Product Governance Lead

Shape the future of product governance at one of New Zealand’s leading specialist banks.

At Heartland, we're on a mission to be New Zealand’s best specialist bank. We provide award-winning savings and finance products and are committed to making banking simple, easy and accessible for our customers. We’re proud of our values-driven culture, our focus on delivering positive customer outcomes, and the meaningful impact our people make every day.

We’re seeking an experienced Product Governance Lead to help strengthen and embed best-practice product governance across Heartland. This is a unique opportunity to influence product management standards enterprise-wide and play a pivotal role in ensuring our products continue to meet customer needs, regulatory expectations, and business objectives.

About the role

Reporting to the Head of Line 1 Risk Transformation, you will be Heartland’s enterprise authority on product governance and product management standards. You’ll own and continuously enhance the Product Management Framework, providing oversight, challenge, and expert guidance to ensure products are managed effectively throughout their lifecycle and deliver good customer outcomes.

Working across the organisation, you’ll help drive a consistent, customer-centric approach to product governance while ensuring product-related risks and obligations are appropriately managed.

What you’ll be doing

In this role, you will:

• Own and continuously enhance Heartland’s Product Management Framework and governance standards.
• Drive consistent adoption of product management practices across business units.
• Provide guidance and challenge on new product development and product change initiatives.
• Lead and facilitate product reviews to improve product design, performance, risk management, and customer outcomes.
• Coordinate and support the Product Governance Committee, including annual work planning, reporting, and governance activities.
• Maintain enterprise-wide visibility of Heartland’s product portfolio and central repository of product documentation.
• Ensure product-related risks, controls, and regulatory obligations are effectively identified, managed, and monitored.
• Promote best-practice product lifecycle management across the organisation.

What you'll bring

You’re an experienced governance, risk, or product professional who understands the importance of strong governance in delivering sustainable customer and business outcomes.

To be successful in this role, you will have:

• Significant experience in banking, financial services, product management, governance, or risk.
• Strong knowledge of conduct, governance, and regulatory requirements within financial services.
• Experience developing and applying product management frameworks and lifecycle management practices.
• Excellent stakeholder engagement, communication, and influencing skills.
• Strong analytical, reporting, and problem-solving capabilities.
• The ability to balance customer, commercial, and risk considerations in decision-making.
• A collaborative approach and the confidence to provide constructive challenge at all levels of the organisation.

Why Heartland?

At Heartland, you’ll join a purpose-driven organisation where your work will have genuine enterprise-wide impact. You’ll collaborate with passionate colleagues across the business and play a key role in strengthening how we design, manage, and govern products for our customers.

What we offer:

• A welcoming, inclusive, and supportive culture.
• A strong commitment to employee wellbeing and professional development.
• Active employee networks and communities.
• Opportunities to build meaningful relationships and advance your career.
• A workplace where you can bring your whole self to work.

Heartland is proud to be a Living Wage Employer, Hearing Accredited, and a holder of the Rainbow Tick.

If you’re passionate about product governance, customer outcomes, and driving best-practice standards across an organisation, we’d love to hear from you.

You must be eligible to work in New Zealand.