Product Lead

Descrizione

iwoca started in 2012 and was born out of the frustration that small businesses lack the access to finance they need to reach their potential. Our belief then was that technology must enable us to significantly shorten the archaic 8-week bank application process which more often than not results in a ‘no’. Nearly a decade later and we have served more than 50,000 businesses across the UK and Germany with more than £2 billion of finance. Our personal best from a business starting an application to money in the bank is 3m26s (faster than Mo Farah on 1,500 meters). It’s a good start, but it’s just the beginning.

Our mission is to finance 1 million businesses, so still, a long way to go.

Through the course of our journey, we have learned that

• SME lending is a tech play at heart - processing applications from SMEs of all shapes and sizes is very complex, and the effective use of technology is essential for doing that at scale
• Embedded finance is the future for SME lending - businesses won’t need to go to banks anymore. We’re increasingly reaching businesses by embedding our finance offering through API integrations into the SME ecosystem including online marketplaces, accountancy systems, or neobanks
• Payments and credit are converging: Many businesses have cash-flow gaps because they receive money from their customers only way after having to pay their own bills. So we want to tackle the cashflow problem by offering loans, but also tackle the problem at its root by improving payment terms.
• We must continuously innovate in order to meet more of our customers’ finance needs - we won the BCR which helped us launch iwocapay, and we're soon launching a revenue-based loan. We’re constantly evaluating new opportunities, and finding new ways that we can meet the financing needs of more small businesses.

We work hard to make iwoca a place where everyone feels welcome, where you can confidently be yourself. We understand that diversity isn't an optional add-on, it's the core ingredient of what makes us great.

Requirements

iwoca is entering a new phase of development and we need an experienced Product Lead to help our teams build the best SME lending platform possible.

This new role is part of making our Product function incredible at iwoca. While you will be able to roll up your sleeves and work closely with tech and the business yourself, your biggest impact will be through leading and developing a team of Product Managers, upskilling them and supporting them to organise their cross-functional teams ( made up of developers, data scientists and designers), engage effectively with the business and really understand and solve those problems which will help us build the right things, really efficiently, and we see the impact that we expected them to achieve.

Ideally, you’ll have:

• Strong Product Management experience, ideally in a Tech company
• Tech savviness: Even if you don’t write code yourself, you understand what a software developer does, understand APIs and can ask the right questions to ensure that technical choices will meet both current and future requirements
• Prior experience with operational and financial workflows or internal/back-office tools
• Collaborative style that is focused on aligning stakeholders and finding solutions
• Superior communication, analytical, and project management skills
• Highly organised with attention to detail
• Experience of sharing great ideas and best practices
• Track record of excellence in both academic and professional setting

Benefits

What’s life like as an iwocan?

We all enjoy:

• Bright, modern office spaces in Covent Garden & Leeds. We have always supported flexible working however during the current pandemic the majority of iwocans are working from home. We have taken every precaution to keep our offices COVID-19 secure for those that need to use them.
• A calendar of ‘remote friendly’ events each week including Bingo, Comedy Nights, Escape Room challenges
• Two company retreats a year (in places like the French Alps or Spanish seaside)
• Pool, ping pong, foosball tables and tournaments
• Virtual Yoga classes every Tuesday and Thursday morning
• An ever-growing number of clubs including climbing, chess, football and boxing
• Plenty of drinks and snacks in our office kitchen

Just for you:

• Medical insurance from Vitality, including discounted gym membership
• We take your well being incredibly seriously, so you’ll have instant access to emotional and mental health support services via our partner Spill
• Share options
• Enhanced maternity and shared parental leave
• A workplace nursery tax benefit scheme. Save £££ on your nursery costs.
• 25 days holiday per year and an extra day off on your birthday
• All the equipment you need to set up your home working space up
• Paid volunteering time for you to support your chosen charity
• Bring your dog to work days, we’re dog friendly on Tuesday and Thursdays in our London office.
• Extra leave if you want to travel or study
• Special celebrations for anniversaries and long service including sabbatical
• Flexible working arrangements
• Cycle-to-work scheme

And to make sure we all keep learning, we offer:

• L&D budget including a book budget to encourage you to keep learning
• Company-wide talks with internal and external speakers
• A calendar of meetups we host at our office
• Access to learning platforms like Treehouse to improve your coding skills or learn a new coding language.