Job details

The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) is responsible for welfare, pensions, and child maintenance policy. As the UK’s biggest public service department, it administers the State Pension and a range of working age, disability and ill health benefits to around 20 million claimants and customers. As such, we operate on a scale that is almost unmatched anywhere in Europe and most people in Britain come into contact with us at some point in their lives.

Working with DWP, you will be helping us to drive our priorities to:

• Run an effective welfare system that enables people to achieve financial independence by providing assistance and guidance into employment
• Increase saving for, and security in later life
• Create a fair and affordable welfare system which improves the life chances of children
• Deliver outstanding services to our customers and claimants
• Deliver efficiently: transform the way we deliver our services to reduce costs and increase productivity

Description:

As a Product Manager, you will manage the development of a product. You will be responsible for strategic and tactical product decisions, using your knowledge of user needs and business goals to frame problems and set priorities for the delivery team. You will also be actively involved in developing the product strategy and managing the product roadmap.

As a Product Manager you will also have experience of product management techniques and may work as part of a larger product team, managing Associate Product Managers to develop components or features forming part of the product. You can expect to work independently or as part of a more complex project with a more senior Product Manager.

Responsibilities

• Create and own the vision for the product, working with stakeholders to ensure strategic fit and engaging the development team to maintain alignment and buy in.
• Develop the product strategy and manage the product roadmap as well as prioritising the product backlog through a range of techniques to maximise value and return on investment.
• Identify and communicate user needs to your team ensuring that backlog items (user stories) are understood by all
• You will be accountable for defining product goals and metrics, ensuring that performance against expected and agreed outcomes is in place through the creation of Performance Framework(s)
• Manage, influence and negotiate stakeholder relationships and communicate progress and achievements, championing the product within the department.
• Ensure the product is developed to an appropriate level of quality taking into consideration expected lifetime, investment and timeframes.
• Support the professional development of associate Product Managers and product peers in your area through coaching and feedback where relevant
• Ensure the team is working towards the appropriate service standards as defined by Central Data and Digital Office (CDDO) and the internal assurance team
• Be an active member of the Product Management Community, attending community sessions and supporting any associated community based activity

Skills/Knowledge

Essential

• Understands tools, terms and concepts used to deliver a product and how they can be adapted, and applied to different phases of delivery.
• Initiates and monitors actions to investigate patterns and trends to resolve problems, including consulting specialists where required. Determines the appropriate remedy and assists with implementation of it as well as preventative measures. Initiates actions, monitors services and identifies trends to resolve problems. Able to troubleshoot and identify problems across different technology capabilities. Owns an issue until a new owner has been found or the problem has been mitigated or resolved.
• Influences stakeholders and manages relationships effectively. Builds long term strategic relationships. Facilitates and delivers the business outcomes.
• Has had experience in applying Agile principles in practice. Able to provide a clear, open and transparent framework in which teams can deliver. Has an awareness of Agile tools and is starting to use them intelligently. Able to visualise and make visible the work of the team. Can adapt and reflect, is resilient and has the ability to see outside of the process.
• Undertakes data profiling and source system analysis and can present clear insights to colleagues to support the end use of the data. Able to apply the approach to real problems and consider all relevant information. Applies appropriate rigour to ensure a full solution is designed and achieves the business outcome.
• Able to use quantitative and qualitative data about users to turn user focus into outcomes. Delivers analysis and information that addresses stakeholder needs and provides recommendations. Collaborates with user researchers and other user-focussed professions. Guides others on approaches to understand user stories. Identifies and engages with users / stakeholders to collate user needs evidence, and understands and defines research which fits user needs.
• Recognises when to move from one stage of a product lifecycle to another. Ensures the team is working towards the appropriate service standards for the relevant phase. Able to manage the delivery products or services at different phases.
• You are expected to have worked across department or functional boundaries in order to effectively communicate vision and gain stakeholder buy in;
• Have worked with users to articulate their needs and communicated these to others
• Have made effective decisions based on incomplete information using a range of techniques
• Have prioritised backlogs based on user needs, business values and expected return on investment.

Desirable

• To have created and communicated a product roadmap, receiving and acting upon challenge from stakeholders.
• To have successfully delivered one or more components/features meeting a number of successful outcomes.

To have worked in a multifunctional team, developing products using iterative techniques.

If this role sounds like something that you would be interested in, please click the link to apply or get in touch with hannah.kenna@publicsectorresourcing.co.uk

Disability confident

As a member of the disability confident scheme, DWP guarantees to interview all candidates who have a disability and who meet all the essential criteria for the vacancy. In cases where we have a high volume of candidates who have a disability who meet all the essential criteria, we will interview the best candidates from within that group.

If you qualify for the above, please notify us on PSRapplications@publicsectorresourcing.co.uk.

We will be in touch to discuss your suitability and arrange your Guaranteed Interview.

Should you require reasonable adjustments at any point during the recruitment process or if there is a more accessible way for us to communicate, please do let me know.

In applying for this role, you acknowledge the following, this role falls in scope of the Off Payroll Working in the Public Sector legislation. Any rates of payment quoted will reflect the gross rate per day for the assignment and will be subject to appropriate taxes and statutory costs. As such the payment to the intermediary and your income resulting from this contract will be different.

Please be aware that this role can only be worked within the UK and not Overseas.