Director, Oaken Financial & Consumer Deposits

Fairstone Bank•Toronto, ON

2d•Hybrid

About The Position

Reporting directly to the Vice President, Deposits, the Director, Oaken Financial & Consumer Deposits leads Fairstone Bank’s direct-to-consumer deposit business - Oaken Financial - and the full suite of consumer savings products, including registered and non-registered High-Interest Savings (HISAs), GICs, transactional banking and money movements products offered to Canadians nationwide.

Requirements

Bachelor's or related field; MBA, CFA, or relevant financial designation preferred.
10+ years of relevant experience in product management, digital banking leadership, or consumer banking - with significant experience in everyday banking, savings, or core consumer deposit domains.
Demonstrated experience leading product management at scale: setting product vision and strategy, defining success metrics, and leading delivery across complex, regulated environments.
P&L accountability experience - demonstrated responsibility for financial results of a consumer deposit or retail banking channel, including pricing, volume, and profitability outcomes.
People management experience - proven track record of leading and developing PMs, channel managers, or cross-functional product pods / squads.
Experience or strong familiarity with banking, fintech, or payments - including money movement capabilities (e-Transfer, EFT/ACH, Bill Pay, RTR) and Open Banking frameworks.
Strong product sense - intuitive understanding of customer needs, strategic and data-driven mindset, and passion for product excellence grounded in product-led growth principles.
Proven experience leading end-to-end development (0-to-1 launch) of B2C digital financial products – preferably as a head or principal product manager.
Deep understanding of consumer deposit economics - including drivers of net interest income (NII), balance growth, retention, and trade-offs between customer value and financial outcomes.
Advanced product pricing and liquidity management experience - including pricing strategy development, rate recommendations to Treasury, cost-of-funds trade-off analysis, and an understanding of how pricing decisions interact with volume, retention, and funding mix; familiarity with broker pricing dynamics where consumer and broker channels intersect.
Familiarity with RTR, ISO 20022, Open Banking frameworks, and API-driven architectures - with the ability to translate technical constraints into customer-centric solutions.

Responsibilities

Lead the Oaken Financial product vision and strategy - including savings products (HISA, GIC, registered accounts), everyday banking, and money movement capabilities - and translate that vision into an ambitious, prioritized business roadmap from ideation to execution.
Define the long-term strategy for Oaken and consumer deposits in collaboration with the VP, Deposits and enterprise business leaders - ensuring alignment with Fairstone Bank’s funding strategy, balance sheet needs, and lending ambitions; partner with the Director, Digital Growth & Experience and Director, Deposit Strategy & Transformation to align channel strategy with digital and operational transformation priorities.
Refine and evolve the Oaken value proposition - defining target customer segments, positioning, and the product, rate, and feature differentiation required to drive acquisition, grow balances, increase funded accounts, and build sticky deposit and payment behaviours; develop campaigns and strategic initiatives leveraging propensity models, optimized pricing, and segment insight.
Lead and manage prioritization of direct-to-consumer deposit investment using quantitative and qualitative inputs from across the bank - applying customer segmentation and targeting frameworks to focus resources on highest-value opportunities; continuously revisiting prioritization as market conditions, customer needs, and strategic priorities evolve.
Serve as subject matter expert for money movement domain, including e-Transfer, EFT, Bill Pay, Real-Time Rail (RTR), and Open Banking-enabled capabilities.
Lead the end-to-end product strategy, outcomes, and evolution of Oaken Financial experiences - including core banking foundations (account servicing, balances, transactions, interest and fee transparency, statements, service reliability), savings experiences that enable customers to build and grow balances with confidence, and everyday money management capabilities.
Work closely with engineering, marketing, UX/UI research, and product design teams to build best-in-class financial services products for the Canadian market.
Define clear product specifications — both technical and non-technical — enabling efficiency across a wide range of stakeholders including Technology, Operations, Legal, Compliance, and Risk.
Maintain a prioritized product backlog; integrate projects into sprints, manage releases, gather feedback, and iterate continuously.
Lead the financial results for Oaken Financial and direct-to-consumer deposit products - setting forward-looking plans to address emerging trends, competitive developments, and business challenges.
Lead consumer deposit pricing strategy and management - developing and recommending pricing positions in close partnership with Treasury and Finance to optimize deposit growth, retention, and funding mix; serve as the primary business voice on consumer pricing decisions.
Lead consumer deposit portfolio management including volume, retention, profitability, and segment diversification — with a focus on growing multi-product penetration and expanding consumer demographics.
Manage the Oaken Store network through the Oaken Store Manager - ensuring store service levels (SLA, CSAT) are met and the in-store customer experience is consistent with the Oaken brand.
Develop strategies and tactics to increase walk-ins and store originated sales and cross-sales.
Monitor and report on consumer channel KPIs, dashboards, and MBR commentary - providing insight-driven performance commentary to the VP and enterprise leadership.
Work closely with the Director, Digital Growth & Experience (Sales & Front-End Experience Lead) and the Director, Deposit Strategy & Transformation (Servicing & Downstream Systems Lead) to deliver transformation that will propel Oaken and Consumer Deposits - ensuring the Oaken and Consumer Deposits product strategy shapes priorities across the digital acquisition funnel, servicing experience, and downstream systems.
Translate the Oaken and Consumer Deposits product strategy into agile pod priorities - defining business requirements, user stories, and channel-specific enhancements that drive delivery across Oaken; ensure consumer deposit outcomes are represented and sequenced appropriately in pod backlogs.
Engage and collaborate with business leaders and stakeholders across Marketing, Treasury, Finance, Digital, Call Centre, Operations, and Technology - as well as Legal, Compliance, Privacy, and Risk Management - ensuring alignment on consumer deposit strategy, pricing, and outcomes.
Engage with external vendors, third-party processors, payment associations, and platform partners as required to support consumer deposit strategy and product delivery.
Lead, motivate, and coach a team of approximately 10 FTE (3 direct reports + 7 team members) across Product Management, Performance Management, Channel & Product Management, and the Oaken Store network.
Set appropriate context when assigning work to align individual roles with business unit priorities and Oaken's overall goals; manage performance through fair and accurate feedback; remove obstacles and clarify expectations.
Create a positive, high-accountability work environment - championing Fairstone’s mission, vision, and values.
Build strong product talent within the team - establish quality standards and reinforce a customer-first, outcome-driven product culture.
Ensure compliance with all applicable Oaken policies, standards, guidelines, and controls - and ensure all direct reports do the same.
Working with Legal and Compliance, remain aware of and responsible for adherence to regulatory requirements, standards, and guidelines applicable to consumer deposits, payments, and digital banking.