Senior Product Manager

GDS leads digital transformation in government, collaborating with teams from other departments to help them build better public services. Alongside those departmental teams, we’re transforming government together. Find out more at the GDS Blog.

The Team

GOV.UK Verify is the new way to prove who you are when using digital government services.

It gives safer, simpler and faster access to government services like filing your tax or checking the information on your driving licence, using a federation of identity providers – such as Post Office, Barclays and Experian – to verify digital identities to government standards.

GOV.UK Verify relies on services provided to users by third party identity providers. This role is responsible for the overall successful ongoing quality of multiple external third party product teams that supply identity provider services to the GOV.UK Verify, within the contractual guidelines.

You are responsible for leading the programme’s engagement with these identity provider product teams, and managing and coordinating the activities of the Identity Provider product team in the GOV.UK Verify programme, reporting progress and roadmaps to the programme senior management team.

You will be working closely with subject matter experts within the programme to bring to bear their expertise in reviewing Identity Provider products and providing feedback and guidance where appropriate under the contracts held with them.

You can find out more and follow our progress on the Verify blog – https://identityassurance.blog.gov.uk.

 

The Role

As Senior Product Manager you’ll be working with agile multidisciplinary teams to create, support and continuously improve products that meet user needs. You will take products through discovery, alpha, beta and live phases of development with the goal of making government services simpler, easier and faster to use.

This is a fantastic opportunity to demonstrate and develop your product ownership skills and experience. You’ll devise and iterate product backlogs and roadmaps, be a champion for user needs, make data-driven decisions, and communicate plans and progress through various channels including blogs, demos and conferences. You will work with other delivery partners within the government, and in the wider private and public sectors to transform public services.

Product managers at GDS lead work on exciting products in support of services that are relevant to every individual and business in the UK. It is an opportunity to work with committed and talented developers, designers, analysts and content teams who share a vision for making better government through smarter use of technology.

 

Skills and Experience:

We’re looking for someone who has impressive product management skills at a senior level. You’ll be an individual with strong interpersonal skills, who likes working in a delivery focused, agile environment with multi-disciplinary teams.

You will be someone who takes pride in representing users and enjoys the challenge of promoting the products they are working on.

It’s essential that you have experience in:

  • Product management with a track-record for shipping and evolving great digital products by working with multidisciplinary teams in an agile delivery setting
  • Comfortable managing suppliers and coordinating activity across a number of stakeholder organisations toward common objectives
  • Experience of creating, maintaining and prioritising product backlogs and roadmaps to direct the work of delivery teams, especially with a view to driving adoption or uptake of the product
  • Have a thorough understanding of a variety of disciplines involved in digital delivery, including engineering, service design, performance analysis and user research
  • Experience of engaging with users, commissioning research and turning user insight into product improvements
  • Familiarity with setting, monitoring and reporting measurable product performance targets
  • Have strong verbal, written and visual communication skills that you are able to tailor to the needs of the audience

It’s desirable that you have:

  • An understanding of new and emerging digital technologies and the opportunities they provide to improve the delivery of public services in the UK
  • Been in a role with a focus on operational maturity and ensuring a consistent approach to user and technical operational support
  • Experience of recruitment, line management and coaching staff.