, migration or re-registration, licensing, certification, and required approvals.
Define the migration strategy, including phasing, portfolio segmentation, program sequencing, and decisions around reissuance, recarding, token migration, and credential continuity.
Own the cardholder impact strategy, including customer communications, reissuance timing, card-on-file continuity, network tokens, digital wallets, and measures to minimize customer disruption.
Define data migration requirements for card, account, balance, and transaction information, including reconciliation, validation, and data-quality criteria.
Build and maintain a prioritized product backlog with clear requirements, acceptance criteria, dependencies, and measurable success criteria.
Partner with architects, engineers, and delivery leaders to assess technical feasibility, integration dependencies, sequencing, and cutover requirements.
Own migration readiness, including test strategy, scheme certification, parallel running, dress rehearsals, go/no-go criteria, rollback procedures, and contingency planning.
Ensure migrated programs continue to meet applicable regulatory, security, and scheme requirements, including PCI DSS, SCA/PSD2, and relevant local obligations.
Serve as the senior product contact for client stakeholders across product, operations, risk, fraud, and technology, communicating progress, risks, decisions, and trade-offs to executive audiences.
Monitor post-migration performance, including authorization rates, decline patterns, token continuity, fraud indicators, and operational incidents, and lead remediation initiatives where required.
Use AI and LLM tools appropriately to accelerate requirement drafting, configuration mapping, analysis, and documentation while validating outputs through expert judgment and domain knowledge.
8+ years of product management experience, with substantial hands-on experience in card issuing and payments.
Deep practical knowledge of card issuing, including card program structures, product and card-profile configuration, BIN structures and sponsorship, card lifecycle management, and issuer processing.
Direct experience with card platform or processor migrations, ideally including ownership of the product workstream for at least one completed migration involving live card programs.
Strong understanding of authorization, clearing, and settlement flows and how issuing-platform configuration influences these processes.
Working knowledge of Visa and Mastercard scheme rules, certification processes, BIN registration, licensing, and mandated changes.
Familiarity with network tokenization and digital wallets such as Apple Pay, Google Pay, and Click to Pay, including migration implications for existing tokens and credentials.
Understanding of issuing-related regulatory and compliance requirements, including PCI DSS, SCA/PSD2, and applicable local regulations.
Strong technical fluency, with the ability to work effectively with architects and engineers on APIs, data models, file formats, integrations, and technical trade-offs without necessarily writing production code.
Proven ability to establish and defend product priorities and scope decisions while balancing commercial, technical, operational, and regulatory constraints.
Experience working directly with senior client stakeholders and managing competing priorities across business and technical teams.
Demonstrated experience managing high-consequence change through structured cutover, rollback, contingency, and risk-management practices.
Practical experience using AI tools and LLMs in product workflows, with the judgment to validate and refine AI-generated outputs.
Ability to collaborate effectively across international teams, geographies, and time zones.
Excellent written, verbal, communication, and presentation skills.
Experience with major issuing platforms or processors is preferred.
Experience working for an issuer, BIN sponsor, processor, program manager, or fintech operating card programs is an asset.
Exposure to multiple card products, including debit, credit, prepaid, commercial, and virtual cards, is an asset.
Familiarity with ISO 8583, ISO 20022, EMV personalization, card production, fulfillment, embossing, card bureau operations, and PIN management is an asset.
Experience in consulting or professional services, particularly across multiple clients, is an asset.
A background in engineering, operations, or technical consulting is an asset.
Demonstrated strategic leadership, market awareness, entrepreneurial thinking, collaboration, accountability, and end-to-end ownership.
Full-time remote position.
Opportunity to lead a complex, high-impact card platform migration within the payments and fintech sector.
Senior-level ownership across product strategy, technical delivery, client engagement, and migration execution.
Exposure to international clients, payment schemes, processors, BIN sponsors, and fintech ecosystems.
Opportunity to work on complex card issuing programs and large-scale financial technology transformations.
Collaborative environment involving product, engineering, architecture, operations, risk, fraud, and client teams.
Opportunity to apply AI and LLM technologies to modern product management and payments workflows.
Equal-opportunity workplace welcoming qualified candidates from diverse backgrounds.
Flexible collaboration across geographies and time zones.