Product Manager - People & Culture

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A highly prestigious and world renowned university based across London, are seeking to grow their accomplished Digital & Technology team with the recruitment of a Product Manager who will lead the way on People & Culture (HR) products.

£50,961 - £68,406 p.a (salary is based on experience)

It's an exciting time to join the university as the Digital & Technology team is benefiting from a rapidly-rising awareness of, and focus on, the value of digital-led experiences, which corresponds with the level of investment in digital over the last few years.

Role purpose -

Reporting to the Senior Product Manager and working closely with the Head of Product and wider university stakeholders, including across Digital & Technology and in particular with the People & Culture team, the Product Manager position is an integral post which will help build a deep understanding of the customer and business; you will identify the customer need and the business objectives that a product or feature will fulfil, articulate what success looks like for a product and will work within a matrix managed team. You will collaborate with key business partners and their multi-disciplinary service team, to drive the product roadmap of one or more products or services.

At an exciting time for the transformation of the university's digital capabilities, the Product Manager will have responsibility for defining outcomes, ensuring effective prioritisation and being accountable for sustainable, measurable, and continuous product improvement, to deliver strategic ambitions.

The university is seeking a Product Manager with experience across the product - to create and execute product roadmaps. The role requires a collaborative team player skilled at embedding third-party products within existing systems. The ideal candidate has experience contributing to multi-disciplinary teams, driving a shift to product-led development, and leveraging user insights to define roadmaps. Strong stakeholder management skills are essential to align product outcomes with business goals and ensure effective communication across the organisation.
We are looking for a Product Manager to join the Digital & Technology team as part of the Group Management Team for HR, Finance and Estates, focusing on People & Culture products. You will bring your wealth of experience and learning to the university, helping to raise the tide of understanding and put product and the user at the core of thinking and decision-making across the university.

Key duties and responsibilities -

Product Strategy:
*Contribute to the product strategy - ensuring the product works for the customers and the business - developing the prioritised roadmap and backlog for the designated area of responsibility in partnership with university stakeholders.
*Build an understanding of the customer and their behaviour through quantitative and qualitative data; for example, by identifying, commissioning, and coordinating user research. The product manager will use UX and research outputs to take forward development opportunities or to build product backlogs.
*Ensure your product or service areas have clear objectives, outcomes, and measurable metrics.

Product Delivery:
*Solicit, write, and prioritise user stories for the designated area of responsibility.
*Bring an agile product development approach to your area of responsibility and ensure we are shipping value to end users in a timely manner.
*Develop strong relationships with suppliers and gain insight into their roadmaps to advocate for the university's user needs and understand and articulate the impact for your product or service area.
*Lead the multi-disciplinary team that are focussed on your product or service area, act as the voice of the customer in that team.
*Act as the link between the business and the technical team that are focussed on your product or service area.
*Where applicable, build/support the development of business and investment cases to secure additional or required investment.

Product Lifecycle:
*Lead product discovery phases, to ensure the university is building the right products and features for their customers. This may include undertaking solution and options analysis and contributing to product selection and procurement.
*Lead the approach for embedding a product into a service, bringing users along the journey through effective communication, training and embedding of processes.
*Involved in and, in some services, oversees the release management process across business-critical systems. Maintain awareness of product release notes and software versioning, determining value and priority of out-of-schedule upgrades.
*Where applicable, oversees, coordinates, and supports troubleshooting and escalation of product operations.

Product Mindset:
*Lead and champion a user-centred, iterative approach to service/product development.
*Effectively communicate and showcase successes from the Service area, with a focus on articulating how value has been added from a user's perspective.

Budgets:
*Initiative / product budgets as required by the Senior Product Manager and Head of Product/ Service.

Staff:
*Some matrix management of service team members; this role does not have Line Management responsibility

This is an exciting opportunity to join a modern and vibrant university where you will be supported in your decision making but be given the autonomy to champion your area of service across the People & Culture remit as part of the wider Digital & Technology team.

This is a busy and fulfilling role for someone looking to hone their Product Management experience and progress and develop their career with increase on salary and role progression as the team expands in the future.

The university provide excellent benefits including, 34 days holiday per annum with closure days over Christmas, the generous Local Government pension scheme, parental pay and leave provision which offers an equal package to staff irrespective of gender, sexual orientation or how people become parents. The policy entitles eligible salaried employees 26 weeks of full maternity or paternity pay. There is also the opportunity to study for free on certain courses offered by the university + lots more generous benefits.

If interested in applying to this role, please do so today by submitting your CV.
Interviews will take place week commencing 18th November.