Lead Product Manager (Platform T&S & One Login) - GDS - G6

Location

Bristol, London, Manchester

About the job

Job summary

The Government Digital Service (GDS) is the digital centre of government. We are responsible for setting, leading and delivering the vision for a modern digital government.

Our priorities are to drive a modern digital government, by:

1. joining up public sector services
2. harnessing the power of AI for the public good
3. strengthening and extending our digital and data public infrastructure
4. elevating leadership and investing in talent
5. funding for outcomes and procuring for growth and innovation
6. committing to transparency and driving accountability

We are home to the Incubator for Artificial Intelligence (I.AI), the world-leading GOV.UK and at the forefront of coordinating the UK’s geospatial strategy and activity. We lead the Government Digital and Data function and champion the work of digital teams across government.

We’re part of the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology (DSIT) and employ more than 1,000 people all over the UK, with hubs in Manchester, London and Bristol.

The Government Digital Service is where talent translates into impact. From your first day, you’ll be working with some of the world’s most highly-skilled digital professionals, all contributing their knowledge to make change on a national scale.

Join us for rewarding work that makes a difference across the UK. You'll solve some of the nation’s highest-priority digital challenges, helping millions of people access services they need

Job description

We are hiring Platform Product Leads across two Directorates:

• GDS’s central Technology & Security team: enabling developers across GDS
• One Login’s platform teams: enabling teams within a flagship programme

Products you’ll be managing will span Infrastructure and Data, including:

1. cloud Platform, CI/CD, Observability, FinOps, Governance and Access Management
2. data analytics, event streaming, shared signals, audit, data quality and back-ups

As a Lead Product Manager you’ll:

• be responsible for a product portfolio and will oversee multiple Platform Product Managers and their teams
• reporting to a Head of Product or a Deputy Director, you will guide prioritisation across products and ensure alignment with the organisation’s goals and strategy 
• own and develop a product vision, strategy and roadmap for your Platform products and product teams
• own your teams’ “front door”, shaping incoming requests from stakeholders, and ensuring effective prioritisation decisions
• lead your teams to set clear, measurable, outcome-oriented goals (OKRs), balancing user-facing benefits with reliability, security and other service level considerations
• guide your teams to identify risky assumptions and carry out continuous internal discovery (quantitative and qualitative) to de-risk product decisions efficiently and ensure that teams release value to users early and often
• champion your products with internal teams, developing trusted relationships and securing adoption, to drive measurable benefits to productivity, reliability, security and costs
• help your products move through the product lifecycle (Discovery, Alpha, Beta), setting appropriate goals for user experience, reliability and security (e.g. via SLOs), managing stakeholder expectations, and maturing your products over time
• partner with Directors and Heads-of to evolve the overall platform strategy, bringing expert insights from users, thoughtful application of technology (including AI) and industry best practices in order to solve users’ problems
• coach, line manage and mentor your Product Managers, as well as others in the wider organisation
• champion our work across government and in the wider industry, providing thought leadership in both Platform product management and the best practices of your users

Learn more about what Lead Product Managers do in government.

Person specification

You'll be keen to work on internal, technical platforms and to apply your product management skills to a platform-as-product approach. Prior experience of Platform Product Management is desirable but not essential.

We’re interested in people who have experience of:

• product managing digital products in a fast-paced environment, working with multidisciplinary, agile teams, – from discovery to delivery, and continuous, data-led improvement
• developing and improving a product’s operational maturity as well as ensuring a consistent approach to user and technical operational support - anticipating and mitigating problems before they arise and helping others think similarly
• engaging with stakeholders, senior leaders and internal teams through a range of channels to identify a common set of needs and priorities, or to explain what you are doing and how you are doing it in clear and compelling ways.  Using these skills to develop and agree tactical and long term plans, supporting necessary decisions
• modern technologies used in delivery of cloud-based software products (especially AI) - and an ability to explain the purpose and constraints of these technologies to non-technical people
• developing and selling a product and commercial strategy to secure funding and support for the product.  Ideally you will have been involved in budget planning, forecasting and procurement processes, as well as understanding granular financial costs per sprint to delivered value
• hands-on delivery and iteration of products, working with multiple teams in an agile delivery setting – from discovery to continuous, data-led improvement in a live setting.  You should be comfortable using user insights to make strategic decisions to provide the best user experience.  Ideally, you will also have experience recruiting, coaching and line management of product managers, identifying learning and development opportunities for individuals and teams