Vice President, Product (Europe - Remote)

Vice President, Product

Pan-African Payments based in Europe, with around 30% travel to Africa

Our client is a pan-African payments technology company operating across more than 35 markets, connecting merchants, banks, PSPs, aggregators, remittance platforms, telecoms and utility companies through a single portfolio spanning Pay-ins, Payouts and Payment Services. The business enables digital collections, local and international disbursements, and white-label transaction and channel services across mobile money, cards, bank payments, QR and USSD, and is now seeking a VP, Product to lead the organisation's shift from a project and sales-led delivery model to a true product-led operating model.

Reporting directly to the Chief Product and Technology Officer, the VP, Product will own company-wide product strategy, roadmaps and execution, with P&L responsibility for the product organisation - a new accountability being introduced into the function. This is an acceleration role rather than a slow, organic build: the right candidate will move the team forward quickly, work directly with key accounts to translate customer needs into roadmap priorities, and ensure the large majority of the roadmap is dedicated to standardised, scalable offerings rather than one-off builds.

As VP, Product, you will work closely with the CPTO and the wider leadership team. Your day-to-day tasks will contain:

• Leading the transformation from a project and sales-led delivery model to a product-led operating model, accelerating the team's progress rather than coaching it along organically.
• Taking P&L responsibility for the product organisation, connecting roadmap and prioritisation decisions directly to commercial outcomes.
• Owning company-wide product strategy, roadmaps and execution in close partnership with the CPTO.
• Acting as a client-facing product leader for key accounts, translating customer needs directly into roadmap priorities.
• Ensuring 80-90% of the roadmap is dedicated to standardised, scalable offerings, approving custom builds only where they are resellable or reusable across the sector.
• Structuring empowered, autonomous product teams built around outcomes, including ownership of delivery as well as outcomes.
• Embedding a data-driven product culture across the team - experimentation, A/B testing, rapid iteration and continuous learning.
• Driving alignment across cross-functional teams including engineering, commercial and operations.
• Coaching and developing product managers directly, including delivering hard feedback in a way that builds capability rather than simply critiquing it.

An ideal candidate for the VP, Product role will need to meet most of these requirements:

• Proven experience leading a product-led transformation within a payments or fintech business, ideally shifting an organisation from project- or sales-led delivery toward a genuine product operating model.
• Strong commercial aptitude across monetisation, data-driven growth and go-to-market strategy.
• A practical, hands-on operator who takes a customer idea through to execution, rather than a purely strategic or textbook background.
• Experience with African alternative payment methods (APMs) is preferred; equivalent emerging-markets experience is acceptable where clearly transferable.
• A product management background is preferred over a design-led route into product leadership.
• Experience structuring empowered, autonomous product teams.
• High learning agility, curiosity and humility, with the ability to drive alignment across cross-functional stakeholders.
• Accountable and dependable, bringing energy and enthusiasm to the product function.
• Comfortable delivering direct, hard feedback in a way that stays coaching-friendly.
• Willing and able to travel regularly to Africa from a European base - around 30% of time.

Interested? Get in touch now! Don't think that it will be a good match? Discover more jobs from PCN.