Product Manager - Payments in Leeds

Location: Leeds

We currently have a number of opportunities across our Product team - if this role isn't the right fit for you, we'd encourage you to explore what else is available.

The Payments Directorate sits at the heart of the UK’s financial system, playing a critical role in delivering the Bank’s mission. We design and operate the Real-Time Gross Settlement (RTGS) service and CHAPS, the UK’s high-value payment system. RTGS ultimately lies at the heart of every electronic payment in the UK and settles over £800 billion on an average working day. The directorate leads on policy and innovation for our Payments services and helps shape the broader payments landscape, both domestically and internationally. Drawing on our expertise in innovation and delivery, we are now embarking on a programme to enhance the new RTGS 2 platform, enabling the UK financial sector to innovate while ensuring safe and efficient settlement in central bank money. Our work connects us closely with many other areas of the Bank. As one of the most outward-facing and fast-paced directorates, we offer a dynamic and impactful environment to work in.

As a Payments Product Manager, you’ll be part of the Product Team, which looks after a suite of user-focused products and services supporting key operational and business processes. The team uses agile methodologies to ensure continuous improvement and alignment with user needs. You’ll be part of the management team in Product – you’ll coach and lead a team of one or more Product Owners, empowering them to deliver their own roadmaps, whilst ensuring their roadmaps deliver against wider Directorate and Bank strategy. You’ll work closely with the Product Initiative team to explore and shape future backlog items whilst they are in an earlier stage of design. Your team will represent user needs in the design, development, and delivery of the core settlement engine. This is a key part of the RTGS system – sitting across multiple services provided to our end users, including CHAPS payments and CREST settlement – and with an exciting backlog of future change – including introducing synchronisation (a new way of settling payments).

Day-to-Day Responsibilities

• Strategic planning and roadmap ownership
• Lead the end-to-end roadmap creation and maintenance for your product(s), clearly articulating planned features, user value, business benefits, and strategic alignment.
• Develop and communicate the roadmap, creating a shared vision across wider delivery teams to support empowered and decentralised decision‑making.
• Work closely with the Initiative team in Product to ensure strategic and bigger ticket items are planned into the Product backlogs.
• Provide system and Product expertise to the Initiative team – ensuring they have enough information to “shape” future backlog items.
• Monitor industry, policy and strategic shifts, adjusting the roadmap accordingly.
• Ensure roadmap items are appropriately sized, scored and sequenced for efficient delivery.

Product leadership

• Make prioritisation decisions across competing requirements, balancing value, risk and user needs.
• Balance capacity to ensure we can deliver both short-term functional change and longer-term, bigger ticket items.
• Oversee translation of roadmap items into clear user stories by Product Owners.
• Review and approve new ideas, ensuring cross‑product impacts are understood.
• Ensure backlogs and releases reflect true end‑user priorities.

Delivery & change leadership

• Act as the overall lead for change delivery across your product(s).
• Support your team as they coordinate with Scrum Masters, Developers, SMEs and the Portfolio Office to manage dependencies, risks and issues.
• Ensure your team has prepared a considered backlog for PI Planning and delivery ceremonies.
• Work with Risk and Operational Resilience teams to ensure impacts are appropriately assessed.
• Support your team to make decisions on defect prioritisation and remediation.

Governance, Oversight & Assurance

• Maintain oversight of JIRA workflow across Product Owners, escalating issues where required.
• Support resolution of delivery blockers and guide POs through impediments.
• Ensure retrospective improvements are tracked and acted on.

Stakeholder Engagement & Communication

• Act as the central point of alignment between technical teams and business stakeholders.
• Present strategic roadmap updates, progress and decisions to senior audiences.
• Build strong relationships to ensure the product remains user‑centred and aligned to strategy.

People Leadership

• Line manage and develop Product Owners within the product team.
• Promote high performance, collaboration and continuous improvement.

Minimum Experience

• Significant experience working as a Product Manager, Product Owner, Business Analyst or in a senior change role within complex organisations.
• Demonstrable experience leading product direction, strategy and/or roadmap definition.
• Experience working with technical and business stakeholders to deliver cross‑functional change.
• Background in agile delivery methodologies and associated change processes.

Essential Skills

• Excellent written and verbal communication, including:
• Translating complex or technical concepts for non‑technical audiences.
• Delivering confident, compelling communication to senior stakeholders.
• Facilitating discussions to shape product direction and requirements.
• Strong strategic thinking and analytical abilities, able to make evidence‑based decisions.
• Ability to influence and lead multifunctional delivery teams (including leading without direct authority).
• Strong organisational and prioritisation skills, with the ability to balance competing needs.
• Demonstrated leadership capability, including coaching or managing others.

Desirable Criteria

• Experience working in a product or change function within the public sector.
• Knowledge of financial services or payment systems.
• Experience leading a product function within payment or settlement services.

This is a people management role. You will be responsible for day to day management of the team and for defining roles and responsibilities. You will develop your team through sharing information effectively, coaching and communicating a clear vision to ensure that your staff are productive, engaged and motivated to deliver the area's aims. This will include setting clear goals and smart stretching objectives that are aligned to those of the team, division and directorate. You will also be responsible for managing all staff-related matters that may arise including performance, absence and sickness.

Our Approach to Inclusion

The Bank values diversity, equity and inclusion. We play a key role in maintaining monetary and financial stability, and to do that effectively, we believe we need a workforce that reflects the society we serve. At the Bank of England, we want all colleagues to feel valued and respected, so we're working hard to build an inclusive culture which supports people from all backgrounds and communities to be at their best at work. We celebrate all forms of diversity, including (but not limited to) age, disability, ethnicity, gender, gender identity, race, religion, sexual orientation and socioeconomic status. We believe that it’s by drawing on different perspectives and experiences that we’ll continue to make the best decisions for the public. We welcome applications from individuals who work flexibly, including job shares and part time working patterns. We've also partnered with external organisations to support us in making adjustments for candidates and employees in the recruitment process where they're needed. For most roles where work can be carried out at home, we aim for colleagues to spend half of their time in the office, with a minimum of 40% per month. Subject to that minimum requirement, individuals and managers should work together to find what works best for them, their team and stakeholders. Finally, we're proud to be a member of the Disability Confident Scheme. If you wish to apply under this scheme, you should check the box in the ‘Candidate Personal Information’ under the ‘Disability Confident Scheme’ section of the application.

Salary and Benefits Information

We encourage flexible working, part time working and job share arrangements. Part time salary and benefits will be on a pro-rated basis as appropriate. Leeds salary £65,440 - £73,620 per annum. In addition, we also offer a comprehensive benefits package.

Currently a non-contributory, career average pension giving you a guaranteed retirement benefit of 1/80th of your annual salary for every year worked. There is the option to increase your pension (to 1/65th) or decrease (to 1/105th) in exchange for salary through our flexible benefits programme each year. The Bank has the discretion to vary standard accrual rates and dial up and dial down rates at any time and to withdraw dial up and dial down options at any time. A discretionary performance award based on a current award pool. An 8% benefits allowance with the option to take as salary or purchase a wide range of flexible benefits. 26 days’ annual leave with option to buy up to 12 additional days through flexible benefits. Private medical insurance and income protection.

This role closes at 23:59 on 4th June 2026.

National Security Vetting Process

Employment in this role will be subject to the National Security Vetting clearance process (and typically can take between 6 to 12 weeks post offer) and the passing of additional Bank security checks in accordance with the Bank policy. Further information regarding the vetting and security clearance requirements for the role will be provided to the successful applicant, and information about how the Bank processes personal data for these purposes, is set out in the Bank's Privacy Notice.

The Bank of England welcomes applications from all candidates, but as a UK Visas and Immigration (UKVI) approved sponsor, we have a responsibility to comply with the Immigration Rules and guidance. As such, our ability to employ individuals who require sponsorship for immigration purposes is limited. The Bank cannot guarantee that you and / or the role you are applying for will be eligible for sponsorship and that any application made to UKVI will be successful. Eligibility will therefore be considered on a case by case basis.

The Application Process

Important: Please ensure that you complete the ‘work history’ section and answer ALL the application questions fully. All candidate applications are anonymised to ensure that our hiring managers will not be able to see your personal information, including your CV, when reviewing your application details at the screening stage. It’s therefore really important that you fill out the work history and application form questions, as your answers will form a critical part of the initial selection process. The assessment process will comprise of two interview stages. Please apply online, ensuring that you complete your work history and answer ALL the application questions fully and in detail as your application will not be considered if all mandatory questions are not fully completed.