Products Lead - Lending
As the Product Lead for Lending (Consumer & SME), the incumbent will lead the end-to-end strategy, design, and delivery of lending products across both individual (consumer) and business (SME) segments. The role requires a blend of strategic thinking, customer insight, technical expertise, and a deep understanding of Pakistan’s lending landscape covering unsecured, secured, and digital credit propositions. The Product Lead will ensure that all lending products are designed with scalability, compliance, and customer experience in mind, supporting HugoBank’s goal of becoming a lending-first digital bank.
Essential Duties and Responsibilities
Product Proposition & Strategy
- Define and own clear, differentiated lending propositions across Consumer and SME segments, including personal loans, credit cards, working capital finance, term loans, earned wage access (EWA), inventory finance, and invoice financing.
- Identify and prioritize customer pain points and unmet credit needs to design scalable, compliant lending solutions aligned with HugoBank’s strategic and risk objectives.
- Ensure lending propositions drive customer lifecycle value, responsible credit usage, and financial inclusion, while supporting sustainable portfolio growth.
Product Development & Lifecycle Management
- Own and manage the end-to-end lending product lifecycle, from concept and business case development through design, testing, launch, and continuous optimization.
- Partner with Technology, Risk, Credit, Finance, and Operations teams to define and implement credit policies, business rules, customer journeys, and system configurations.
- Lead integration and automation initiatives across the Credit Decision Engine (CDE) and Lending Management System (LMS) to enable scalable, fast, and reliable credit decisioning.
Process Optimization
- Map and streamline end-to-end lending processes to improve efficiency, reduce turnaround time, and enhance customer experience.
- Introduce digital credit journeys, leveraging automation and analytics to support instant or near-instant lending decisions.
- Continuously identify bottlenecks and control gaps, implementing scalable process improvements that balance speed, risk, and regulatory compliance.
Technical & Analytical Collaboration
- Work closely with Technology and Data teams to design credit workflows, decision models, APIs, and data points required for lending propositions.
- Use analytics and portfolio insights to inform product enhancements and risk optimization.
Risk, Compliance & Operations
- Ensure lending frameworks and operational processes comply with SBP and AML/CFT requirements while enabling scalable growth.
- Work cross-functionally with Risk, Compliance, and Operations to monitor fraud and credit misuse risks in line with consumer lending policies and controls.
Cross-Functional Leadership
- Collaborate with Liabilities, Marketing, Technology, Risk, Data, and Analytics teams to deliver integrated lending and financing offerings across multiple customer segments, including Merchants.
- Partner with Product teams to design and launch targeted financing solutions for Merchants and other priority segments, such as working capital, invoice factoring, and BNPL.
- Leverage transactional and behavioral data in partnership with Analytics to generate insights and enable effective cross-sell and upsell of lending products across segments.
Secondary Responsibilities
- Gather market insights to identify product pain points, unmet needs, and value-added service opportunities (e.g., loyalty programs, BNPL, automated invoicing) across Merchants and other priority customer segments.
- Conduct field visits, customer interviews, and workshops with key segments and clusters (including pharmacies, FMCG distributors, and retail hubs) to capture on-ground insights and behavioral drivers for borrowing.
- Ensure customer insights are systematically embedded into product prioritization and roadmap decisions.
- Continuously track global and regional lending trends, with a strong focus on digital-first propositions, to inform product evolution and competitive positioning.
Requirements
- Bachelor’s degree in Business Administration, Economics, Finance, or related field.
- 5-7 years of experience in financial services, with hands-on ownership of Consumer and/or SME lending products.
- Proven track record in designing, launching, and scaling lending propositions, including digital credit journeys, underwriting models, and lifecycle management.
- Strong understanding of SBP lending regulations, AML/CFT, consumer protection guidelines, and their impact on product design and execution.