Senior Product Manager

Job Summary

Senior Product Manager

Birmingham, West Midlands (with hybrid working)

We are looking for a Senior Product Manager to join our team based in Birmingham. Set up under the Gambling Act 2005, the Gambling Commission is committed to safeguarding the public against any detrimental impact brought about by gambling. We do this by keeping crime out, protecting children and vulnerable people and ensuring the commercial gambling industry is run fairly and openly.

The Benefits:

1. Salary of circa £55,000
2. Civil service pension, with an employer contribution rate of 27%
3. Flexible working
4. Hybrid working, specific guidelines are to be agreed with line manager
5. 26 days’ holiday, rising to 29 days after two years’ service, with the option to buy up to five days extra annual leave

Your Role:

As a Senior Product Manager, you will own the road map for several Digital products, ensuring they continually meet business objectives and user needs. You will lead the scoping, prioritisation and delivery of one or more large scale digital projects, working with a multidisciplinary team to shape new products and iterate existing ones.

You will be part of the Senior Management Team within the Digital, Data and Technology programme and be a thought leader, providing strategic oversight to the team.

Job Description

Key Responsibilities:

You will:

1. Be responsible for the strategic management of digital products, acting as the subject matter expert and continually monitoring, evaluating, and reporting on products to stakeholders.
2. Maintain and iterate a product over time to make sure it continuously meets user needs and works effectively.
3. Demonstrate experience in meeting the needs of the users across a variety of channels, bringing insight and expertise in how user needs have changed over time to ensure they’re met.
4. Apply experience in multiple parts of the product life-cycle, recognising when it is right to move forward and when it is right to stop. Identifying the appropriate deliverables and the right people to meet them.
5. Have the credibility to engage with teams and stakeholders to set, develop, and own the product vision. Defining the minimum viable product, delivery plans, and communicate progress to the wider business via a product road map.
6. Effectively get buy-in from the organisation and stakeholders at all levels, translating complex information into a format stakeholders will effectively engage with and understand.
7. Have oversight of the business and service architecture, working collaboratively with cross functional teams to ensure processes, user journeys and services are lean and accessible.
8. Be accountable for communicating the benefits of user-centred design and product thinking to create better services.
9. Coach and lead teams in Agile, lean and user-centered practices, determining the right approach for the team to take and evaluating this through the life of a project.
10. Lead a multidisciplinary team, ensuring they are supported and understand the overall vision and outcomes they need to achieve.
11. Anticipate problems and defend against them at the right time, understanding how the problem fits into the larger picture. Articulating the problem and helping others by building problem-solving capability.
12. Actively managing risks, issues, and dependencies for your team and projects, acting on data and adapting ways of working to mitigate risks.
13. Keep abreast of industry best practice and cascade ways of working to make teams efficient.
14. Accountable for establishing and maintaining good relationships across the organisation, through influencing and trust to support the delivery of priorities.

The above does not constitute an exhaustive list of duties. The post holder may be required to perform any reasonable tasks commensurate with the level of responsibility at the request of their manager.

Person Specification

Essential

1. Experience of creating and delivering product road maps over time. Using data, metrics and previous experience to identify, understand and improve products and ways of working.
2. A proven track record in ownership of projects and digital products, communicating their value and how they meet business goals and user needs. Experience of delivering digital products at pace, in complex environments and across multiple phases.
3. Extensive experience of effectively managing user stories, backlogs and defects whilst helping the team visualise outcomes, prioritise work and agree scope.
4. Excellent management skills, communicating clear strategy and plans, giving a clear sense of direction to your team and stakeholders.
5. Ability to regularly assess project progress to remove bottlenecks and improve the flow of the end-to-end delivery process.
6. Strong product, Agile and lean experience.
7. Experience in leading multi-disciplinary teams, understanding team styles, developing and motivating individuals.
8. Experience in spotting warning signs of things going wrong and provide a decisive response to significant delivery challenges.
9. Ability to identify the main issues in complex problems, clarify understanding or stakeholder expectations, to seek best option. Ability to resolve conflict in line with our ways of working, as and when it arises.
10. Create and execute a robust governance process for your team and projects, to ensure decisions are made at the right level, transparent and traceable.
11. Excellent understanding of business analysis, user research, content and UX design principles, to provide clear and decisive direction to your team, ensuring you meet relevant standards.
12. Excellent communication and interpersonal skills, including the ability to engage and manage expectations of stakeholders at all levels.
13. Strong analytical skills, excellent attention to detail and good business judgement.
14. Experience of delivering and managing products that meet Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG).

Desirable

1. Knowledge of the Government Digital Service Standard and service assessments.
2. Experience of managing products which are heavily integrated with other products and components.

Alongside your salary of £55,000, Gambling Commission contributes £14,850 towards you being a member of the Civil Service Defined Benefit Pension scheme. Find out what benefits a Civil Service Pension provides.

1. Learning and development tailored to your role
2. An environment with flexible working options
3. A culture encouraging inclusion and diversity
4. A Civil Service pension with an average employer contribution of 27%

Selection Process Details

Our Ways of Working

1. Outcome-focused: We put consumers at the heart of everything we do. We take responsibility for an issue and moving it forward. We deliver results through working collaboratively.
2. Reaching for ways to improve: We encourage feedback and ideas. We are committed to continuous improvement and are open to trying different ways of working. We celebrate successes and take responsibility when things go wrong.
3. Respectful: We recognise every colleague’s contribution.
4. We give each other timely constructive feedback. We all encourage challenge.
5. Communicate well: We are clear and concise. We listen and check our understanding. We explain the reasons for decisions.
6. Making this a great place to work: We all help to make the Commission a great place to work. We value and support each other. We demonstrate a positive attitude.

The closing date for this role is Wednesday 17th April 2024.

PLEASE NOTE: ensure you have the right to work in the UK before applying. We are unable to provide sponsorship for visas currently.

Feedback will only be provided if you attend an interview or assessment.

Security

Successful candidates must undergo a criminal record check.

Successful candidates must meet the security requirements before they can be appointed. The level of security needed is security check. See our vetting charter.

People working with government assets must complete baseline personnel security standard checks.

Nationality Requirements

This job is broadly open to the following groups:

1. UK nationals
2. nationals of the Republic of Ireland
3. nationals of Commonwealth countries who have the right to work in the UK
4. nationals of the EU, Switzerland, Norway, Iceland or Liechtenstein and family members of those nationalities with settled or pre-settled status under the European Union Settlement Scheme (EUSS)
5. individuals with limited leave to remain or indefinite leave to remain who were eligible to apply for EUSS on or before 31 December 2020

Further information on nationality requirements.

Working for the Civil Service

Please note this Post is NOT regulated by the Civil Service Commission.

The Civil Service embraces diversity and promotes equal opportunities. As such, we run a Disability Confident Scheme (DCS) for candidates with disabilities who meet the minimum selection criteria.

Once this job has closed, the job advert will no longer be available. You may want to save a copy for your records.

Contact Point for Applicants

Job Contact:

1. Name: Kiran Matharoo
2. Email:

Recruitment Team

1. Email: