Sana Ali
Sydney,Australia
Summary
Product Manager with 14+ years in banking and payments, leading large-scale digital transformations across real-time payments, PayTo, PayID, and ISO 20022 migrations. Skilled in leading payments, compliance, and AI-driven fraud detection. Pursuing a PhD on Transformer-based LegalBERT for regulatory compliance, merging cutting-edge AI research with real-world banking impact. Proven track record in delivering scalable, customer-centric solutions across global banks and fintechs.
Overview
14
14
years of professional experience
1
1
Certification
Work History
Product Manager/ Owner, Payments Service & Customer Experience
ING Australia
03.2024 - Current
- Own the end-to-end product roadmap and delivery for ING’s digital payment services, spanning B2C customer touchpoints and B2B merchant integrations
- Lead cross-tribe delivery squads across engineering, UX, contact centers, and assisted channels.
- Delivered regulatory projects PayTo, product enhancement Confirmation of Payee and enhance customer-centric solutions while minimizing operational risk, regulatory reporting and support calls.
- Driving NPP Release 10 initiative, ISO 20022, SWIFT formats and account to account schemas such as DE, NPP, BPAY and real-time payments.
- Worked with different tribes, and operations at tribe level to develop and propose on business case development for real time payment, automating and streamlining the process.
- Oversee product governance, stakeholder alignment, vendor management, payment orchestrator and incident management across the payments ecosystem.
- Lead cross-functional teams of marketing, contact centers, engineers, and analysts in payments.
- Drive product exploration, backlog prioritization, and data-driven decision-making to improve user experience.
- Achievements
- Launched PayTo payments, enabling real-time account-to-account transactions that improved customer experience, reduced payment failures, and supported merchant adoption of next-gen digital payments.
- Delivered and integrated the Confirmation of Payee (CoP) API across ING’s payment ecosystem, enabling real-time account name verification and reducing misdirected payments.
- Delivered complex projects on time, enhancing regulatory compliance and customer-centric outcomes.
- Championed data-driven enhancements that significantly improved product usability and adoption.
Senior Business Analyst
Westpac Bank
09.2023 - 03.2024
- Led automation of end-of-day ledger reconciliation for cash and coin handling across branch networks.
- Partnered with stakeholders across finance, operations, and IT to ensure alignment of solution design.
- Oversaw integration of automation tools into legacy platforms to improve efficiency.
- Achievements
- Reduced manual reconciliation effort and error rates, improving compliance and transparency.
- Delivered scalable automation tools that enhance cross-departmental collaboration.
- Increased accuracy and speed of reconciliation processes, enabling operational efficiency gains.
Product Manager/Owner
10x Banking
01.2023 - 05.2023
- Defined product vision and strategy for large-scale B2C and B2B core banking implementations across South Africa and Australia managing multi-region squads.
- Owned product development lifecycle, agile ceremonies, from requirements gathering to delivery of APIs and MVPs.
- Managed customer communication and product enhancement notifications for payment products (PayTo, PayID).
- Drive and SME for South African schemas and Australian Schemas including PayID, DE, NPP, BPAY and real time payments.
- Collaborated across multiple geographies and business domains to ensure successful delivery.
- Worked on API integration for payments scheme across Australian payments
- Lead cross-functional teams of marketing, client solutions, engineers, and analysts in payments.
- Achievements
- Harnessed AI-driven customer insights to design and deploy intelligent features — including predictive dunning, automated recurring notifications, and advanced deduction alerts — generating AU$500k in annual recurring revenue and creating scalable cross-market growth opportunities
- Successfully developed and deployed a Fees and Rewards feature that enhanced client engagement and loyalty, resulting in an increase of AU$500k in annual revenue.
- Delivered APIs that reduced incidents during platform launches, strengthening stability.
- Drove annual recurring revenue uplift through scalable client solutions.
- Designed MVPs that reduced payment defaults and improved customer engagement.
- Coordinated multi-time zone go-live programs, ensuring smooth product rollouts.
Technical Business Analyst
BPay
07.2021 - 12.2021
- Supported ISO 20022 migration and worked with clients to prepare for New Payments Platform (NPP) compliance.
- Evaluated compliance needs and supported solution design across BPAY’s payments stack.
- Achievements
- Strengthened client readiness for NPP adoption, reducing risk during migration.
- Developed compliance frameworks that guided successful modernization efforts.
Product Manager
Westpac Bank
06.2016 - 07.2021
- Oversaw product delivery for payment transformation initiatives across FX, AML/CTF, and SWIFT compliance.
- Delivered MVP for internal B2B payment platform; increased efficiency and transparency in transaction monitoring.
- Managed multi-million-dollar budget, third-party vendors, and stakeholder communications.
- Initiated agile delivery model and Jira-based reporting across delivery squads.
- Successfully managed cross-functional teams by utilizing comprehensive understanding of technical architecture.
- Documented business processes, workflow diagrams, end-to-end functional documents, and technical solution procedures to align with business requirements and timelines.
- Worked closely with software development and testing team members to design and develop robust solutions to meet requirements of projects, risk assessments, and scalability for anti-Money Laundering and potential policy breach, mitigate risks projects.
- Provide suggestions in solution designing and planning; develop and manage implementation plan and coordinated delivery of project.
- Managed the implementation of regulatory compliance standards for product development and delivery.
Technology Analyst
NAB (through Infosys)
03.2012 - 07.2016
- Engineered API solutions for global banking clients.
- Built strong foundations in software delivery and stakeholder management.
- Drove technical analysis, development, and testing of software applications.
- Applied strong Problem-Solving abilities in managing the entire product life cycle from conception to delivery.
Education
Master of Data Science - AI and Machine learning
Bachelor of Engineering and Technology - undefined
Skills
- KPI tracking
- Project planning
- Product strategy
- Product lifecycle management
- Product roadmaps
- Data-driven decision making
- Product vision and strategy
- User story creation
- Product development
- Stakeholder communications
- Product backlog management
- Prioritization and execution
- Roadmap development
- Jira, atlassian, rally
- A/B testing
- Business case development
- Feature prioritization
- Business case development
- Negotiation skills
Business development
Product vision definition
Cross functional leadership
Product Strategy
Certification
Certified Scrum Product Owner (CSPO)
Timeline
Product Manager/ Owner, Payments Service & Customer Experience - ING Australia
03.2024 - Current
Senior Business Analyst - Westpac Bank
09.2023 - 03.2024
Product Manager/Owner - 10x Banking
01.2023 - 05.2023
Technical Business Analyst - BPay
07.2021 - 12.2021
Product Manager - Westpac Bank
06.2016 - 07.2021
Technology Analyst - NAB (through Infosys)
03.2012 - 07.2016
Visvesvaraya Technology University - Bachelor of Engineering and Technology,
University of Sydney - Master of Data Science, AI and Machine learning