Job Description
Product Owner
Location: London or Edinburgh
Salary: £38,000 - £46,000 (+ £3,300 London Weighting)
I'm currently recruiting for a Product Owner to join a globally recognised education and cultural organisation with a significant international presence.
This is an excellent opportunity to work within a major commercial function that supports millions of learners and candidates worldwide through digital products, English teaching, assessments and online learning services. The role offers the chance to take ownership of global digital systems and platforms, drive continuous improvement, support product growth across international markets and play a key part in shaping user-focused digital services within a complex, high-profile environment.
This is a senior-level role focused on managing global English systems and digital capabilities from an end-to-end life cycle perspective. The successful candidate will support the continuous improvement of digital products, keep stakeholders informed on product development, promote product uptake, represent users throughout the delivery process and use feedback to drive ongoing improvement.
The role will be centred around ensuring customer needs remain at the heart of product decisions, while supporting the effective development, delivery and optimisation of digital platforms used across a large international environment.
Key responsibilities
Product and service development
Manage the procurement, development, configuration, quality assurance, ongoing maintenance and support of both new and Legacy systems and platforms
Work to reduce duplication across the product portfolio, ensuring the most effective use of funds and resources
Own and manage the Product Backlog, ensuring it is prioritised in line with business objectives
Ensure the Product Backlog remains transparent, visible and clearly understood by stakeholders
Support the rollout of new products at global, regional and country level
Provide advice and support on any necessary product or platform modifications
Take overall responsibility for quality assurance of content delivered through the systems
Work closely with content development teams, technical teams, marketing, business development professionals and other stakeholders
Ensure platform content adheres to brand guidelines
Ensure the interface is user-friendly and designed to meet organisational requirements
Maintain platform availability and functionality in line with agreed service level requirements
Consultancy, analysis and problem-solving
Apply advanced knowledge and technical expertise to solve complex business issues relating to technical platforms
Use specialist knowledge and appropriate techniques to identify and resolve platform-related challenges
Contribute to the design and development of technical projects that support platform development
Provide specialist technical advice and support to stakeholders
Relationship and stakeholder management
Build and maintain effective relationships with internal and external partners and stakeholders
Support joined-up delivery of project and platform goals within a complex Matrix environment
Provide appropriate data to internal teams such as Proposition, Marketing and Customer Management
Develop business relationships with external consultants, technical innovators and suppliers
Support the procurement of new solutions and implementation of new technologies where appropriate
Advise business development managers on technical solutions
Ensure proposals meet business needs
Provide input into business cases on the suitability and cost of proposed solutions
Develop peer and professional networks internally and externally to enhance knowledge and expertise
Financial management
Use agreed corporate systems and processes to contribute to the planning and management of core platform budgets
Support budget planning for special initiatives or change projects
Contribute to monthly and year-end reporting on income, expenditure and risk
Use reporting insights to improve financial planning, management and performance across online learning
Leadership and management
Plan and prioritise work to ensure effective delivery across a varied range of responsibilities and deliverables
Manage deliverables across a quarterly to annual time horizon
Take on line management responsibilities where appropriate
Determine work plans and coordinate input from others to meet objectives on time and within budget
Contribute ideas to support the development of wider business plans, discipline-specific priorities and customer or platform-focused strategies
Certification and professional qualifications
Agile project management qualification preferred
ITIL certification desirable
Education
First degree or equivalent qualification/experience
Relevant role-specific knowledge and experience
Minimum requirements
Track record of successfully creating, launching and scaling digital product development programmes for B2C and B2B markets
Demonstrable experience managing products through agile processes
Experience writing and working with user stories
Desirable experience
Experience achieving business results through a globally dispersed team in a Matrix environment
Important information
Applicants must be a UK resident
No visa sponsorship is available for this role
This role is hybrid with no fully remote option
A physical presence in the office is required for the success of this role
The hybrid working pattern varies depending on office location
Salt contact: Robert Sprigens, (see below)
*Rates depend on experience and client requirements
