Technical Program Manager - Lending API
iwoca, United Kingdom
Job Description
Join one of Europe’s leading Fintech startups
iwoca is breaking down the barriers that stop Europe’s 20 million small businesses from accessing finance. We believe finance should make life easier, not harder, for small businesses. When small businesses go to traditional lenders they are forced to deal with long waits, absurdly rigid criteria, and impersonal bureaucracies. We believe small businesses deserve a financing service that strips out the hassle; that gets to know each customer’s needs; that generates opportunities instead of problems. iwoca is finance, custom-built to expand possibilities for small business.
We’re still near the start of our journey our aim is to finance one million small businesses within a decade and we need more smart, hands-on people to help us reach this goal.
We work hard to make iwoca a place where everyone feels welcome, where you can confidently be yourself. We understand that diversity isn't an optional add-on, it's the core ingredient of what makes us great.
THE ROLE
Supported by the 10M government grant we won in 2019, we are building OpenLending - a platform that enables partners to seamlessly offer iwoca’s lending products from within the partner journey, using our Lending API.
As a Technical Program Manager, you will take responsibility for the ideation, management, and delivery of projects improving our Lending API. You will also support the Senior Product Manager in the delivery of larger ongoing or long-term projects.
This role sits in our product function, reporting to the Senior Product Manager for Open Lending. Some core responsibilities that you will have on a day-to-day basis are:
Product discovery amp; prioritisation:
- Understanding customer needs and market context through data analysis, desk and user research
- Drawing up product / feature requirements documents well-researched success metrics
- Grooming our backlog - figure out which tasks are high priority, which can be put on the back burner, and which aren’t worth doing
- Collaborating closely with the Senior PM, Tech Lead, and our commercial team to create our team’s roadmap
Enabling integration journeys for our partners:
- Working closely with our Partner Success team to both strategise ideal technical integration pathways and turn partner feedback into actionable projects or tickets
- Contributing to meaningful discussions around what technical improvements we can make to our Lending API and how we can best enable partners to use it
- Stress testing new features from a partner perspective and identifying any gaps in functionality
Team management, communication, amp; delivery:
- Organising and managing workflows on a cross-functional team, making sure projects are delivered on time and to specification
- Explaining and documenting new features and technical concepts in materials for a wide variety of audiences - for both internal teams and external partners
Requirements
Since working with the API is a particularly technical subject, we’re looking for someone with technical experience that wants to cross over into product, or someone with product experience that is just starting their journey into coding or development. If you already have both, even better!
You will know what an API is and how to use one, and will have ideas and opinions about what makes a good API and how to increase the adoption of one. Ideally, you’ll have:
- Experience in a technical- and/or product-related role
- Knowledge of how to prototype and troubleshoot effectively using at least one coding language -- Python and Javascript are the most helpful, but others are fine too
- Strong project management and multi-tasking skills. You have a track record in successfully managing multiple projects and relationships at the same time
- Confident and experienced in getting buy-in from stakeholders, managing competing priorities and pushing back when required
- Experience working with developers (if you are not one yourself)
- Excellent communication and interpersonal skills. You are known for facilitating collaborative sessions and documenting everything clearly, and you thrive in environments that require building relationships built on trust and expertise
- Experience using or working with web APIs and knowledge about API standards
You would get extra points for the following, but they’re in no way required:
- Experience with a fintech, financial products, or lending products specifically
- Contributed to an API or API-enabled product (through development or otherwise)
- Fluency in German
Benefits
What’s life like as an iwocan?
We all enjoy:
- Bright, modern office spaces in Covent Garden amp; Leed