Cards Product Owner - Contract (Senior, 10+ years)
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Summary
Senior (10+ years) contract-to-hire Cards Product Owner for a global systems integrator's cards & payments practice, based in Bangalore or Pune (hybrid). Owns the backlog for a cards transformation programme — platform migration, portfolio conversion and Visa/Mastercard scheme mandate delivery — drawing on card platforms like TSYS, Way4, Pismo, Base24 and card lifecycle standards like ISO 8583 and
Cards Product Owner - Contract (Senior, 10+ years)
- Client: Global systems integrator, cards & payments practice (client named at shortlist)
- Programme: Cards transformation — platform migration, portfolio conversion and scheme mandate delivery
- Location: India — Bangalore or Pune (hybrid);
- Engagement: Contract to Hire , day rate. Initial 6 months contract to hire.
The short version
We are looking for a Cards Product Owner who has actually owned a change on a card estate — not run one. Somebody who has stood in front of a steering committee and defended a migration cutover plan, negotiated a scheme mandate deadline, or written the backlog that moved a portfolio from one processor to another.
Requirements
What you will own
- The product backlog for a card platform workstream — issuing, issuer processing, acquiring, authorisation, clearing and settlement, disputes, or the full card lifecycle depending on the workstream you take.
- Migration and conversion scope. Defining what moves, in what order, at what risk. Portfolio conversion rules, BIN migration sequencing, data mapping between the legacy processor and the target, parallel-run and fallback criteria.
- Scheme mandate delivery. Reading the Visa and Mastercard release bulletins, deciding what is in scope, translating mandate text into stories with an immovable date attached, and holding the programme to it.
- The definition of done. Acceptance criteria that a certification team, a scheme test house and an operations lead all recognise.
- Stakeholder translation. Between the bank's product and operations teams,the processor or vendor, the scheme, and the delivery squads. You are the person who can hold a conversation about interchange economics in the morning and ISO 8583 message fields in the afternoon.
- Trade-off calls. Scope against date against risk, argued with evidence, in a regulated environment where the wrong call has a customer-impact and a regulatory tail.
Mandatory — you will be screened out without these
You must be able to name, on your CV, at least one card platform you worked ON — with a project, an employer and an outcome attached to it. A platform in a skills list with nothing behind it does not count.
1. A card platform, hands-on: FIS VisionPLUS · TSYS TS2 · Way4 / OpenWay · Base24 / ACI · Postilion · Euronet · Cardlink · Tieto CardSuite · FIS Cortex · Prime 4 · Pismo · Marqeta · Thredd / GPS
2. Card lifecycle depth in at least two of: card issuing · issuer processing · merchant acquiring · authorisation · clearing and settlement · chargebacks and disputes · interchange · card personalisation · PIN management · card fraud · PCI DSS
3. Scheme and standards work you personally delivered: Visa or Mastercard mandate release · tokenisation · EMV · 3-D Secure / 3DS2 · SCA · Visa Account Updater (VAU) / Automatic Billing Updater (ABU) · BIN sponsorship or BIN migration
4. Evidence you owned a change, not a run. At least one of: platform migration or replacement · portfolio migration / conversion / card portfolio transfer · legacy decommission or retirement · in-house to outsourced processing (or insourcing) · target operating model definition · scheme mandate delivery · greenfield build · re-platforming · vendor selection or RFP
5. Product Owner craft. 10+ years total, of which 5+ as PO / Product Manager / senior BA owning a backlog in an Agile or SAFe delivery. Backlog ownership, story writing, refinement, sprint and PI planning, stakeholder prioritisation.
Strongly preferred
- Experience on both a legacy processor and a modern issuer-processor —you have seen what actually breaks in between.
- Regulated-market delivery: UK (FCA), EU (PSD2 / SCA), or UAE (CBUAE).
- Certification and scheme testing exposure — VTS, MTIP, MDES, VDEP.
- ISO 8583 message-level fluency; ISO 20022 awareness.
- Commercial literacy on interchange, scheme fees and the P&L of a card portfolio.
- CSPO / SAFe POPM / CSM certification.
- Prior work inside or alongside a systems integrator's cards practice.
To apply: send a CV or get in touch for a confidential conversation
to Chamalee.M@yadimen.com