Product Owner: Alternative Payment Methods

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Job Summary

ABSA Bank is looking for a commercially sharp and technically fluent Alternative Payments Product Owner to lead the end-to-end delivery of PayShap and other digital payment solutions within our Merchant Acquiring division. This is a high-impact, senior individual contributor role sitting at the intersection of payments strategy, technology delivery, and commercial growth.
You will own the product roadmap for real-time payment acceptance — spanning Universal QR code acceptance at physical POS terminals and e-commerce checkout — and drive PayShap merchant acquiring from business case through to live, scaled deployment. You will work with regulators, payment schemes, technology partners, and internal stakeholders to deliver a product experience that is best-in-class for ABSA's merchant base.

Job Description

• Own the PayShap merchant acquiring product roadmap, from ideation and business case through to live deployment and continuous optimisation.
• Lead delivery of Universal QR acceptance across physical POS environments and e-commerce checkout flows, ensuring technical and regulatory compliance with PASA and SARB requirements.
• Define and maintain detailed product requirements (PRDs, user stories, acceptance criteria) for PayShap transaction processing, settlement, and reconciliation flows.
• Identify, evaluate, and prioritise emerging alternative payment methods (APMs) relevant to the South African acquiring landscape — including account-to-account payments, digital wallets, and BNPL rails.
• Develop and maintain a forward-looking view of the alternative payments ecosystem, including RTP scheme developments, open banking, and interoperability initiatives.
• Own the commercial model for PayShap merchant acquiring — including merchant pricing, interchange pass-through, and margin management (e.g., the flat-fee per-transaction model).
• Partner with Finance and Pricing teams to model revenue, cost, and profitability across merchant segments and verticals
• Lead cross-functional squads (Engineering, Compliance, Risk, Operations, Sales) through agile delivery cycles, removing blockers and maintaining delivery velocity.
• Serve as the primary product liaison with the PayShap scheme, PASA, and relevant industry working groups.
• Manage relationships with technology partners, acquirer-processor vendors, and third-party integrators.
• Define product requirements for PayShap integration into e-commerce payment gateways and checkout journeys, ensuring a seamless consumer and merchant UX.

Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in Commerce, Finance, Engineering, Computer Science, or a related field. Postgraduate qualification (MBA or equivalent) is advantageous.

Experience

• Minimum 6–8 years of product management or product delivery experience in financial services, with a strong focus on payments.
• Demonstrable experience with South African payment rails — PayShap, RTP, EFT, card acquiring, or similar.
• Proven track record of managing complex, multi-stakeholder payment product deliveries from concept to scale.
• Experience working with or within a merchant acquiring environment (issuer-side experience also considered).
• Hands-on experience with e-commerce payments and digital checkout integration.
• Experience engaging directly with payment schemes (e.g. Mastercard, Visa, BankservAfrica / PayShap) and regulators (SARB, PASA) is strongly preferred.

Education

Bachelor`s Degrees and Advanced Diplomas: Physical, Mathematical, Computer and Life Sciences (Required)

Absa Bank Limited is an equal opportunity, affirmative action employer. In compliance with the Employment Equity Act 55 of 1998, preference will be given to suitable candidates from designated groups whose appointments will contribute towards achievement of equitable demographic representation of our workforce profile and add to the diversity of the Bank.

Absa Bank Limited reserves the right not to make an appointment to the post as advertised