As a recruitment firm with a dedicated product recruitment practice since 2016, we’ve run the gamut when it comes to product searches for tech startups. 

Here are just a few examples of the searches we’ve tackled for Founder/CEOs:

• A Product Manager to join three Founders as employee number 4 and commercialize an idea for a lending product
• A UX Designer to transform how consumers experience receiving money transfers for special events such as birthdays or holidays
• A VP Product to scale how a globally distributed team of PMs deliver the next chapter of an in-app money movement product experience

Payments-focused Product Managers are the most sought-after in Fintech and the type of role we are most often retained to recruit for.

We asked our Recruitment Manager, Dilsher Singh, to architect the profile of a Payments Product Manager and the most common requirements he searches for.

Typically, a Payments Product Manager's main focus is building a "Payments Engine" for a web or mobile platform. A payments engine has a few components, the main ones being:

1. APIs that connect the product to the major banks (to start, followed by lower priority banks outside of the top 5, Credit Unions, Tangerine, etc.) so they can pull a user's account info/balance.
2. APIs that connect the product to Payment Methods: Visa, MasterCard, Apple Pay, Google Pay, WePay, AliPay, etc.

Payment PMs are in charge of integrating these APIs into the Product. This will involve working with the "API Vendor" (RBC, Scotiabank, VISA, Apple Pay, etc). They will also ensure that the design and flow of all the pages are uniform, intuitive, flashy, and abide by the design philosophy of the company. 

In his experience, hiring stakeholders want Product Managers who have experience with integrations for different payment methods, as the main mandate of their role is to provide as many different payment methods as possible. This helps companies acquire a larger share of the market while making the payment process itself secure and streamlined (fewer clicks and screens).

So what is the main difference we’ve seen? While it boils down to B2C vs. B2B integrations preferences. When looking for B2C companies, the number one experience they want to see is experience with Apple/Google Pay. 

For B2B SaaS companies, our experience has shown us that rather than prioritizing experiences with Apple/Google Pay, B2B companies value experience across payment methods such as Direct Deposit, Real Time Rails, and other common B2B Enterprise payment methods.

If you’re looking for a payments-focused Product Manager, book a call with us today to learn more about current salaries and market insights.