Senior Manager, Card Portfolio Management (Payments Futurist)

ABOUT THE COMPANY

I&M Bank Limited, is a commercial bank in Kenya, the largest economy in the East African Community. It is licensed by the Central Bank of Kenya, the central bank and national banking regulator

JOB SUMMARY

Academic Qualifications:Bachelor’s degree in business, Finance, IT, Economics, or related field.Postgraduate qualification is an added advantage (MBA preferred).Work Experience:8–10+ years in card issuing, digital payments, portfolio or product management in a bank or fintech.Proven experience managing a card P&L and driving spend, revenue, and customer engagement.Strong exposure to credit card portfolio management and risk management.Experience working with international card schemes and payment processors.Demonstrated track record of leading digital transformation or payments innovation initiatives.

RESPONSIBILITIES

Portfolio Performance & P&L Management:Own end-to-end performance of issuing portfolio: debit, credit, prepaid and premium segments.Set and deliver annual acquisition, activation, usage, spend, and revenue targets.Continuously optimize pricing, interchange strategies, FX markup revenue, and product profitability models.Identify under-performing segments and lead corrective actions.Customer Lifecycle & Engagement Management:Develop curated lifecycle strategies – onboarding, activation, usage, cross-sell, dormancy, retention.Drive personalization using data/AI insights to maximize cardholder value.Lead top-spender programs, loyalty initiatives, and premium experiences to enhance engagement.Product Innovation & Future-Ready Solutions:Scan global payment trends, emerging rails, ISO 20022 opportunities, tokenization, embedded finance, CBDCs, and real-time payments.Champion the introduction of future-facing products (contactless, virtual cards, tokenized solutions, wearables, card-on-file optimization, biometric cards, cross-border innovation).Develop use cases for AI in portfolio management (risk scoring, propensity models, offers optimization).Evaluate fintech partnerships and ecosystem expansions.Risk & Compliance Management:Ensure credit risk, fraud risk, operational risk and regulatory compliance across the portfolio.Recommend policy changes for limits, exposure, velocity controls, and authorization strategies (including friendly-fraud mitigation).Lead interventions for cross-border fraud trends, merchant fraud, first-party abuse, and chargebacks.Stakeholder & Partner Management:Collaborate closely with Business, Digital, Credit, Marketing, Operations, Fraud, and CX teams.Lead business cases for new partnerships, alliances, loyalty platforms, and co-branded card opportunities.Operational Excellence & Process Digitization:Drive digital onboarding, instant issuance, Straight-Through Processing (STP) and workflow automation.Work with Technology & Ops to map and resolve customer pain points end-to-end.Improve authorization rates, chargeback turnaround, and disputes experience.

REQUIRED SKILLS

Risk management, Business strategy, Business management, Business development

REQUIRED EDUCATION

Bachelor's degree