Description

The opportunity
A new financial markets infrastructure venture is being established in Oman, backed by prominent institutional investors and operating under an international common law framework. The platform is a greenfield central securities depository being built to go-live in 2027.

This is one of the two most important hires the organisation will make, alongside the Project Manager. We are hiring a Product Owner to own the product in its entirety: the platform itself, the commercial proposition wrapped around it, the offerings made to each participant type, the fee schedule, the rulebook, the participant documentation, and the operating model that governs how participants interact with the platform. The role sets the what; the Project Manager delivers the when.

The post-holder must be a deep domain expert in central securities depository, custody, and post-trade infrastructure: fluent in settlement, registry, asset servicing, corporate actions, repo, and the operational realities of how a CSD works. They will engage with the regulator, anchor issuers, custodians, primary dealers, and the build vendor and must be unquestionably authoritative on what the platform is, how it works, and why it has been designed the way it has.

What the role covers

• Owning the product vision and roadmap end-to-end; defining the commercial proposition for each participant category
• Owning the fee schedule: design, benchmarking against international comparators, and ongoing maintenance
• Translating the product vision into functional requirements the build vendor delivers against; owning the functional specification across settlement, registry, asset servicing, corporate actions, repo, primary issuance, and participant interfaces
• Approving vendor functional design documents on behalf of the Company
• Owning the rulebook: structure, content, drafting, version control, and approval cycle
• Owning participant-facing documentation: admission criteria, membership agreements, participant operating manuals, fee schedules, and service level agreements
• Owning the operating model design: how participants interact day-to-day, cut-off times, settlement windows, corporate actions calendars, and exception handling
• Acting as the Company's authoritative voice on the platform design in regulatory engagements, with issuers, custodians, and international counterparties
• Line managing the functional Business Analysts and working in tight partnership with the Project Manager

Requirements

Who we are looking for
At least 15 years in central securities depository, custody, post-trade, or capital markets infrastructure, with substantial time in a product, design, or operating-model role rather than a purely operational one. Direct, demonstrable experience as the functional and product authority on a CSD, custody platform, post-trade platform, or financial market infrastructure of comparable scale and complexity: this is non-negotiable. The post-holder must have personally led, not merely participated in, the functional design of a build of similar weight.

Deep, current expertise across settlement, custody, registry, corporate actions, asset servicing, repo, primary issuance, and post-trade transparency. Demonstrated experience drafting CSD rulebooks, participant documentation, fee schedules, and operating manuals. Track record of acting as the functional counterpart to a major build vendor and signing off vendor functional design. Fluent in English.

Experience with Islamic-finance-compatible CSD design, familiarity with CPMI-IOSCO principles, and Arabic language skills are all advantages.

What this is

The product does not exist yet. The rulebook has not been written, the fee schedule has not been set, and the functional specification has not been drafted. The person who takes this role will have done all of it. If you are unquestionably expert in CSD and post-trade design, have personally led a build of comparable weight, and want to own a product from a blank sheet, this is worth a conversation.