This is an exciting opportunity for a seasoned payments practitioner to lead the technology management and strategic evolution of a next-generation payment rail within M&T Bank's Digital Assets and Payments ecosystem. As a Product Owner II, you will be at the forefront of aligning on product vision, driving innovation, and delivering transformative payment capabilities that support the future of digital transactions. This role requires a strong foundation in payment rails and transaction processing, coupled with expertise in one or more key disciplines including Product Management, Agile delivery, or Payment Operations.
You will partner closely with business leaders, technology teams, and cross-functional stakeholders to shape and execute a product roadmap that delivers measurable value while aligning with enterprise strategy. You will own the backlog prioritization, define and communicate product vision, and lead agile teams through the delivery of complex payment solutions. Success in this role requires a deep understanding of payments, examples include Wire, ACH, Instant Payments, Zelle, Digital Assets, or emerging payment technologies, as well as the ability to influence without direct authority, navigate regulatory considerations, and make thoughtful decisions in a rapidly evolving landscape.
The ideal candidate combines payment industry expertise with a passion for innovation, customer-focused product development, and agile practices. This is a unique opportunity to help shape the future of payments, drive strategic business outcomes, and play a key role in delivering one of the bank's most significant digital payment initiatives.
- Build and own the large product or set of products vision and roadmap that aligns with the overall strategic intent and communicate them with the team and all stakeholders. Prioritize the backlog(s) based on the overall product vision and strategy.
- Represent the voice of the customer within the team and convey story details to the team; make autonomous decisions, quickly and thoughtfully, to move delivery forward in alignment with overall product vision and strategy.
- Write user stories and groom the backlog in partnership with the team. Specify acceptance criteria for each user story in support of moving the team to Acceptance Test-Driven Development (ATDD).
- Work directly with the delivery team to create appropriate information radiators and other communication tools for internal team and stakeholder use to show progress on a large product or multiple products.
- Participate in all team activities and ceremonies.
- Use a matrixed influencing approach to work with essential business partners throughout the organization, often at a more senior level and irrespective of hierarchy or divisions, advocating for the benefit of the customer.
- Understand and engage with your customers.
- Focus on outcomes over outputs, incorporating design thinking methods and analytics to inform product design. Due to the scope of these product(s), these efforts are often more complex.
- Collaborate across teams and with other Product Owners to align the customer journey and dependent backlogs.
- May act on behalf of the Senior Product Owner as required by absence.
- Understand and adhere to the Company’s risk and regulatory standards, policies and controls in accordance with the Company’s Risk Appetite. Identify risk-related issues needing escalation to management.
- Promote an environment that supports belonging and reflects the M&T Bank brand.
- Maintain M&T internal control standards, including timely implementation of internal and external audit points together with any issues raised by external regulators as applicable
- Complete other related duties as assigned
No direct management responsibility, but while an individual contributor, the jobholder must manage activities through influence, accountability and ownership, functioning in an agile environment.
Education and Experience Required:Bachelor’s degree and a minimum of 6 years’ business, analytical, technical and/or product experience, or in lieu of a degree, a combined minimum of 10 years’ higher education and/or work experience, including a minimum of 6 years’ business, analytical, technical and/or product experience
Education and Experience Preferred:- Prior experience prioritizing across competing priorities and quickly-changing landscape
- Prior experience actively seeking out multiple opinions, yet making independent decisions and influencing positive outcomes
- Understanding of Design Thinking principles
- Knowledge of product design and development best practices
- Knowledge of Agile and Lean principles and practices
- Experience working in partnership with user experience teams on product design
- Experience developing/managing digital capabilities
- Strong verbal and written communication skills
- Specific subject matter expertise in Payments (Wire, ACH, Zelle, and/or Digital Assets)
Skills Required
- Bachelor's degree or equivalent (10 years combined education/work experience in lieu of degree)
- Minimum of 6 years' business, analytical, technical and/or product experience
- Prior experience prioritizing across competing priorities in a quickly-changing landscape
- Experience actively seeking multiple opinions, making independent decisions, and influencing outcomes
- Understanding of Design Thinking principles
- Knowledge of product design and development best practices
- Knowledge of Agile and Lean principles and practices
- Experience working in partnership with user experience teams on product design
- Experience developing/managing digital capabilities
- Strong verbal and written communication skills
- Specific subject matter expertise in Payments (Wire, ACH, Zelle, and/or Digital Assets)
M&T Bank Compensation & Benefits Highlights
The following summarizes recurring compensation and benefits themes identified from responses generated by popular LLMs to common candidate questions about M&T Bank and has not been reviewed or approved by M&T Bank.
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Retirement Support — Retirement benefits are positioned as a strong pillar, including a 401(k) match and the possibility of an additional employer contribution, plus access to an employee stock purchase plan.
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Leave & Time Off Breadth — Time-off offerings are framed as competitive, with a flexible PTO approach and paid volunteer time called out as a meaningful add-on to standard leave.
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Wellbeing & Lifestyle Benefits — Wellbeing support appears comparatively robust, highlighted by mental-health therapy/coaching sessions and broader wellness programming alongside community-oriented perks.
M&T Bank Insights
What We Do
M&T Bank is a multi-state community-focused bank serving New York, Maryland, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Connecticut, Virginia, West Virginia and Washington, D.C. Founded in 1856, the company provides banking, investment, insurance and mortgage financial services to more than 3.6 million consumer, business and government clients.
