Product Owner

Product Owner – Payments & Partner IntegrationsOpen question: office, hybrid or remote within the EU

Contract

Full-time, permanent

You own how Sonect's payment channels, including SEPA and Swift, connect to our platform and to our partners. You run integration projects end to end, make the day-to-day product decisions, and keep the CEO informed on delivery, risk and spend.

About Sonect

Sonect is a regulated EU payment institution offering accounts, SEPA payments and international payments over Swift to businesses and platform partners.

• Payment channels: direct access to SEPA schemes, including instant payments and Verification of Payee, and international payments over Swift through a network of correspondent banks.
• Platform: our own cloud-based backend connected to a core-banking platform that runs client accounts and IBANs.
• Partners: fintech and banking-as-a-service platforms that offer payment services to their clients under Sonect's licence.
• What's next: extending our Swift services, adding currencies and correspondents, and bringing more platform partners onto our rails.

Key responsibilities

You lead integration projects end to end and are the single point of contact for every partner involved.

Programme leadership

• Own integration roadmaps, plans, budgets and RAID logs (risks, assumptions, issues, dependencies).
• Run regular status meetings with technology vendors, partners and internal teams; send the CEO a written weekly update.
• Escalate decisions early with clear options, costs and a recommendation.
• Chair go / no-go reviews for new channels, features and partner launches.

Product ownership

• Own the backlog for payment channels and partner integrations; write user stories and acceptance criteria.
• Define payment routing across SEPA and Swift, and the rules for currencies, limits and fees.
• Own ISO 20022 message mapping (pacs.008, pacs.009, pacs.004, pacs.002, camt.052/053/054) with engineering.
• Accept delivered work against agreed criteria.

Swift channel

• Own and evolve our Swift connectivity on Alliance Cloud: configuration, certificates, users and roles, with our Swift Security Officers.
• Manage changes and upgrades with Swift and our Swift service partner, including testing in Swift's test environment.
• Expand the service to new currencies, message types and use cases.

Core banking and back-office

• Work with our core-banking provider on how payments, nostro accounts and inbound credits are booked.
• Make sure reconciliation, archiving (5+ years) and exception handling work for the settlement team.

Platform partners

• Onboard banking-as-a-service and fintech partners onto our payment rails: API integration, status updates, limits and service levels.
• Align KYC, screening and compliance responsibilities with each partner and feed them into contracts.
• Run joint testing and partner launches.

Correspondent banks and RMA

• Grow and maintain our correspondent network: onboarding, due diligence and RMA exchange, test and live.
• Keep the RMA register current and run the annual review.

Compliance coordination

• Support the Head of Compliance on Swift's annual security attestation (CSP), the DORA third-party register, AML procedures and regulator notifications.
• Keep evidence and documentation audit-ready.

Operations

• Lead hypercare after each launch and hand over runbooks and support routines to operations.
• Own the yearly Swift calendar: security attestation, the November standards release and certificate renewals.

What you bring

• 5+ years in payments product or implementation roles at a bank, payment institution, EMI or payments vendor.
• Hands-on delivery of at least one Swift connectivity project (Alliance Cloud, Alliance Access, Lite2 or a service bureau), from ordering to live traffic.
• Working knowledge of ISO 20022 payment and reporting messages (pacs, camt) and the end of MT/MX coexistence for CBPR+.
• Experience with correspondent banking: nostro accounts, RMA, cross-border payment flows and reconciliation.
• Familiarity with SEPA schemes and EU payment regulation (PSD2, Instant Payments Regulation, Funds Transfer Regulation, DORA).
• Proven product ownership in agile teams: backlogs, user stories, acceptance criteria, working closely with engineers on APIs and webhooks.
• Track record of managing several external vendors and partners against one timeline.
• Clear written and spoken English; confident reporting to a CEO and to regulators' standards of evidence.

Nice to have

• Experience with central-bank payment systems or direct SEPA scheme participation.
• Exposure to Swift's Customer Security Programme (CSP) attestation.
• Experience with a modern core-banking platform and its APIs.
• Familiarity with public cloud environments and API-first payment platforms.
• Banking-as-a-service or embedded-finance partnerships, where a partner's clients run on your licence.
• Lithuanian language.

What we offer and how to apply

• A visible, high-impact role with a direct line to the CEO and real decision rights.
• Ownership of payment channels and partner launches that drive the company's growth.
• Competitive salary and benefits (open question: salary band to publish).
• To apply, send your CV and a short note describing a Swift or payments integration you led, what went wrong and how you fixed it. Open question: application email address and closing date.