Product Lead (Credit Cards) - Engine by Starling

Starling • Charlotte, NC

2d • Hybrid

About The Position

Engine by Starling is seeking an exceptional Product Lead to join their team and drive the expansion in North America. This role involves defining and building the next generation of their US Cards proposition, working at the intersection of product strategy, customer engagement, and platform innovation. As a senior product leader in the US business, the individual will shape the vision, strategy, and roadmap for a key area of the platform, ensuring it meets the needs of US financial institutions while aligning with the global product strategy. This is a hands-on role requiring direct collaboration with clients, internal stakeholders, and engineering teams to translate market opportunities into market-leading products. The position demands comfort operating independently within a small senior leadership team in North America and collaborating across a larger Product and Engineering organization based in the UK. Success requires influencing without hierarchy, building strong cross-disciplinary relationships, and ensuring US market needs are reflected in the global platform. Deep expertise in the US credit card market, including issuer products, customer expectations, operational processes, and the payments ecosystem, is essential. Experience delivering products for banks, card issuers, processor platforms, or modern banking/card technology providers is highly desirable. The ideal candidate is passionate about building products from the ground up, enjoys solving complex commercial and technical challenges, and wants to shape the future of banking technology in North America.

Requirements

• Deep knowledge of the North American credit card industry and customer lifecycle.
• Understanding of card products, including credit, fees, rewards, disputes and servicing.
• Familiarity with the payments ecosystem (e.g. Visa, Mastercard).
• Solid understanding of US banking regulations (e.g. Regulation Z, CARD Act, FCRA).
• Awareness of Canadian regulations is a plus.
• Knowledge of PCI DSS and related compliance standards.
• Experience with card processing platforms (TSYS preferred).
• Understanding of configurable card systems and issuer capabilities.
• Experience with migrations, conversions or major platform implementations.
• Comfortable working with APIs, integrations and engineering teams.
• Experience working with banks or financial institutions to deliver product solutions.
• Ability to balance client needs with scalable platform design.
• Strong communication and stakeholder management skills.

Nice To Haves

• Experience in SaaS, cloud or banking technology environments.
• Familiarity with agile product practices.
• Experience working with distributed teams.

Responsibilities

• Define and evolve our US card proposition
• Own the vision, strategy and roadmap for a key area of Engine’s US Cards platform, balancing market needs, client requirements and long-term platform scalability.
• Translate market opportunities into clear product requirements, ensuring new capabilities are designed to be reusable across multiple financial institutions rather than bespoke for individual clients.
• Work closely with customers, prospects and internal stakeholders to validate product direction and prioritise investment based on commercial value and customer impact.
• Build a scale, configurable platform
• Define product requirements, user stories and acceptance criteria across the full stack, connecting digital experiences, platform services and underlying card processing capabilities.
• Design scalable configuration models that enable banks to launch differentiated products through configuration rather than custom development.
• Drive a product-led approach to platform evolution, ensuring new functionality strengthens the core platform while supporting the needs of multiple clients.
• Assess the impact of platform, processor and third-party changes, proactively identifying opportunities, risks and required product enhancements.
• Partners with Clients to deliver successful outcomes
• Lead product discovery with client banks, understanding their existing card portfolios, operating models and future product ambitions.
• Translate complex business requirements into clear product solutions, identifying where capabilities already exist, where configuration is sufficient and where platform enhancements are required.
• Perform product gap analysis and make pragmatic recommendations that balance client needs with long-term platform strategy.
• Support complex implementation programmes, providing product leadership through design workshops, delivery, testing and production readiness.
• Collaborative across global team
• Work closely with Engineering, Architecture, Design and Client Success teams in both the US and UK to deliver high-quality product outcomes.
• Act as the voice of the US market within Engine’s global product organisation, ensuring regional market requirements are reflected in the platform roadmap.
• Build strong relationships across distributed teams, influencing product direction through collaboration rather than authority.
• Drive Product Excellence
• Use customer feedback, market insight and product analytics to continuously improve the platform.
• Champion modern product management practices, helping establish a product-led culture as Engine continues to grow in North America.
• Represent the product with senior client stakeholders, supporting strategic discussions, solution workshops and executive presentations where required.
• Product Leadership
• Proven experience leading complex financial products from concept to launch, at least 7 years.
• Comfortable balancing strategic leadership with hands-on product management.
• Strong ability to influence senior stakeholders across a global organisation.

Benefits

• Medical, Dental, and Vision insurance plan options
• 401(k) with company match of 100% of the first 4%
• Company-paid Long-Term Disability, and Life and AD&D insurance
• Optional ancillary benefits such as Short-term Disability, Accident Insurance, Legal & ID Protection, and more
• 20 days annual vacation PTO and 11 Paid Holidays

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Senior
• Education Level: No Education Listed