About DIT DDaT
Join a team at the heart of the global economy!
We create digital services, data tools and technology for businesses to prosper around the world. Have a look at our video!
Our Digital, Data and Technology team develops and operates tools, services and platforms such as great.gov.uk that enable the UK government to provide world‑leading support to businesses in the UK and overseas.
You’ll get to constantly push boundaries in an environment free of heavy legacy, driven by curiosity, social purpose, diversity of thought, entrepreneurship and the aspiration to offer an incredible experience to all our users. Find out more on our blog, Digital Trade.
The role will be based in either London or Cardiff and may require occasional travel to other DIT Offices. Please be aware that this role can only be worked from within the UK and not overseas.
Informal hybrid working arrangements will be available as agreed with the vacancy manager and in line with the requirements of the role.
Most DIT employees will be working a hybrid pattern, spending 2-3 days a week (pro rata) in the office, on average. Commuting costs to meet this requirement and travelling to the main office location will not be covered by DIT, however commuting costs will be covered for travel to a DIT office which is not the employee’s main office location under the Department’s Travel and Expenses Policy.
Job Description
Let us tell you a little bit about the role…
The DDaT team at DIT are critical to helping the UK economy thrive in our new trading environment.
We build services that help encourage and enable exporters of all sizes, supporting £bns of global trade. We help overseas businesses set up in the UK, creating tens of thousands of new jobs. We also help manage the UK border, through the provision of the UK’s tariffs and export/import licensing.
Some of our services are public-facing. These support marketing campaigns, provide information and content, or deliver our key transactional services. DIT also thousands of staff globally, and we empower them with the data and tools they need to collaborate and do their jobs even more efficiently.
We are looking for two new Senior Product Managers to help develop better data products within DIT. Improving how we capture, manage, connect and resurface data to create richer products for our users is core to our mission. We also need to identify and address the barriers in adoption of our existing tools, so these skills can spread around DIT.
As a Senior Product Manager, you will …
Champion the delivery and continuous improvement of products. You’ll define, own and solve problems. You’ll work with researchers to understand user needs, stakeholders and service owners to understand business value, and your whole team to prototype and implement solutions that are viable and sustainable. You’ll develop a product strategy that coordinates with other teams in DDaT and around the organisation. You’ll deeply understand the goals of our business stakeholders, and work with your team to help validate the assumptions behind their ideas, and share this insight to create better outcomes and show the benefits of user-centred design.
Responsibilities
Product Managers have expert knowledge of product management techniques and are developing more strategic skills. They provide direction and empowerment to one or more high performing, multidisciplinary teams, ensuring return on investment and execution of the vision. Product Managers represent users throughout the delivery process, and advocate for well-governed Agile methodology to the rest of DIT.
What we’re looking for from you…
You will be an experienced Product Manager who can:
lead one or more multi-disciplinary agile delivery teams to deliver data services and products through discovery, alpha, beta and live states
understand the policy context and business drivers behind ideas, and develop ways to identify and test the key assumptions in potential solutions, so that we quickly discover the most appropriate way to deliver user and business value
create effective, prioritised product descriptions and delivery plans to meet user needs in a cost-effective way
deliver services that meet the GDS Service Standard and are best in class for government, giving the same level of digital experience users expect from daily interaction with the most respected web services
underpin the delivery and iteration of digital services through a communicable understanding of diverse audience groups and effective analysis and presentation of qualitative and quantitative user data
develop and manage stakeholder relationships to create buy in for the product
work with your delivery manager to ensure your team is high performing
support lead product managers and service owners
advocate for well-governed Agile delivery to the rest of DIT
You may also line manage product managers and support their professional development
Essential Skills and Experience:
You’ll have demonstrable skills and experience of:
Product Management: You know how to apply tools, terms and concepts of product management in a variety of ways to balance between needs of users, the business and technology. You can be flexible, consider new ways of working and adapt to change, using qualitative and quantitative data to inform your decisions. You know how to identify risky assumptions or critical user-facing factors in the success of your product, and can work with user researchers to mitigate these risks.
User Focus: You can collaborate with user researchers and sell or represent users internally. You can explain the difference between user needs and the desires of the user. You can champion user research to focus on all users. You know how to prioritise and define approaches to understand the user story, guiding others in doing so. You can offer recommendations on the best tools and methods to be used.
Agile Working: You can identify and compare the best processes or delivery methods to use. You know how to help the team to decide the best approach. You can help teams to manage and visualise outcomes, prioritise work and work to agreed minimum viable product (MVP), print and scope.
Desirable Skills and Experience:
As a Senior Product Manager, you will be developing more strategic product management skills, and may also have:
Confidence with analytics, data and financial information to show value for money
Strategic skills to think long-term about your product, even when not all information is available. This involves thinking about lifecycle and tech debt, but also validating some of the organisation’s key hypotheses about your product.
Understanding of the marketplace, and how to ensure your product is used and delivers benefits
Knowledge of the variety and complexity of users’ digital needs and how the product will meet those needs.
Experience of managing products and services at different phases of the lifecycle, and moving between those phases.
The ability to query and present data rapidly, using tools such as Quicksight and SQL
Business analysis and project management skills, to support the more important product skills described elsewhere
How to Apply
This vacancy is using Success Profiles, and will assess your Behaviours and Technical Skills.
We are closely monitoring the situation regarding Covid-19 and will be following central Government advice as it is issued. There is therefore a risk that recruitment to this post may be subject to change at short notice. In addition, where appropriate, you may be invited to attend a video interview.
Please continue to follow the application process as normal and ensure that you check your emails regularly as all updates from us will be sent to you this way.
Sift will take place week commencing: 30th of May
Interviews will take place week commencing: 6th of May
As part of the application process you will be asked to upload a CV and complete a 300 word personal statement outlining your experience, skills and fit for the role.
At the sift stage for this role, we assess you against the essential criteria listed above. In the event that there is a high volume of applications, a short sift will be conducted based on: Technical skills: Product Management and User Focus.
At the interview stage for this role, we assess your technical/specialist experience, outlined in the above role description, testing your ability through relevant assessments/presentations and ask you questions around behaviours and technical skills.
Technical Skills
The first interview will contain a scenario exercise which will allow you to show your product technical skills and illustrate it with examples from your career. The scenario will be shared with you the day before to allow you to reflect. No presentation is necessary. After that we will evaluate on the behaviours shown below.
Successful candidates will be invited to a second interview where their experience to date will be assessed against these technical skills:
Product ownership
Strategic ownership
User focus
Agile working
Financial ownership
Experience of working within constraints
Operational management
Problem ownership
Evaluation, performance and value for money
Working against standards
Again, no presentation is necessary. However, to help users prepare, we will send second-stage candidates a full description of the level we’re expecting against all of these skills three days in advance of the interview. The skill definition relevant to stage one are already included above in the “Essential skills” section.
Behaviours
We’ll assess you against these behaviours during the selection process:
Making Effective Decisions
Working together
Seeing the big picture
Delivering at pace
You can find out about the behaviours in the relevant document on the Success Profiles page on GOV.UK.
Appointments may be made to candidates in merit order based on location preferences.
The Department for International Trade embraces and values diversity in all forms. We welcome and pride ourselves on the positive impact diversity has on the work we do, and we promote equality of opportunity throughout the organisation. As such, we run a Disability Confident Scheme (DCS) for candidates with disabilities who meet the minimum selection criteria. Click through to apply and find out more.
Candidates who pass the bar at interview but are not the highest scoring will be held on a 12-month reserve list for future appointments. Candidates who are judged to be a near miss at interview may be offered a post at the grade below the one advertised.
SC Clearance Details
All security clearances require you to provide evidence of your UK footprint where you have been physically present in the UK.
The requirement for SC clearance is to have been present in the UK for at least 3 of the last 5 years.
Failure to meet the residency requirements will result in your security clearance application being rejected.
If you require SC clearance you will need to provide evidence of the below requirements.
Checks will be made against:
Departmental or company records (personnel files, staff reports, sick leave reports and security records).
UK criminal records covering both spent and unspent criminal records.
Your credit and financial history with a credit reference agency.
Security Services record.
Location Details
Further Information
Find out about our benefits, application process and practical details like our office locations on the things you need to know page. Remember to check out our blog, Digital Trade
Check out our blog about our new strategies: https://digitaltrade.blog.gov.uk/2022/03/24/our-new-strategy-digital-delivery/
Check out our blog about the learning and development opportunities we offer: https://digitaltrade.blog.gov.uk/2022/05/10/how-continuous-learning-for-our-product-profession-helped-improve-our-business-and-stakeholder-strategy/