Hybrid Technical Product & Project Manager — Crypto/IoT in Leeds

Location: Nexus, Leeds - hybrid (50% office, 50% remote)

Salary: £75,000 negotiable according to experience

Reports to: CTO (Acting CTO & CEO initially)

Contract: Initially fixed term contract due to maternity cover, possible transition to permanent (+benefits) afterwards.

About Cavero Quantum: Cavero Quantum is a University of Leeds spin‑out on a mission to secure the future of the Internet of Things. As we transition from R&D to commercial deployment of our Post‑Quantum Cryptography (PQC) and Authentication solutions, we need a technical product leader to bridge the gap between our world‑class cryptographic research and real‑world customer value.

The Role:

• Own the product roadmap and project delivery execution.
• Inform the product strategy, own decisions on what and how we build and ensure it ships on time and in spec.
• No BA layer, no separate scrum master, you're accountable end‑to‑end.

Product Management (60%):

• Manage product roadmap aligned to commercial milestones.
• Translate cryptographic capabilities into customer‑facing value propositions.
• Engage directly with customers and prospects to gather feedback, understand needs, and glean insights that inform product decisions, and manage pre‑sales support.
• Manage customer relationships from a technical standpoint—managing expectations, triaging issues, coordinating when to involve specialist team members (e.g., engineering or research) and ensuring technical team time is used efficiently.
• Stakeholder management: investors, early customers, internal team.

Project Management (40%):

• Delivery planning and sprint governance (Scrumban).
• Critical path mapping and milestone planning.
• RAID management.
• Status reporting and stakeholder communication.
• Gate management for compliance milestones (ISO 27001, GDPR, NIST SP‑800).
• Resource and capacity planning.
• Prioritise backlog ruthlessly according to product roadmap.

Requirements:

Must have:

• Cybersecurity/cryptography domain exposure.
• 3+ years in senior technical product and project management roles with roadmap ownership, strategic thinking etc, not just ticket refinement.
• Experience running multiple project streams and customers efficiently.
• Well organised, excellent communication skills, able to ‘get things done’.
• Technical fluency: can read architecture diagrams, understand API contracts, discuss trade‑offs with engineers, particularly around security, cryptography and lightweight devices.
• Demonstrable project delivery experience: critical path mapping, milestone planning, stage gates, governance.
• Agile methodology experience (Scrum/Kanban/Scrumban).
• Comfortable with ambiguity: startup pace, not enterprise process.
• Must be ready to ‘hit the ground running’.
• Proficiency with project management tools (e.g. Jira, MS365 suite, GitHub Projects) & ability to adapt to new management tools.

Desirable:

• Available to work from 1st April.
• Post‑quantum cryptography knowledge and experience.
• Prior experience of governance rigour.
• Prior experience of highly innovative and rapidly evolving environments.
• Experience with compliance frameworks (ISO 27001, NIST, CIS, GDPR, PCI).
• Exposure to IoT, embedded systems, SIM, ARM and microprocessor devices.
• Commercial awareness: understands what drives Series A investment.

Mindset:

• Start‑up mindset - excel in ambiguity, wearing multiple hats.
• Passion to learn: you'll need to grasp post‑quantum cryptography and other very technical concepts quickly; pivotal to the role.
• Self‑directed when working remotely.
• Thrives in diverse, small‑team, highly accountable and collaborative environments.
• Knows the right tool for the job at hand.

Job Types: Full‑time, Permanent, Temporary, Fixed term contract, Temp to perm.

Pay: From £75,000.00 per year.

Work Location: Hybrid remote in Leeds LS2 3AA.