Lead Product Manager

We have a rich history of welcoming people from all over the world and are proud to be recognised as the UK’s first Borough of Sanctuary, for our work in championing the rights of refugees and migrants.

Looking to build innovative digital products that users love?

The Digital Product and Development team is passionate about delivering new and improved digital products for residents, staff and businesses in Lewisham. Our team combines product managers, product designers, software developers and delivery specialists, who work together seamlessly, taking services from concept through to launch. We deliver services in a modern, agile way, with the user at the heart of delivery.

Here's what sets us apart:

• Cross-functional Collaboration: We break down silos, fostering communication and innovation.
• Agile Delivery: We iterate quickly, adapting to changing needs and user feedback.
• User-Centric Design: We create beautiful, intuitive interfaces that solve real problems.
• Data-Driven Decisions: We use data to measure success and continuously improve.
• Modern tooling: We use industry standard tooling such as Azure DevOps for lifecycle management, Figma for UX/UI designs, Dovetail for user research and testing, Figjam for process design and discovery, plus more.

Ready to join us? Read about our job opening below.

What’s the role?

• The Lead Product Manager is a pivotal role in the team with overall responsibility for Place Digital Products and Roadmap. Reporting to the Head of Digital Product & Development, the successful applicant will be responsible for creating new and improved digital products that meet the needs of our residents, businesses and staff. You own the product roadmap, vision and strategy for the products, using data to help prioritize the backlog of requirements for a multi-disciplinary software development team.
• You will lead a team of product managers, providing support, training and coaching, and coordinating a roadmap of services across your domain. You provide support and coaching to your team and the wider Product team in developing roadmaps, high quality requirements and user stories, and identifying and measuring key outcomes.
• In a typical week, you could be creating a roadmap for a new product in your domain, such as Street Environment Services, Licensing or Food Safety. You could be creating a vision for a product, understanding the measures and objectives, both qualitative and quantitative, to track the success of the product, and maintaining your teams' focus on these goals. You could be working with Senior Developers to understand the benefits of tackling a piece of technical debt. You could be coaching your team of product managers to improve their roadmap and backlog refinement skills, or running workshops with senior stakeholders to identify new Place product opportunities.

This is fixed term opportunity lasting 24 months.

What’s in it for you?

Excellent training and development opportunities, plus a range of benefits including:

• Generous holiday allowance
• Local Government Pension scheme
• Flexible working and family friendly policies
• Season ticket and bicycle loans
• A range of staff discounts including local subsidised gym memberships
• Supportive staff networks

What we’re looking for

Experience of managing multiple digital products, creating a product vision and goals and leading a development team towards these goals.

Experience of managing a team of product managers and building a training programme for product ownership.

Experience of creating a roadmap for a portfolio of digital services.

Strong knowledge of the IT industry/technology solutions to manage and support the provision of digital solutions across the Council.

Excellent understanding and experience of gathering and clarifying business requirements.

Excellent understanding and experience of managing the delivery of digital products to agreed business specifications.

Experience of managing 3rd party IT and service suppliers.

Experience of building, planning and managing project and department budgets.

Solid operational understanding and experience of working within a Local Authority commercial environment, with housing services.

Experience working with Microsoft Dynamics CRM and associate technology.

Location

The job is primarily based in Laurence House, Catford, London, SE6 4RU but we operate a hybrid approach where you will be required to work both in the office and from home on a regular basis.

Special conditions

• Certified Scrum Product Owner (CSPO) – Desirable.
• Certified Scrum Master (CSM) – Desirable.

The recruitment process is anonymous and we don’t accept CV’s.

Applicant handbook- please read the guidance in this handbook when applying. It is essential that you complete the application fully and that your supporting statement covers how you meet each of the person specification criteria listed.

For an informal discussion about this job, please contact Chris Bayley [email protected]

Please click here to view the Job Description and Person Specification

Salary

£65,922 - £68,265 per annum (PO8)

N.B: All appointments will be offered at the minimum spinal column point (SCP) for the grade of the role. The only exception to this will be when matching current salary (up to the maximum of the scale), which is subject to evidential proof.

Diversity

Lewisham Council is a Disability Confident employer. We welcome and encourage job applications of all abilities. If you require any reasonable adjustments in the application or interview, please contact the lead contact on this advert. We will make reasonable adjustments to make sure our disabled applicants and those with health conditions are supported throughout our recruitment process. We support the access to work scheme, further details are available at

The Council reserves the right to close adverts early if there is a large response.

Let’s stay connected, follow us on social media:

LinkedIn Facebook Twitter Instagram