Product Line Manager

Wallee Group is a leader in advanced payment solutions, dedicated to providing robust, scalable, and secure systems across multiple domains. We enhance customer experiences through innovative payment and finance technology that empowers businesses to grow efficiently. With operations spanning several countries, we thrive on collaboration and agility, utilizing the Scrum framework to drive our international teams. At Wallee, we stay at the forefront of market trends, continuously innovating to deliver premier services to our global customers.

The Product Line Manager owns the full lifecycle of a product line - from introduction through to controlled end-of-life. The role combines strategic portfolio and roadmap management with subject matter expertise in specific verticals, bringing market, product, and supplier perspectives into one consistent strategy.

In Wallee's payment technology context, this specifically includes managing hardware/firmware generations (e.g., terminal models, certification versions like the EMV L2 kernel) and forward-looking planning for successor products.

• Drive Full Lifecycle & Strategy: Own the product journey from concept to decommissioning—defining launch criteria, target segments, success metrics, and forward-looking successor products before hardware/firmware generation changes.

• Optimize the Portfolio: Maintain a structured view of all variants (terminal types, SoftPOS vs. hardware POS) using frameworks like the BCG matrix to prioritize investment and avoid overlap/cannibalization.

• Build Capacity-Synced Roadmaps: Translate strategic goals and vertical needs into prioritized, time-boxed feature roadmaps (e.g., quarterly or PI planning in SAFe), balancing "run the business" compliance updates against "grow the business" initiatives.

• Champion Vertical Expertise & Research: Act as the "translator" between vertical requirements (e.g., retail, hospitality, events) and engineering's technical language while running ongoing trend scanning (PCI/EMV updates), competitor analysis, and customer feedback synthesis.

• Lead Go-to-Market & Sales Enablement: Define launch plans (positioning, pricing, training, documentation), coordinate alignment across Sales, Marketing, and Support, and assist Sales with technical expertise on complex, regulated deals.

• Manage Suppliers & Ecosystems: Onboard and manage external partners (terminal manufacturers, component suppliers, certification labs), overseeing SLAs, operational forecasting, defect escalations, contract negotiations, and risk mitigation (such as dual-sourcing).

• Strategic Portfolio Health: A clear, non-overlapping product line where investments are prioritized effectively and End-of-Sale (EOS) / End-of-Life (EOL) migration paths are seamlessly executed.

• Uncompromising Compliance: Continuous alignment with certification and regulatory standards (PCI, EMV, ep2) across the entire portfolio, eliminating compliance risk.

• Reliable Supplier Alignment: High-performing partner relationships with well-managed SLAs, aligned roadmaps, and secure supply chains.

• Market-Driven Innovation: Roadmaps and GTM materials that accurately reflect vertical user journeys, market trends, and validated customer needs.

• Cross-Functional Readiness: Seamless coordination with internal teams so all departments are aligned and fully enabled from day one of product launches.

• Product Experience: Proven experience in product management, ideally with portfolio or product line ownership in fintech, payments, or hardware-enabled software.

• Domain Knowledge: Understanding or familiarity with payment certification and compliance topics (PCI, EMV, ep2) is a strong plus.

• Vertical & Market Expertise: Experience or strong interest in specific industry verticals, coupled with a track record in market research and competitor analysis.

• Strategic & Analytical Mindset: Strong problem-solving skills with a solution- and customer-oriented approach.

• Stakeholder & Supplier Management: Exceptional communication and negotiation skills, comfortable managing both internal stakeholders and external supplier relationships.

• Languages: Fluent in English and German.