Product Manager

Role overview

The Technology Unit is the backbone of Kifiya. It designs, builds, secures, scales and governs all enterprise infrastructures. The Unit ensures that Kifiya operates on modular, API first, secure, capital-grade infrastructure that enables multi-country scale and institutional investor confidence.

The Product Manager is a product owner responsible for delivering measurable business and customer outcomes through AI-enabled financial and market infrastructure products.

This role owns a defined product domain or platform capability and is accountable for product performance across adoption, usage, revenue contribution, portfolio quality, operational efficiency, and customer satisfaction.

The Product Manager translates strategic priorities, regulatory requirements, market diagnostics, and customer insights into clear product vision, roadmaps, and executable backlogs. They work cross-functionally with engineering, data, design, risk, capital, and business teams to deliver scalable, compliant, and economically viable solutions.

About Kifiya

Kifiya is an AI-powered financial and market infrastructure company advancing inclusive economic growth across Africa. We design and deploy risk decisioning systems, intelligent financial infrastructure, and market linkage platforms that unlock credit, insurance, payments, and capital access for MSMEs and smallholder farmers. We build the AI, data, and financial infrastructure that helps financial institutions serve hard-to-finance segments at scale.

Business Unit Description

The Technology Unit is the backbone of Kifiya. It designs, builds, secures, scales and governs all enterprise infrastructures. The Unit ensures that Kifiya operates on modular, API first, secure, capital-grade infrastructure that enables multi-country scale and institutional investor confidence.

The Product Manager is a product owner responsible for delivering measurable business and customer outcomes through AI-enabled financial and market infrastructure products.

This role owns a defined product domain or platform capability and is accountable for product performance across adoption, usage, revenue contribution, portfolio quality, operational efficiency, and customer satisfaction.

The Product Manager translates strategic priorities, regulatory requirements, market diagnostics, and customer insights into clear product vision, roadmaps, and executable backlogs. They work cross-functionally with engineering, data, design, risk, capital, and business teams to deliver scalable, compliant, and economically viable solutions.

What You Bring

Product Strategy and Outcome Ownership

– Define clear product vision and problem statements aligned with Kifiya’s infrastructure strategy and financial inclusion mandate.

– Translate business strategy and regulatory requirements into measurable product outcomes.

– Develop and maintain a roadmap that balances short-term value delivery with long-term platform scalability.

– Own defined product performance metrics including adoption, activation, retention, revenue contribution, portfolio quality, and cost efficiency.

– Develop product business cases prior to major feature investments, including expected financial, operational, and risk impact.

Commercial and Economic Accountability

– Contribute to product-level financial modeling including pricing logic, transaction economics, and cost-to-serve analysis.

– Evaluate trade-offs based on return on investment, capital implications, and operational efficiency.

– Monitor contribution margin and support optimization initiatives that improve unit economics.

– Partner with finance and capital teams to understand portfolio performance implications where products impact credit or financial flows.

Discovery, Research and Validation

– Conduct structured customer discovery and market validation before major roadmap commitments.

– Define hypotheses and measurable success criteria for new product initiatives.

– Design and interpret experiments including controlled releases, pilot launches, and feature tests.

– Use quantitative and qualitative data to validate product assumptions and refine priorities.

Backlog Ownership and Execution Governance

– Own and prioritize the product backlog in alignment with defined outcomes.

– Write clear epics, user stories, and acceptance criteria including functional and non-functional requirements.

– Lead backlog refinement and sprint planning in collaboration with engineering teams.

– Ensure readiness of work prior to sprint execution and protect scope integrity.

– Track roadmap delivery predictability and proactively manage dependencies and risks.

Platform and Architecture Stewardship

– Ensure product features are designed with platform scalability, interoperability, and shared rail alignment.

– Collaborate with architecture teams to define API requirements, integration standards, and versioning strategy.

– Balance feature development with technical debt reduction and long-term maintainability.

– Ensure non-functional requirements including performance, security, scalability, and reliability are clearly defined and delivered.

Data and Performance Management

– Define key performance indicators and instrumentation requirements for product analytics.

– Monitor usage metrics, funnel performance, and behavioral indicators.

– Conduct basic data analysis to inform prioritization and iteration decisions.

– Partner with analytics teams to generate insights that improve customer outcomes and operational efficiency.

Artificial Intelligence Integration and Governance

– Identify opportunities where artificial intelligence enhances decisioning, automation, or customer experience.

– Define clear success metrics for AI-enabled features.

– Collaborate with data science teams to define data requirements and model performance expectations.

– Ensure explainability, fairness, and compliance considerations are embedded into AI-enabled product design.

– Monitor performance indicators such as model accuracy, drift, and operational impact.

Regulatory and Risk Integration

– Embed compliance-by-design principles into product requirements.

– Collaborate with risk, legal, and compliance teams to ensure product readiness for regulated environments.

– Ensure documentation supports audit and regulatory reporting requirements.

– Understand how product decisions impact credit risk, capital allocation, and operational exposure where applicable.

Go to Market and Lifecycle Management

– Support product launches with clear value propositions and defined success metrics.

– Partner with growth and partnership teams to align roadmap priorities with market opportunities.

– Monitor post-launch performance and initiate corrective action where metrics underperform.

– Contribute to lifecycle decisions including feature enhancement, optimization, or decommissioning.

Key Outputs

– Achievement of defined product adoption and activation targets

– Improvement in customer engagement and retention metrics

– Contribution to product-level revenue or efficiency gains

– Measurable impact on portfolio quality where applicable

– Delivery predictability against roadmap commitments

– Reduction in cost-to-serve or operational inefficiencies

– Successful release of validated features aligned with defined outcomes

– Stakeholder satisfaction and cross-functional collaboration effectiveness

Qualifications and Experience

Education

– Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Software Engineering, Information Systems, Engineering, Finance, Economics, Business Administration, or a related field

– Master’s degree is advantageous but not required

– Continuous professional development in product management, artificial intelligence, fintech, or data analytics is strongly valued

Professional Experience

– Four to seven years of progressive experience in product management within technology-driven environments

– Demonstrated ownership of a defined product area from discovery through launch and post-launch optimization

– Experience operating within Agile delivery environments and working closely with engineering, design, and data teams

– Proven track record of delivering measurable product outcomes, not only feature releases

– Experience contributing to product-level performance metrics such as adoption, engagement, revenue contribution, operational efficiency, or portfolio performance

– Exposure to regulated industries such as financial services, credit, payments, insurance, digital marketplaces, or agriculture finance is strongly preferred

– Experience working in emerging markets or constrained infrastructure environments is advantageous

– Familiarity with artificial intelligence-enabled products, decision systems, or data-driven workflows preferred

Core Competencies

– Outcome-Oriented Product Ownership

– Strategic and Commercial Judgment

– Technical and Systems Fluency

– Data-Driven Decision Making

– AI and Regulatory Awareness

– Stakeholder Leadership and Execution Discipline

– Customer and Ecosystem Mindset

Apply Now

Send your CV to [email protected] with

“Application - Product Manager” in the subject line. Applications will remain open for 10 working days.