Senior Product Manager

Location: Blended between office and home (England and Wales). Time in office negotiable

We’re looking for experienced and practising senior product manager to lead the delivery of digital services at Citizens Advice. You’ll lead multidisciplinary teams delivering a sustainable, user-led approach to the provision of advice. We use modern technologies to maximise our reach and make our services as accessible and inclusive as possible.

This is a transformational moment in Citizens Advice history and the newly formed Digital, Data & Technology department. Across this area we’re developing the industry-leading tools and approaches that will power the next generation of advice and advocacy.

Our immediate primary objectives are:

• Sector leader in Digital, Data, and Cyber Security - develop the industry-leading tools and approaches to securely power the next generation of advice and advocacy, maintain our unique advantages, and help reach marginalised clients.
• Efficient and sustainable technology - review, optimise, and simplify our platforms and processes to support national teams, advisers and clients with sustainable core capabilities.
• Increased return on investment - align Digital teams, funding, and objectives to service outcomes and client impact.
• Reduce local Citizens Advice cost and risk - broaden the tech capabilities offered and supported by national Citizens Advice that drive advantage from our scale.

You’ll be working on products that help 40 million people every year, and your work here will make a huge difference to their lives. You’ll be setting the goals, strategy and priorities for a cross-functional product portfolio, and defining the way millions of people get help from us on a daily basis.

We’re an equal opportunity employer and prize diversity as a strength. Everyone is welcome at Citizens Advice. We offer flexible working, and are open to part-time and job sharing too. In fact, several of our leadership team members work four days a week.

Citizens Advice is needed more than ever as demand for advice rises on the back of a cost of living crisis, itself coming on the back of repeated crises that have left households across Britain with little resilience. Meanwhile, our service faces the challenge of having shifted to giving support remotely, making it all the more important that our service is underpinned by best-in-class technology.

What you’ll do every day as a Senior Product Manager.

You will be responsible for leading a multi-disciplinary squad to continuously develop and improve a complex digital outcome, serving as the voice of the user to drive success. This role involves balancing user needs with business goals, managing stakeholder relationships, securing resources, and mentoring team members to ensure a successful, high-value digital offering.
You’ll:

• Establish a compelling vision for the product, articulate it clearly to the team and stakeholders, and ensure all work aligns with this vision.
• Create and manage a detailed roadmap that prioritises initiatives based on user value, business goals, and outcome-based objectives
• Serve as the voice of the user, ensuring their needs and pain points are at the forefront of all product decisions.
• Work closely with analysts and researchers to translate qualitative and quantitative user data into actionable product requirements and features.
• Proactively identify and analyse complex challenges, both current and future, that could impact the product.
• Build and maintain strong, productive relationships with a diverse group of stakeholders, including the local member network and third party vendors and service providers, managing their expectations and ensuring alignment.
• Provide guidance, coaching, and support to junior and mid-level product managers, helping them grow their skills and careers.

Apply if

• You’re passionate about Tech for Good and want to work in an equity-driven organisation solving complex problems
• You’ve shipped high-volume digital products in a fast-paced environment
• You’ve worked with APIs, databases, microservices architecture, cloud technologies and artificial technologies (AI)
• You can handle complex stakeholder relationships. You collaborate effectively to deliver outcomes, and communicate technical concepts clearly to a non-technical audience.
• You’re comfortable with leading a multidisciplinary team that deals with ambiguity every day, and taking decisions in uncertainty
• You’ve a proven understanding of Agile methodology and the ability to apply an agile mindset to all aspects of your work,
• You’re passionate about the positive value of diversity and actively apply equity and inclusion to the work of your team
• You relentlessly pursue building the best possible client experience and use data to track how you’re doing
• You’ve have lots of energy for sharing your knowledge and have mentored and coached other product people
• You embrace the value that comes from working in the open and sharing with other organisations
• What we’re doing here at Citizens Advice excites you!

Please provide details in your cover letter to evidence the following essential criteria. Please make sure your cover letter provides evidence for the essential criteria succinctly.

• Proven ability to manage high-volume digital products in a fast-paced environment, focused on continuous delivery.
• Experience of working with APIs, databases, microservices architecture, cloud technologies and artificial technologies (AI), and managing the relationships between interdependent products and teams.

Citizens Advice offers confidential advice online, over the phone, and in person, for free. Through our national network of charities, we give people the knowledge and the confidence they need to find their way forward – whoever they are, and whatever their problem.

Do you want to work for an organisation that makes a difference, every single day, to people from all walks of life? The people that turn to Citizens Advice need help overcoming an obstacle in their lives – from debt to evictions to trouble at work – and you can be key to them getting the support they need in the quickest, easiest, and most effective way.

Equity, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI) is of strategic importance within the organisation and recognised as integral to all we do as a service.

Central to pursuing our EDI mission is building diverse and inclusive teams in which everyone has a sense of belonging. We believe inclusion is a social justice issue - a principle that underpins our all EDI work. To that end, we particularly welcome applications from people we would like to see better represented in our organisation and sector - people of colour, LGBTQ+ people and disabled people. We follow the social model of disability. We will offer an interview to disabled candidates who indicate they wish their application to be considered under our Disability Confident Interview Commitment where they meet our selection criteria in their application. Some of our roles attract a high volume of applications and in some circumstances where it is not practicable or appropriate, we may limit the number of interviews offered to disabled and non-disabled candidates. We will provide reasonable adjustments as needed.

We’re a flexible employer, so this role may suit anyone who’d prefer a flexible arrangement to help their work/life balance, many of our colleagues spend most of their time working remotely. Whilst we prefer a blended approach between a local office, if one is near you, and home we’re open to being flexible on location, occasionally a role may require you to be based in a certain location if that's the case it will be detailed in the advert or job description. This can be discussed in more detail during your interview.

The National Citizens Advice operates from offices in England and Wales, with 4 regional offices based in Cardiff, London, Birmingham and Leeds, therefore all successful applicants must be based within England or Wales.

Please be aware that Citizens Advice is not a sponsoring organisation. Therefore the successful applicant must already possess the right to work in the UK or be able to secure the right to work in the UK independently.

We have been awarded the top charity in Third sectors' employer index, where it's recognised that Citizens Advice is an organization that not only prioritizes the people we serve but also values the wellbeing of its employees.

Citizens Advice seeks to redeploy internal staff who are at risk or under notice of redundancy and will prioritise them in the recruitment process where necessary. If you have been confirmed as at risk or under notice of redundancy please ensure you indicate this in the at-risk box in your application.

Please note, in the event of a high number of applications, we reserve the right to close the application early.

This vacancy closes at 23.59 on the closing date.

For more information about the organisation, our values and benefits please see the following link - Information, values and benefits

Need help with your application, see our useful how to guides on the following page - Guidance notes for applicants