Job Description
Job description About Us: Founded in 2018, headquartered in Johannesburg, and backed by leading investors including Pantera Capital, Coinbase Ventures and Fidelity’s F-Prime Capital, VALR is a global crypto exchange offering a comprehensive suite of products—including Spot Trading, Spot Margin, Perpetual Futures, Staking, Lending, Borrowing, OTC services, VALR Invest, Crypto Bundles, and VALR Pay. Licensed by South Africa’s FSCA, with regulatory approval in Europe, VALR serves over 1.7 million registered users and 2,000 corporate and institutional clients worldwide. The exchange is dedicated to advancing a just financial future that upholds human dignity and the unity of mankind. For more information, visit valr.com. Our Vision: To establish VALR as a global institution that advances the economic life of human civilisation through a borderless, inclusive, and empowering financial ecosystem. Our Mission: To contribute towards a global financial system that upholds justice, fosters human dignity, and reflects the oneness of humanity, by serving the financial needs of individuals, communities, and institutions through innovative financial technologies. Team Overview: This role sits within the payments team and is responsible for defining and executing the strategy for VALR’s payments platform. Job requirements 5–8 years of experience in product management, ideally in fintech, payments, financial infrastructure, or digital asset platforms. Experience building or operating payments infrastructure, treasury systems, settlement networks, or financial APIs. Proven experience leading product initiatives or mentoring product managers. Strong understanding of payment systems including domestic payment rails, cross-border settlement, and financial transaction lifecycles. Experience working with API-first products used by institutional or developer customers. Familiarity with digital assets, blockchain settlement networks, or stablecoin payment infrastructure is highly advantageous. Experience managing the full product lifecycle from discovery and ideation through delivery, iteration, and scaling. Ability to define and prioritise product roadmaps across multiple related products. Strong analytical and problem-solving skills, with the ability to interpret product metrics and operational data. Experience working closely with engineering teams in agile development environments. Strong written and verbal communication skills, including experience presenting product strategies to senior leadership. Experience using product and analytics tools such as, Figma, Asana / Jira, Metabase / Amplitude and API documentation platforms In addition, the following functional competencies are required: Product Strategy & Vision: Define and execute the strategic roadmap for VALR’s payments platform, aligning product initiatives with business goals and market opportunities. Payments Platform Thinking: Understand end-to-end payment flows including funding, conversion, settlement, reconciliation, and exception handling. Design products that prioritise reliability, transparency, and operational scalability. Institutional Product Design: Design products that serve sophisticated institutional customers, including APIs, dashboards, and automation capabilities that enable businesses to integrate VALR’s payment infrastructure into their own systems. Product Leadership & Mentorship: Lead and mentor product managers within the payments team, ensuring strong product thinking, prioritisation discipline and high-quality delivery. Cross-Functional Delivery: Work closely with engineering, design, treasury, compliance, and operations teams to deliver payment capabilities that are scalable, compliant, and operationally reliable. Data-Driven Decision Making: Define and monitor key product metrics such as payment volume. Adoption, transaction success rates, and revenue impact to inform product decisions Job responsibilities Define and execute the product strategy for VALR’s payments platform. Identify opportunities to expand payment capabilities across domestic and cross-border corridors. Ensure alignment between payments product initiatives and VALR’s broader financial infrastructure strategy. Define, prioritise, and oversee the delivery of product capabilities across the payments platform including funding flows, payment orchestration, conversion, settlement, and reconciliation. Build products that enable institutions to move money through a combination of fiat payment rails and stablecoin settlement infrastructure. Ensure payment systems prioritise reliability, transparency, and operational resilience. Design products that allow institutional customers to initiate, monitor, and manage payments programmatically through APIs. Develop institutional dashboards that provide visibility into transaction status, balances, and reconciliation data. Ensure the payments platform supports both user interface interactions and programmatic API integrations. Lead and mentor two Product Managers responsible for specific payments modules. Provide guidance on discovery, roadmap planning, and product delivery. Ensure product initiatives across the payments team remain aligned with overall strategy. Work closely with Engineering to define scalable technical architectures for payment infrastructure. Collaborate with Payments Operations to ensure payment flows operate reliably in production. Partner with Treasury to optimise liquidity and conversion processes. Work with Compliance and Legal to ensure payment flows align with regulatory requirements. Conduct ongoing product discovery through customer feedback, market research, and data analysis. Identify opportunities to improve payment flows, operational efficiency, and customer experience. Continuously refine the payments platform through experimentation and iteration. Collaborate with Growth, Sales, and Marketing teams to support the launch and adoption of new payments capabilities. Help define value propositions for institutional customers and payment partners. Job benefits Innovative Work Environment Engage with the latest blockchain technologies and tools in a rapidly evolving industry. Work from anywhere with secure, stable internet connectivity, allowing you to create your ideal workspace. Career Development Benefit from an annual professional development allowance alongside scheduled company training sessions to keep you at the forefront of the crypto industry. Competitive Compensation Competitive salaries that align with industry standards. When you contribute to our success, you’ll be rewarded with discretionary bonuses, recognising your impact on VALR’s growth. Receive preferential Tier 5 trading fees on VALR, with no monthly trading volume required. Diversity and Inclusion A commitment to fostering a diverse workforce with initiatives that promote equity and belonging. Wellness Employees are encouraged to strive for coherent and wholesome lives, fulfilling their work, personal, social, physical and spiritual goals to the best of their abilities. Compliance with statutory leave required by individual countries, in addition to flexible leave options. Enjoy lunch on us when working from our Johannesburg Head Office, one of the ways we support wellbeing and connection in the workplace. Impact and Contribution At VALR, we believe in a financial system that recognises the oneness of humanity. Our mission is to break down financial barriers and promote universal values of courage, ethical integrity, and the intrinsic worth of every individual. Engage in initiatives that promote education and awareness about cryptocurrencies, ensuring that everyone has the tools and knowledge to participate in the evolving financial landscape. Dynamic Team Culture Open communication and teamwork across departments, fostering innovation and creativity. Enjoy social gatherings outside of work to strengthen team bonds and boost morale. Global Exposure Work with colleagues from around the world. Exposure to diverse perspectives and practices in the crypto space. Recognition and Rewards Regular acknowledgement of employee accomplishments, fostering a culture of appreciation and motivation. Join us for retreats that blend professional development with team bonding in inspiring locations. Tools for Success Receive a Mac laptop and a discretionary allowance to purchase all the extras needed for a productive home office—yours to keep after three years (terms and conditions apply).