OVERVIEW
The client is modernising the technology foundations that power weather and climate services used across government, science and industry.
They are looking for an experienced Product Manager to help shape and improve the internal platforms that our developers, scientists and service teams rely on every day. PLEASE NOTE: The base office is in Exeter so the client prefers candidates within a commutable distance to that location.
The successful candidate will join a Platform Technology - a part of the organisation responsible for shared, cross-cutting capabilities such as developer tools, APIs, data pipelines and infrastructure services.
The job is to make these platforms reliable, discoverable and enabling: reducing delivery friction, improving user experience, and helping downstream service teams ship faster and more safely.
RESPONSIBILITIES
- Support the development of a business case to invest in service enhancements and engagements with third party suppliers
- Own the roadmap and backlog for one or more shared technology platforms and deliver to the agreed product vision.
- Work with engineers, architects and delivery teams to deliver incremental improvements that make platforms easier to use and maintain.
- Understand internal users - from developers to operations staff - and translate their needs into clear priorities.
- Investigate the development of measurable service outcomes (adoption, usability, performance) and use data to track progress.
- Balance short-term reliability with long-term sustainability and compliance.
- Facilitate collaboration across technical and non-technical stakeholders; communicate trade-offs transparently.
- Champion product-led and user informed, iterative ways of working in a complex, legacy / brownfield environment.
Measures of Success (6 – 12 Months)
- Renewal of Cloud technology contracts and supporting services
- Clear, agreed roadmap for your platform area.
- Well defined and prioritised backlog supporting the roadmap and operational needs.
- Measurable improvement in adoption or usability for key internal users.
- Positive feedback from engineering and architecture stakeholders.
- Introduction of at least one lightweight product practice improving visibility, flow or learning
Experience & Skills
Essential Skills
- Proven experience managing developer infrastructure products and associated cloud technologies e.g. AWS, Azure, shared services.
- Successfully managed commercial services and bought in services
- Ability to apply and adapt Agile and Lean practices in the context of an engineering focused team.
- Strong understanding of user-centred product development, championing the use of user centered design even when the “users” are other engineers.
- Skilled at prioritising by outcome - e.g. using impact vs. effort or cost-of-delay approaches.
- Confident working with cross-disciplinary teams and senior technical stakeholders.
- Comfortable operating in environments with legacy systems, competing priorities and incomplete information.
- Excellent communicator, can translate complex technical issues into clear decisions and trade-offs.