Product Owner, Capital Markets

Mandate Overview:

• The client is looking for three senior product owners to support the expansion of the fixed income, equities and derivatives desks. The role is primarily a product role: backlog prioritization, roadmap, trade-offs between value, risk, capacity, vendors and timelines, and visibility on value delivered. Business depth is the main filter: sell-side activities, fixed income trade lifecycle, interest rate derivatives, real-time pricing and curve calibration. The client accepts a business analyst or PO background, provided it was built in capital markets on technology solutions for at least 5 years. The PO guides and challenges the deliverables of business and functional analysts, and collaborates on business acceptance testing.
  
• Candidate sought: a senior PO or business analyst with at least 5 years on sell-side capital markets technology solutions, with hands-on command of fixed income and interest rate derivatives. Their resume shows ownership of a product backlog or roadmap, as well as work on market data, curves or trading platforms.
  

Requirements

Required:

• Sell-side capital markets activities, fixed income and derivatives first (sales and trading platforms, order management, fixed income trade lifecycle, market and reference data, accounting, risk)
  
• Financial products (quoting mechanisms, bond types, yield curves, credit ratings, trade valuation, fixed income derivatives such as futures and swaps, risk hedging, regulation)
  
• Derivatives and fixed income desk operations, real-time pricing, market data consumption and pricing curve calibration
  
• Experience with project phases or the lifecycle of a continuously evolving product
  
• Agile, Scrum or Kanban methodology
  
• Hands-on experience with Jira, Confluence and backlog management
  
• Capital markets platforms (Bloomberg, TOMS, Bloomberg Data License, BPIPE, CanDeal, GLMX, Tradeweb, ION/Fidessa, Murex or similar solutions)
  
• Market and reference data issues (rate curves, data flows, quality, reconciliation)
  
• Contribution to solution design, feasibility analyses, estimates, planning and release preparation
  
• Communication, prioritization, problem solving and trade-off management (value, risk, capacity, vendors, timelines)
  
• French and English bilingualism, "required or strongly preferred" per the client's wording
  

Asset:

• Experience in banking, financial services or a regulated environment ("significant asset")
  
• Knowledge of MiFID II, Dodd-Frank or transaction reporting
  

Profiles to Exclude:

• Profile whose capital markets experience is limited to buy-side or wealth management, with no sell-side fixed income or derivatives project on the resume.
  
• PO or business analyst profile from retail banking, payments or insurance, presenting banking experience as equivalent to capital markets.
  
• Profile that worked in capital markets as a trader, in operations or back office, with no technology solution project as an analyst or PO.
  
• Scrum Master or agile coach profile with no demonstrated product backlog ownership or business requirements gathering.
  
• Project manager profile whose resume shows schedule and budget tracking, without requirements definition or backlog prioritization.