Product Strategy and Strategic Initiatives Lead

Meet the future

Akoya is an API-based network backed by major financial institutions that creates a safer and more transparent way for people to safely send their personal financial data to third-party financial apps. If you are inspired and fascinated by innovative technology that solves complex, real-world problems, then join us as we transform how financial data is accessed and shared. Akoya offers a highly collaborative, fast-paced, and fun working environment and our team is comprised of diverse, creative, and driven professionals with expertise in the banking, securities, fintech, and data aggregation industries. We are an equal opportunity employer. Come join us and be part of this exciting journey – check out www.akoya.com for more information!

***Applicants are permitted to work remotely from an at-home work site anywhere in the United States.***

Position Description:

Forecasts and budgets models using open banking platforms and Application Programming Interfaces (APIs). Leads strategic initiatives that deliver against corporate goals while creating product differentiation in the open banking space. Scopes market opportunity for strategic initiatives -- identifies a Minimal Viable Product (MVP) product construct, validates the same with customers, and leads product development for these initiatives. Builds out the multi-year product strategy to influence the strategic direction of the business. Leads product pricing strategies and commercialization tactics to drive customer adoption and engagement. Focuses on business growth opportunities to expand products-- performing market research, gathering requirements from clients and partners, and collaborating with engineering and product management teams to provide formal recommendations to executive leadership. Manages ‘Product Management Excellence’ (PME) processes to ensure the delivery of best-in-class products and services to customers using internal structure, market requirements, competitive forces, and product functionalities

Primary Responsibilities:

• Recommends Partnerships and Merger and Acquisition (M&A) actions to deliver against product strategy.
• Develops and maintains multi-year product plans.
• Works with internal stakeholders, customers, and industry experts to identify and articulate the firm’s competitive position in the marketplace.
• Identifies opportunities to scale the business.
• Develops multi-year product strategies and converts them into actionable initiatives that are incorporated in the product roadmap.
• Identifies key use cases to focus on and drive the prioritization of the work needed to have a successful proposition.
• Leads PME processes to drive prioritization and transparency to product development and product lifecycle management activities.
• Identifies the tools and processes in support of frameworks.
• Develops strategy and creates compelling prioritization and mapping artifacts using a data and insights-based approach.
• Obtains buy-in on the strategy from leadership and acts as the point of contact for colleagues, providing thought leadership and effectively communicating with and influencing key stakeholders.
• Leads key strategic initiatives across the organization and partners with internal and external stakeholders to set clear milestones with success criteria.
• Manages product economics and pricing -- partnering with Finance and Product organizations to develop adequate pricing and cost models for use cases.
• Conducts organizational studies and evaluations, designs systems and procedures, conducts work simplification and measurement studies, and prepares operations and procedures manuals to assist management in operating more efficiently and effectively.
• Analyzes data gathered and develops solutions or alternative methods of proceeding.

Education and Experience:

Bachelor’s degree (or foreign education equivalent) in Engineering, Technology, Management, Industrial Technology and Operations, Supply Chain Management, or a closely related field and six (6) years of experience as a Product Strategy and Strategic Initiatives Lead (or closely related occupation) executing consulting and strategy deliverables using emerging technologies in the Business-to-Business/Business-to-Business-to-Consumer (B2B/B2B2C) financial services industry.

Master’s degree (or foreign education equivalent) in Engineering, Technology, Management, Industrial Technology and Operations, Supply Chain Management, or a closely related field and four (4) years of experience as a Product Strategy and Strategic Initiatives Lead (or closely related occupation) executing consulting and strategy deliverables using emerging technologies in the Business-to-Business/Business-to-Business-to-Consumer (B2B/B2B2C) financial services industry.

Skills and Knowledge:

Candidate must also possess:

• Demonstrated Expertise (“DE”) developing business strategies and functional requirements -- deploying models for the registration and assessment of third parties, including deploying technologies for consumer consent and token management (OAuth 2.0); and defining product solutions for financial services organizations to adopt open banking in the U.S using SWOT analysis, RCA analysis, Business Model Canvas, and functional architecture diagrams -- within a banking environment.
• DE conducting market research and trend analysis (primary and secondary research -- client interviews and analyst reports, and competitive analysis) to create business value propositions and cases for strategic initiatives in the financial services industry; breaking down functional requirements in JIRA to arrive at Minimum Viable Product (MVP) and roadmap for strategic initiatives, using SWOT Analysis and Porter Five Forces.
• DE creating functional architectures adapted for products and services in a Cloud-based model using Application Programming Interfaces (APIs) in the financial services industry.
• DE defining and improving management workflows and processes using Agile product development processes -- Jira.

Travel Requirement:

• Up to 10%.

Salary: $148,907.00 – $190,000.00/year.

Hours: 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. Monday – Friday, approximately 40 hours/week.

To apply, visit https://akoya.com/careers. Reference position #22230.5.3