Head of Investment Products
Head of product for investment offerings in fintech: owns the investment product line (brokerage accounts, funds, savings), its launches, customer returns and revenue.
What a Head of Investment Products does
The Head of Investment Products owns the full lifecycle of a fintech company's investment products: from the initial idea and selection of underlying assets through launch, pricing, marketing support and retirement from the lineup. In high-risk verticals, where fintech overlaps with crypto, investment apps and payment services, this role ensures that the product is clear to the customer, meets regulatory requirements and generates sustainable revenue rather than a one-off spike in activity.
The role is needed because investment products combine three different logics: financial (returns, risk, fee structure), legal (disclosure, client qualification, licences for specific operations) and user-facing (a clear path for entering and exiting a position). The Head of Investment Products brings these logics together into one plan and makes decisions where they conflict.
The position usually reports to the CPO or the head of the fintech products division and manages a group of product managers, investment product analysts and sometimes a design researcher. Key partners include treasury, risk management, compliance, legal, marketing, support and infrastructure providers.
Responsibilities
- Shapes the investment product lineup strategy and prioritises launches on a quarterly and annual horizon
- Owns product unit economics: fees, spreads, the company's revenue mix and the profitability of each line
- Agrees product parameters with risk management and compliance: limits, client qualification, risk disclosure
- Organises product launches: requirements, timelines, testing, pilots with a limited audience
- Manages the lifecycle of existing products, including changes to terms and retirement from the lineup
- Oversees the quality of the user journey: onboarding, account opening, purchase, reporting, withdrawals
- Works with infrastructure providers and partners: brokers, custodians, asset managers, banks
- Sets tasks for the product manager and analyst team and reviews their hypotheses and decisions
- Prepares management reporting for senior leadership and the board on revenue, risks and product performance
Skills
- Understanding of capital markets: equities, bonds, funds, derivatives, structured products
- Ability to build a product financial model and assess its economics under different scenarios
- Knowledge of regulatory requirements for investment products and the ability to turn them into product constraints
- Leading cross-functional teams without direct reporting lines
- Prioritisation by revenue, risk and timing under limited resources
- Negotiating with providers and partners and evaluating contract terms
- Working with data: cohort analysis, retention and LTV assessment for investing clients
- Communicating complex financial topics to customers, support and marketing
- Product risk management: credit, market, operational and reputational risk
Tools
- Jira or equivalents for roadmap and backlog management
- Confluence or Notion for product specifications and policies
- SQL and BI systems (Metabase, Tableau, Looker) for client and product analytics
- Excel and Google Sheets for financial models
- Amplitude or Mixpanel for behavioural analytics
- CRM and systems for tracking client holdings and transactions
- Document management systems for regulator and internal committee submissions
How performance is measured
- Revenue and the share of investment products in total income
- Number of active investing clients and their retention
- Average client asset balance and deposit dynamics
- Share of products reaching target unit economics within the planned timeframe
- Number of product incidents and time to resolution
- Conversion from registration to the first investment transaction
By vertical
FinTech
In fintech, the role connects investing with payment infrastructure, wallets and banking products. The key task is to embed the investment scenario into the overall customer journey and avoid losing clients during transitions between products.
Levels
Head of / Director
At the Head level, the role is accountable for the strategy of the product line, its budget and overall results, decides on launching and closing products, and defends them before the board and senior management. It leads the team and, together with risk and compliance functions, is responsible for products meeting regulatory requirements.
How to get there
People usually move into this role from product management for investment or brokerage products, financial product analytics, fund management or structuring at a bank. Experience launching products from scratch or significantly reworking existing ones matters more than only supporting finished products. A background in fintech product management with experience working with a regulator or an internal product committee is valuable.
To prepare, get familiar with the basics of capital markets, how brokerage accounts, funds and structured products work, and how risk disclosure and client qualification are organised. As a practical exercise, build a financial model for a hypothetical product with fees, margin calculations and loss scenarios, then check it against product constraint requirements.
Growth comes through expanding scope: from managing a single product to leading a group of products, and then the whole line. It is important to show results in money and risk terms, to negotiate effectively with risk and legal teams, and to take ownership of decisions rather than only tasks.
Next steps: Chief Product Officer (CPO), Head of Product, Head of Wealth Management Products, Director of Fintech Business Development, Managing Director, Investment Products
FAQ
How is a Head of Investment Products different from a regular product manager?
A product manager runs a specific product or feature, while the Head of Investment Products is responsible for the whole line, its strategy, economics and composition. This person decides on launching and closing products and manages the team that builds them.
Do you need a licence or a finance qualification to take this role?
A deep understanding of financial markets is usually expected, but specific licences depend on the jurisdiction and product types. Companies often look for people with experience in a regulated environment and an understanding of risk disclosure requirements.
What determines the income in this position?
Income depends on company size, the complexity of the lineup, the region and the contribution of the division to revenue. Experience with launches, level of responsibility and the state of the fintech job market at the time of the search also matter.
What are the most common risks in fintech investment products?
The main risks relate to pricing errors, inaccurate disclosure of product risks, failures in executing transactions and products that are unsuitable for the client. The role ensures these risks are identified before launch and monitored afterwards.
What matters more to an employer: investment experience or fintech product experience?
Employers usually look for a combination of both: an understanding of financial instruments and product management experience in a digital environment. Purely financial experience without skills in the user journey and data often proves insufficient.
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