Design Manager
Rowden · Bristol, Somerset ·
- Work mode
- Hybrid
- Seniority
- C level
- Employment
- Part time
- Category
- Design
We’re building the UK's next generation engineering powerhouse, providing critical technology that strengthens national security and resilience.
We specialise in turning advances in sensing, AI, and communications into operational capability for the edge, where connectivity may be degraded or denied. Our work focuses on accelerating the deployment of technology, improving decision-making for frontline teams, and protecting people and critical assets in demanding environments.
Headquartered in Bristol, Rowden employs around 200 people and operates over 20,000 square feet of engineering and manufacturing facilities. We have a growing international footprint and are one of Europe’s fastest-growing engineering businesses.
The Role
We are looking for a Product Manager to lead the development and delivery of products from concept through to deployment. Working closely with customers, engineers and delivery teams, this role is responsible for defining product direction, setting priorities and ensuring successful delivery against business and user objectives.
You will own the product roadmap, translate user needs into actionable requirements, and make informed trade-off decisions across scope, schedule, cost and technical complexity. Success in this role comes from identifying the right problems to solve, aligning teams behind a clear direction, and delivering products that solve real operational challenges.
Reporting to the VP of Product, the Product Manager works alongside a Technical Lead who is responsible for technical implementation and engineering leadership. Together, they are accountable for delivering products that meet user needs, achieve business goals and create meaningful operational impact.
This role would suit someone with experience taking hardware-enabled products from concept to production, who is comfortable balancing user needs, technical constraints and commercial considerations in a fast-moving environment.
This role requires a minimum of 3 days per week on-site at our Bristol HQ.
Candidates must be eligible for SC clearance.
You will own the product roadmap, translate user needs into actionable requirements, and make informed trade-off decisions across scope, schedule, cost and technical complexity. Success in this role comes from identifying the right problems to solve, aligning teams behind a clear direction, and delivering products that solve real operational challenges.
Reporting to the VP of Product, the Product Manager works alongside a Technical Lead who is responsible for technical implementation and engineering leadership. Together, they are accountable for delivering products that meet user needs, achieve business goals and create meaningful operational impact.
This role would suit someone with experience taking hardware-enabled products from concept to production, who is comfortable balancing user needs, technical constraints and commercial considerations in a fast-moving environment.
This role requires a minimum of 3 days per week on-site at our Bristol HQ.
Candidates must be eligible for SC clearance.
More information about security clearance is available here:
Product Leadership & Roadmap
- Own and develop the product roadmap aligned with market need and business strategy.
- Define a clear product vision, translating customer problems into actionable requirements.
- Prioritise features and capabilities across multiple platforms and constraints.
- Communicate vision clearly to cross-functional teams, customers, and stakeholders.
Delivery & Execution
- Manage hardware product delivery across the full lifecycle; concept, design, prototyping, production.
- Own schedule, quality, cost and technical risk across product lines.
- Make trade-off decisions between performance, cost, timeline and capability in ambiguous environments.
- Drive integration and manufacturing readiness; understand supply chain constraints and logistics.
- Ensure products meet specification, reliability, cost targets and customer expectations.
Team Leadership
- Build and lead a small team (design, engineering, and operations as needed).
- Support your team through technical decisions, problem-solving and career development.
- Work cross-functionally with engineering, manufacturing, supply chain and customer teams.
- Mentor engineers and establish a culture of accountability and pragmatism.
Customer & Market Engagement
- Maintain direct relationships with customers; understand their operational needs and constraints.
- Respond quickly to market feedback and customer requests.
- Contribute to go-to-market strategy, pricing, business cases and bid development.
- Ensure customer and end-user needs are reflected in product priorities and decision-making.
Risk & Quality Management
- Identify and escalate technical, schedule and supply chain risks early.
- Manage design and delivery risks proactively; tolerate ambiguity while driving clarity.
- Ensure quality and reliability standards are met; own test and validation strategy.
- Make pragmatic decisions when data is incomplete or timelines are tight.
What success looks like
Within the first 12–18 months, you will have:
- Delivered a product or product increment on time, to specification, within cost and quality targets.
- Established clear ownership of the roadmap and demonstrated responsiveness to customer/market feedback.
- Built a capable, engaged team with clear accountability and technical capability.
- Navigated supply chain complexity and cost optimisation without compromising quality.
- Made multiple trade-off decisions that balanced competing priorities (performance vs. cost, speed vs. quality, scope vs. timeline).
- Earned trust from engineering, manufacturing, senior stakeholders and customer teams through pragmatic, honest delivery.
Essential
- Experience delivering hardware products from concept to production, with experience managing end-to-end product lifecycle.
- Track record of leading cross-functional teams through complex, multi-disciplinary delivery.
- Proven ability to prioritise, make trade-off decisions, and execute in resource-constrained or ambiguous environments.
- Strong understanding of supply chain, manufacturing, cost management and production logistics.
- Experience defining product requirements, managing roadmaps and translating customer needs into delivery.
Desirable
- Software product development or supporting software-hardware integration.
- RF, electronics or communications domain knowledge.
- Defence, aerospace or mission-critical systems background (familiar with compliance and demanding customers).
- Familiarity with agile delivery, rapid prototyping and iterative development.
Technical Capability
- You do not need to be an RF engineer or electronics expert, but you need to understand technical tradeoffs and be able to speak credibly with engineers about design decisions.
- Comfortable with ambiguity and incomplete information; able to drive decisions forward despite uncertainty.
- Pragmatic problem-solver who prioritises getting to a working solution over perfect planning.
About you
- You care about solving real customer and end-user problems and can translate those needs into product direction.
- You are comfortable making decisions, setting priorities and being accountable for outcomes.
- You can balance user needs, technical constraints and commercial considerations when making trade-offs.
- You are willing to get stuck in, support your team directly, and push delivery forward yourself.
- You communicate clearly, build trust quickly and work effectively across engineering, delivery and commercial teams.
- You thrive in ambiguous, fast-moving environments and are comfortable creating clarity where it doesn't yet exist.
We are committed to building a flexible, inclusive, and enabling company. Our aim is to create a diverse team of talented people with unique skills, experience, and backgrounds, so please apply and come as you are!
We also recognise the importance of flexible working and support this wherever we can. We typically operate a flexible, hybrid-working model, with an average 3 days in the office each week (dependent on the role). We welcome the opportunity to discuss flexibility, part-time working requirements and/or workplace adjustments with all our applicants.
Rowden is a Disability Confident Committed company, and we actively encourage people with disabilities and health conditions to apply for our roles. Please let us know your requirements early on so that we can make sure you have everything you need up front to help make the recruitment process and experience as easy as possible.
Finally, if you feel that you don’t meet all the criteria included above but have transferable skills and relevant experience, we’d still love to hear from you!