Build the Team. Shape the Process. Lead the Product Vision.

We’re looking for an exceptional Head of Product to partner closely with senior leadership and play a pivotal role in shaping the future of our product organisation. This is a high-impact role for a product leader who thrives on building great teams, transforming ways of working, and turning strategy into outcomes that customers love.

What you’ll be responsible for

People – Build a world‑class product team
You’ll assess the talent we have today, identify capability gaps, and help us attract outstanding product talent at pace. Just as importantly, you’ll coach, nurture, and empower our existing leaders to create a strong, high‑performing product culture.

Process – Raise the bar on how we deliver
You’ll help drive the shift to quarterly planning and bi‑weekly product reviews across clearly defined value streams. Working closely with product, technology, and architecture, you’ll champion transparency, rigor, and continuous improvement — transforming how our product management teams operate.

Product – Turn strategy into execution
You’ll take a holistic view of our product estate and customer base to help shape a compelling product strategy and execution plan. While the strategic roadmap is set at the top, you’ll translate it into clear work packages that value stream leads can deliver against — ensuring strategy becomes reality.

Why this role?

This is a rare opportunity to shape the direction, capability, and impact of an entire product organisation. If you’re a hands-on product leader who loves building teams, improving systems, and delivering meaningful customer value at scale, we’d love to hear from you.

Skills, Experience & Qualifications

Essential

• Senior leadership experience in a high-impact role for a product leader who thrives on building great teams, transforming ways of working, and turning strategy into outcomes that customers love within payments, acquiring, fintech, or financial services.

• Experience within merchant acquiring, fintech or payments acquiring.

Barclays’ payments acceptance business provides critical infrastructure to the UK economy, processing billions of pounds of payments annually for both small businesses and domestic and international corporate clients.

In April 2025, we announced a long-term partnership with Brookfield Asset Management to grow and transform the payments acceptance business by broadening the range of services offered, enhancing the experience for both existing and prospective clients. Leveraging extensive client relationships and deep experience of UK payments, we will create an environment of continuous innovation - activated by Brookfield’s global private equity expertise in payments, technology, operational transformation and corporate carve-outs - to ensure the business is strategically positioned for long-term growth.

Barclays will invest approximately £400m in the new business, the majority of which will be incurred during the first three years. Performance-linked incentives will drive greater alignment between the partners, underpinning the long-term commitment to the transformation. Barclays and Brookfield will work to create a standalone entity over time, continuing to use the Barclaycard Payments (BPL) brand and acting as the sole payments acceptance services provider to Barclays’ clients for a minimum of ten years.

For more information on our partnership with Brookfield, please visit Barclays.com.

Purpose of the role

To manage a specific product or portfolio and set the strategic direction. Provide support to the bank's senior management team, and to manage product development risk across the organisation.

Accountabilities

• Development of strategic direction for a specific product or portfolio, including the implementation of up to date methodologies and processes.

• Management of a specific product or portfolio, including oversight of colleagues and their performance, implementation of departmental goals and objectives, oversight of department efficiency and effectiveness. .

• Relationship management of specific product or portfolio stakeholders, including identifying relevant stakeholders, and maintenance of the quality of external third party services.

• Development and implementation of policies and procedures for the specific product or portfolio.

• Management of specific product or portfolio risk, including identification of potential risks, development of strategies to mitigate those risks, and maintenance of alignment between the bank’s specific product or portfolio and compliance functions. .

• Monitoring the financial performance of the specific product or portfolio, including revenue, profitability, and cost control.

• Conducting thorough market research to understand market trends, competitive landscape, and regulatory changes to identify market opportunities.

Managing Director Expectations

• To manage a large, complex or diverse function and take accountability for the strategic direction of the function to significantly strengthen successful and efficient businesses and contribute to the strategic initiatives of the Barclays Group

• Lead and mentor high performing teams and embed a performance culture aligned to the values of the business. Or for an individual contributor, they lead organisation wide projects, act as a profound technical expert and thought leader, Identifying new and innovative/ground breaking ways of working. They will train, guide and coach less experienced specialists and provide information affecting long term profits, organisational risks and strategic decisions.

• Drive and achieve overall success and / or competitiveness of a business division by influencing senior leaders and committees.

• Strategically assess and manage risks to protect the business division / function and growth.

• Influence company policy and develop functional procedures in conjunction with senior leaders / strategic positions across the business.

• Demonstrate interpretative thinking for innovative solutions in complex situations and conceptual thinking in completely new situations.

• Exercise management authority to make significant / complex business and strategic decisions that impact the Barclays Group, business division or function.

• Negotiate with and influence stakeholders at a senior level both internally and externally and foster growth for Barclays business.

• Mandated as the business division/ functional spokesperson or representative to external bodies and shapes the public image of Barclays.

• Demonstrate exceptional knowledge of how business divisions and functions integrate with the Group to achieve the overall business objectives alongside industry theories and practices within own discipline.

• Maintain broad and comprehensive functional expertise and significant product knowledge.

• Accountable for the control and governance agenda of the business division / function.

• Focus on the external environment, regulators, or advocacy groups to both monitor and influence on behalf of Barclays.

All Senior Leaders are expected to demonstrate a clear set of leadership behaviours to create an environment for colleagues to thrive and deliver to a consistently excellent standard. The four LEAD behaviours are: L – Listen and be authentic, E – Energise and inspire, A – Align across the enterprise, D – Develop others.

All colleagues will be expected to demonstrate the Barclays Values of Respect, Integrity, Service, Excellence and Stewardship – our moral compass, helping us do what we believe is right. They will also be expected to demonstrate the Barclays Mindset – to Empower, Challenge and Drive – the operating manual for how we behave.