Head of Product (Infected Blood Compensation Authority) - CO - SCS1

Location

Newcastle-Upon-Tyne
Based in Benton Park View, moving to Newcastle City Centre in Summer 2026.
This is a hybrid role with the expectation of 60% office attendance.

About the job

Job summary

Digital Directorate

The Digital Directorate leads on service ownership, service design and the development of technical services for the Infected Blood Compensation Authority. The team is accountable for designing, developing and maintaining an effective service for the payment of compensation to enable IBCA to achieve our mission.

Our work encompasses all elements of design from processes and guidance to the technical architecture which underpins the digital elements of our service and the infrastructure for the authority to work from.

We work across all areas of IBCA and directly with users to design a service which has users at the heart, is legislatively compliant and technically robust.

Job Description

Reporting to the Director of Digital, the Head of Product is pivotal in the design and delivery of IBCA’s strategy and service development.

The role will be responsible for ensuring the effective design and delivery of the Infected Blood Compensation Scheme working alongside the Head of Delivery and Chief Technical Officer. The Head of Product will be leading multiple teams with product, design and technical expertise working alongside operational and data specialists to deliver this incredibly important service in a user centred way, at pace.

The Head of Product will engage with all areas across the organisation and beyond to collaboratively define our service strategy and develop the service level roadmap ensuring that value is delivered incrementally at every stage, advocating for users and ensuring quality and pace.

Job description

Key Responsibilities 

• Vision and Roadmap Development Developing and owning the service vision and working with others to translate this into a roadmap which achieves this vision, delivering iterative value underpinned by a compelling service design which considers technical and operational areas.
• Digital Product Leadership: Direct leading of the product and user centred design areas of the Digital teams, building an inclusive and high performance culture, and wider direction setting and leadership across the whole digital team.
• Keeping a Focus on Outcome Delivery: Working with Head of Delivery and Chief Technical Officer to jointly assure digital development plans to ensure these are aligned to the roadmap, achievable and clearly communicated. Ensuring that all elements of service delivery, including operational readiness and supporting guidance, are included and tracking progress to manage risks to delivery.
• Stakeholder Engagement: Working in close collaboration with teams across IBCA and wider stakeholders  to ensure shared vision and clarity of plans and build a culture of collective prioritisation.
• Embedding a Product Mindset across the organisation: Supporting the development of a product and service mindset across the whole organisation. Highlighting strategic questions and championing user centre approaches to address these. Embedding and ensuring adherence to government service standards across digital teams.

Person specification

It is important that, through your CV and supporting statement, that you provide evidence of the professional skills, breadth of experience and personal qualities for this post. 

Essential Criteria:

   You will have the following skills, knowledge, and experience:

• An exceptional and authentic leader, with the ability to build, inspire and engage their teams to deliver results even in times of ambiguity.
• Deep understanding and experience of using product management techniques in agile environments, including defining a product strategy and roadmap and shaping, communicating and delivering a product vision based on user needs to achieve outcomes.
• Experience of designing and delivering major customer-facing Government digital services, using agile methodologies.
• Excellent communicator who is highly articulate and experience in influencing at senior levels.
• Successful track record of working with user centred design and data specialists to articulate the value proposition and delivering this incrementally.