Business Area Lead

ABOUT US

We’re the world’s leading provider of secure financial messaging services, headquartered in Belgium. We are the way the world moves value – across borders, through cities and overseas. No other organisation can address the scale, precision, pace and trust that this demands, and we’re proud to support the global economy.

We’re unique too. We were established to find a better way for the global financial community to move value – a reliable, safe and secure approach that the community can trust, completely. We’re always striving to be better and are constantly evolving in an ever-changing landscape, without undermining that trust. Five decades on, our vibrant community reflects the complexity and diversity of the financial ecosystem. We innovate diligently, test exhaustively, then implement fast. In a connected and exciting era, our mission has never been more relevant. Swift now has a presence in 200+ countries and legal territories to serve a community of more than 12,000 banks and financial institutions.

Swift is unable to sponsor an employment authorization for this position now or in the future.

About the Role

What to Expect

In this role you will

• Lead and coach Product Owners: set clear product outcomes, decision rights, and ways of working; ensure high-quality backlogs, well-formed hypotheses, and consistent discovery/delivery practices across squads
• Own the API portfolio strategy and roadmap: define the multi-year API ambition (capabilities, markets, and adoption plan) and maintain a prioritized roadmap aligned to Swift’s digital assets strategy, client needs, and regulatory evolution
• Run product governance and performance management: establish OKRs/KPIs (adoption, reliability, time-to-integrate, revenue/benefits), drive quarterly business reviews, manage trade-offs, and escalate risks/decisions through the agreed governance forums
• Align delivery across functions: partner with Engineering, Architecture, Security, Risk, Legal/Compliance, and Operations to ensure APIs meet non-functional requirements (resilience, observability, identity/access, data protection) and are a fit for regulated environments
• Drive customer and market alignment: engage priority clients and ecosystem partners to validate problems, test propositions, and guide adoption; work with Business Development and Industry Engagement to ensure messaging and go-to-market plans reinforce the agreed strategy
• Shape investment cases and partnerships: build business cases for roadmap items, quantify benefits, and support evaluation of partnerships/inorganic opportunities that accelerate API capability, standardization, or distribution
• Leadership scope: leads a team of Product Owners across multiple workstreams; sets product standards and decision cadence; influences senior stakeholders without always having direct authority

What will make you successful

We are seeking professionals with

• Bachelor’s Degree (Business, Engineering, Computer Science or related
• At least 7–10 years of experience in product management, platform/API product, business product leadership or strategy/program leadership, including leading Product Owners (directly or in a matrix)
• Experience building and scaling API products (internal/external), including roadmap ownership, adoption metrics and developer experience
• Banking industry knowledge (products, operations, and the regulatory environment) and experience applying it to platform/API delivery decisions
• Experience working with Engineering and Architecture teams on non-functional requirements (security, resilience, data protection, observability)
• Interacting with and presenting to senior stakeholders, translating complex topics into decisions and action

Preferred Qualifications

• Proven ability to lead complex, multi-workstream initiatives with high visibility and executive engagement, balancing strategic intent with pragmatic delivery
• Exposure to financial services/market infrastructures and/or digital assets/tokenization concepts is strongly preferred (or demonstrable ability to learn quickly in regulated domains)
• Strong stakeholder management skills, with the ability to align Product, Technology, Risk, Legal/Compliance, Operations, and Go-to-Market teams; experience engaging clients and ecosystem partners to validate needs and drive adoption

The estimated salary range for a new hire in this position in Virginia is $147,163.00 USD Annual MINIMUM to $273,303.00 USD Annual MAXIMUM. Salary may vary depending on job-related factors which may include knowledge, skills, experience, and location. Our compensation packages include a competitive base salary and bonus opportunity for all employee’s contingent on personal and company performance. Our generous benefits program includes medical, dental, vision and life insurance with no premium costs for our employees and their families, and retirement plan plus matching 401k.

What we offer

We give you the freedom to be yourself. We are creating an environment of unique individuals – like you – with different perspectives on the financial industry and the world. A diverse and inclusive environment in which everyone’s voice counts and where you can reach your full potential.

We are committed to an inclusive and accessible recruitment process. If you require a reasonable accommodation related to accessibility during your application or interview, please contact accessibility-Sysgroup@swift.com or indicate this in your application.

Please note that this mailbox is not monitored for general recruitment enquiries and should only be used for accessibility or accommodation-related requests (for example related to vision, hearing or neurodiversity).

All requests are confidential and will not affect your candidacy.

Don’t meet every single requirement? At Swift, we are dedicated to building a workplace where people can bring their full selves and ideas to the team, so if you are excited about this role, we encourage you to apply even if you do not meet every single qualification.