Product Manager - HMRC - G7

Location

Edinburgh, Leeds, Manchester, Worthing

About the job

Job summary

Discover a career in your hands at HMRC. Whether you're seeking purpose, growth, or a workplace that gives you a true sense of belonging, hear from some of our employees as they share their story about what it’s really like to work at HMRC.

Visit our YouTube channel to watch the full series and come and discover your potential.

At HMRC, we are already one of the most digitally advanced tax authorities in the world and have one of the largest IT infrastructures and data sources in the UK. With 50 million customers to serve, over 60 thousand colleagues to support, and £600 billion to collect to fund UK Plc, our IT operation is huge! For those who are up to the challenge, we offer unique and unparalleled opportunities to work with some of the newest technologies and make a real, lasting difference.

HMRC is made up of Customer Groups which are working independently towards one common goal. Our role sits within HMRC’s Chief Digital & Information Office (CDIO) Group that deliver in-house solutions for a broad range of technical and operational issues. Our digital delivery centres are hi-tech, state-of-the-art facilities that allow our teams to maximise their capabilities.

The successful candidate will work within CDIO Business Tax, supporting the SCS1 Business Tax leadership area. This role will provide dedicated Product Management capability to support Business Tax-wide governance discussions and activity, bringing product-focused insight, structure and consistency to governance preparation, coordination of product inputs and follow-up. Working across Business Tax product areas and with delivery, policy, operational and governance colleagues, the Product Manager will help clarify priorities, dependencies, risks, decisions and success measures. The role applies Product Management discipline to business objectives, user needs, prioritisation, evidence and outcomes, helping Business Tax respond to increasing governance demand with greater consistency and control.

Job description

A Product Manager is responsible for ensuring that a product is of high quality and delivers value. They manage their products through various phases of the product lifecycle, from discovery, development and build, to live running. They balance the goals of the organisation with the needs of end users, and the skills of the product team to scope and build the right products, and prioritise how to iterate them over time. In this role, that Product Management perspective will also support Business Tax governance activity by helping to clarify priorities, evidence, risks, dependencies and decisions across product areas. Additionally, they may be involved in recruiting and managing personnel within the product team, ensuring they hire the right individuals that are supported, and developed.

Person specification

Key Responsibilities:

• Set the product vision, strategy and scope: Define how the product or service will support the organisation or service’s goals, and set the scope for what it will initially do as an MVP and how it will continually improve as organisational priorities, user needs, evidence and dependencies change. This may include helping to clarify Business Tax priorities, outcomes, risks and decision points so governance activity is informed by clear Product Management thinking.
  
  
• Stakeholder management: Engage with stakeholders to understand their goals from the service and product, secure their buy-in for the product vision and roadmap, and maintain good working relationships, including managing negotiations over the scope and timelines for product development. This may include working with Business Tax product areas and delivery, policy, operational and governance colleagues to ensure priorities, dependencies and decisions are clearly understood.
  
  
• Collaborate with multidisciplinary product teams: Collaborate with a multidisciplinary team, which could include user researchers, service designers, business analysis, software engineers and delivery colleagues, to shape and build the product or service, and to support coherent governance preparation where appropriate.
  
  
• User Insight Integration: Work with performance analysts and user researchers to gather customer insights on products and services for iteration, prioritisation and improvement. This may include using available evidence, performance information and stakeholder feedback to support clear governance discussions.
  
  
• Develop and maintain the roadmap prioritise the order in which high level features and functionality are built and released, based on what is most valuable to build first, and communicate this through roadmapping.  Get buy-in for the roadmap from key stakeholders and maintain the roadmap, prioritising and adding enhancements to the product over time to continually improve the product or service. This may include helping to maintain a clear view of Business Tax product priorities, dependencies and upcoming governance activity.
  
  
• Develop and maintain the backlog: Identify the team tasks (“user stories”), actions and priorities to build the functionality on the roadmap and create a backlog of user stories. This may include ensuring product priorities, actions, decisions and dependencies are captured clearly and can be followed through after governance discussions.
  
  
• Build and maintain products to a high-quality standard: Collaborate with colleagues such as designers, user researchers, BAs or engineers to create products and services that are highly reliable, usable, and accessible for users with accessibility needs, in line with the government service standards. This may include supporting the quality and consistency of governance materials, so product, user, delivery and risk considerations are clear.
  
  
• Track and improve product performance: Product Managers should be able to define how the product or service will support the organisation’s goal, how that success will be measured (by defining the objectives and key results), and measure progress against these. They should be able to identify improvements and iterations based on feedback to make products and services more successful. This may include using feedback, evidence and performance information to support effective governance discussions.
  
  
• Option Evaluation: Collaborate with area leads to assess development options for products or services, including high-level financial implications, risks, dependencies and delivery considerations.
  
  
• Community Engagement: Actively participate in the product management community of practice through initiatives, sessions, talks, or activities that help other product managers.
  
  Essential Criteria
  
  
• Demonstration of strong stakeholder management and communication skills, including experience of building and maintaining positive stakeholder relationships and communicating priorities, risks, dependencies and decisions clearly to different audiences.
  
  
• Experience of leading a product team or project team to deliver its stated outcomes, including coordinating activity across teams or product areas where needed.
  
  
• Ability to define and adapt product scope based on new insights, evidence, business priorities and emerging dependencies.
  
  
• Experience of understanding problems within a service, product or process, and finding a positive solution to resolve the issue, including using evidence and stakeholder input to clarify the issue and support decision-making.
  
  
• Experience of being able to prioritise work based on what is valuable to do first and getting buy in from stakeholders for any associated project plans/ rollout plans/ roadmaps, taking account of user need, business value, risk, dependencies and relevant governance considerations.
  
  
• Ability to collaborate with other professions and skillsets, particularly in digital product contexts, including delivery, policy, operational, analytical and governance colleagues where relevant. Skills in accessibility compliance and the ability to ensure products, services or supporting materials meet necessary standards.
  
  Desirable Criteria
  
  
• Knowledge of user research, or service or interaction design, or software engineering practices, and how to apply them to design better products and support evidence-based product decisions.
  
  
• Prior experience of working on digital services, particularly where this involved supporting prioritisation, assurance or decision-making across complex product or service areas.
  
  
• A broad understanding of the wider technical landscape and the end-to-end processes and functions required to make services compliant and robust.
  
  
• Experience of managing, coaching or mentoring junior staff members or supporting peers in a Product Management environment.
  
  
• Working knowledge of ITIL v4

Further Location Information

Please ensure that you only apply for a location that you are willing and able to work from, as we will only make one offer of employment. Any additional notes included in a ‘Further Location Preferences (optional)’ field within the application form, will not be considered. Please be aware that you cannot change your location preference after submitting your application.

Leeds Locations  

Moves Adjustment Payment will be available for this role, provided the successful applicant is a current HMRC colleague in Bradford and meets the eligibility requirements outlined in the HMRC’s Moves Adjustment Payment guidance.