The Role
Own product strategy and execution across Lending, Savings & Deposits, FX, and Trade Finance. Run customer discovery, size opportunities, and prioritize initiatives. Write tight product and technical specs for engineers and AI coding agents, prototype in Claude Design, ship small PRs, drive delivery in Linear, coordinate stakeholders, and own post-launch outcomes tied to business metrics.
Summary Generated by Built In
About Umba
Umba is a pan-African digital bank operating in Kenya and Nigeria, on a mission to make financial services more accessible, affordable, and empowering for millions of people across Africa. Since acquiring a licensed microfinance bank in Kenya in 2023, we have grown revenue more than sixfold and built a stack of products spanning Lending, Savings, Fixed Deposits, FX, and (in development) Trade Finance, for both individuals and SMEs.
Job Summary:
We are hiring a Senior Product Manager to own product strategy and execution across our entire product surface: Lending, Savings & Deposits, FX, and the upcoming Trade Finance line. You will report to the Product Lead and partner directly with the CEO. This is not a traditional product role. Umba operates in an "AI-native environment". The team uses Claude Code, Claude Design, Codex, and similar tools to spec, prototype, and ship. The Senior PM is expected to write product and technical specifications that AI agents can execute against, drive delivery end to end, ship small PRs directly when it is faster than handing off, coordinate the stakeholders that turn a product into a business, and own the outcomes those products generate. The bar is moving 10x faster without sacrificing quality
Responsibilities:
The role spans two domains:
Strategy & Discovery
Umba is an equal opportunity employer and encourage applications from all qualified individuals.
Please submit your application by 25th June 2026. Due to the urgency, interviews will be on a rolling basis.
Umba is a pan-African digital bank operating in Kenya and Nigeria, on a mission to make financial services more accessible, affordable, and empowering for millions of people across Africa. Since acquiring a licensed microfinance bank in Kenya in 2023, we have grown revenue more than sixfold and built a stack of products spanning Lending, Savings, Fixed Deposits, FX, and (in development) Trade Finance, for both individuals and SMEs.
Job Summary:
We are hiring a Senior Product Manager to own product strategy and execution across our entire product surface: Lending, Savings & Deposits, FX, and the upcoming Trade Finance line. You will report to the Product Lead and partner directly with the CEO. This is not a traditional product role. Umba operates in an "AI-native environment". The team uses Claude Code, Claude Design, Codex, and similar tools to spec, prototype, and ship. The Senior PM is expected to write product and technical specifications that AI agents can execute against, drive delivery end to end, ship small PRs directly when it is faster than handing off, coordinate the stakeholders that turn a product into a business, and own the outcomes those products generate. The bar is moving 10x faster without sacrificing quality
Responsibilities:
The role spans two domains:
Strategy & Discovery
- Own the roadmap across Lending (Logbook, Asset Finance, UmbaPay Loans), Savings & Fixed Deposits, FX (Exchange, Virtual Account Numbers, international payouts), and the upcoming Trade Finance line.
- Run customer discovery directly with target segments: freelancers, SME exporters and importers, individual borrowers and savers.
- Size opportunities, instrument funnels, and validate hypotheses against production data. You do not wait for an analyst.
- Make prioritization calls across very different product lines (a credit-policy tweak vs. a new FX corridor vs. a deposit campaign) and defend them with numbers.
- Track competitor moves across African fintech (Eversend, Wave, Flutterwave, Kuda) and translate them into product decisions.
- Write product and technical specifications that engineers and AI coding agents can implement directly.
- Tight, unambiguous, testable.
- Prototype in Claude Design to validate concepts before committing engineering time.
- Code and ship small PRs yourself with Claude Code when it is faster than handing off. PMs at Umba live in the codebase.
- Drive delivery end to end. Own scope, timeline, and quality.
- Run delivery in Linear, our next-gen product and project management surface.
- Run the cadence with Engineering: standups, sprint reviews, unblocking, bug triage, and trade-off calls when things slip.
- Coordinate across stakeholders (CEO, Engineering, Data, Credit, Operations, Risk, Compliance, Marketing).
- Align scope, ship dates, and trade-offs across teams that have different incentives.
- Own outcomes, not output. Tie every initiative to a revenue, growth, or risk metric. Track it post-launch and iterate until the metric moves.
- Review AI-generated implementations, prototypes, and analyses for correctness, edge cases, and business fit.
- Build feedback loops: customer signal, spec, AI-assisted build, metric, next spec. Compress the cycle.
- Own launch comms and internal enablement.
- 5+ years in product management.
- Direct experience shipping consumer or SME products in fintech, banking, or lending.
- Track record of owning outcomes. You measure yourself by the metric that moved (revenue, active users,
- default rate, deposit growth), not by what was planned or shipped.
- Strong stakeholder coordination. You drive alignment across the cross-functional set above without losing
- your own thread.
- Strong written communication. You can write a spec a senior engineer does not need to ask questions
- about.
- Comfortable reading production data yourself. SQL fluency, or willing to get there in week one.
- Demonstrated proficiency with AI tools in your daily workflow (Claude Code, Claude Design, Codex, and
- similar tools). You have shipped real work with them, not just experimented.
- Comfortable reading and writing code, enough to ship a small PR with Claude Code.
- High agency. You move from problem to validated solution to shipped product without waiting to be told.
- Able to read CBK / CBN guidance and translate it into product requirements
- Experience with credit products (origination, scoring, collections) and deposit products (rate strategy,
- treasury, funding).
- Exposure to FX, cross-border payments, stablecoins, or virtual account infrastructure.
- Experience working with engineering teams that use AI coding agents in production workflows.
- Prior work in emerging markets, particularly Africa, SEA, or LATAM fintech.
- Founder or 0 to 1 product experience.
- Familiarity with trade finance instruments (invoice factoring, LPO financing, purchase order financing).
- Salary expectations in Kenyan Shillings.
- A short note on something you built end to end using AI. What it was, how you used AI to build it, what
- shipped.
- Valid work authorization for Kenya.
- In-office position in Nairobi
Umba is an equal opportunity employer and encourage applications from all qualified individuals.
Please submit your application by 25th June 2026. Due to the urgency, interviews will be on a rolling basis.
Skills Required
- 5+ years in product management
- Direct experience shipping consumer or SME products in fintech, banking, or lending
- Track record of owning outcomes measured by metrics (revenue, active users, default rate, deposit growth)
- Strong stakeholder coordination across CEO, Engineering, Data, Credit, Operations, Risk, Compliance, Marketing
- Strong written communication; able to write unambiguous, testable specs
- Comfortable reading production data; SQL fluency or willingness to attain it in week one
- Demonstrated proficiency with AI tools (Claude Code, Claude Design, Codex, or similar) and shipped work using them
- Comfortable reading and writing code; able to ship small PRs
- High agency; able to move from problem to validated solution to shipped product independently
- Able to read CBK / CBN guidance and translate it into product requirements
- Valid work authorization for Kenya
- In-office position in Nairobi (must be able to work onsite)
- Experience with credit products (origination, scoring, collections) and deposit products (rate strategy, treasury, funding)
- Exposure to FX, cross-border payments, stablecoins, or virtual account infrastructure
- Experience working with engineering teams that use AI coding agents in production workflows
- Prior work in emerging markets, particularly Africa, SEA, or LATAM fintech
- Founder or 0 to 1 product experience
- Familiarity with trade finance instruments (invoice factoring, LPO financing, purchase order financing)
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The Company
What We Do
Umba is an African digital bank, offering bank accounts and financial services to our customers. We provide an ecosystem of connected financial services that allows the customer complete control of their finances all in one App. At Umba, we believe in the power of financial inclusion to drive economic growth. As a leading digital bank, we are committed to providing innovative solutions that empower both employers and employees to achieve financial stability and reach their full potential. Umba launched in Nigeria in January 2021, and in Kenya in April 2023, via the acquisition of an existing Microfinance bank. Our digital platform offers seamless access to a wide range of banking services, including account management, payments, loans, savings, and more. We leverage technology and data-driven insights to streamline processes and make banking faster, smarter, and more convenient than ever before. But we are not just a bank. We are a partner, a trusted advisor, and a catalyst for growth. Our team of talented professionals is passionate about our mission, and we work tirelessly to deliver personalized service and tailored solutions to our customers. With our extensive network and expertise, we are well-positioned to support our customers at every stage of their journey. Join us at Umba, and be part of a dynamic team that is reshaping the future of banking. Together, we can unlock the potential of businesses, transform lives, and drive sustainable economic development. Connect with us on LinkedIn, Facebook, and Instagram to learn more about our innovative solutions and the exciting opportunities that await you at Umba.
