Product Operations Manager in Milton Keynes

About Kinetic
At Kinetic we’re redefining operational excellence in higher education, conferencing, and events. As the leading provider of software solutions for student accommodation, event management, catering, and residential services, we help institutions streamline operations, elevate customer experiences, and unlock their full potential. With over 25 years of experience and trusted by more than 350 institutions worldwide, our software empowers universities and venues to run smarter, faster, and more collaboratively. From bustling campuses to dynamic corporate environments, our technology adapts to the rhythm of each organisation — helping them thrive in a fast-changing world.

But we’re more than just software. We’re a team of passionate problem-solvers, innovators, and collaborators who care deeply about our customers and each other. Our culture is built on empowerment, community, and continuous growth. We believe in giving people the tools, support, and freedom to do their best work — and have fun while doing it.

Joining Kinetic means being part of a purpose-driven business where your ideas matter, your development is supported, and your impact is real. If you’re ready to help shape the future of operational technology in education and events, we’d love to meet you.

The Role
This is a new role. We are building it because we identified specific operational gaps in how our product team works, and we need someone whose entire job is to close them.

We have six Product Owners looking after 36 products across legacy Delphi and modern cloud platforms. They know their domains. They know their customers. What they don't have is consistent processes, standardised tooling, a discovery framework, or anyone filtering the constant stream of requests that comes at them from every direction. That is where you come in.

You are the person who builds the systems that let Product Owners do their best work. You will standardise how we estimate, refine, and release. You will set up the governance materials for our Product Review Board. You will create the discovery and go-to-market frameworks that don't exist yet. And critically, you will be the first line of defence between the product team and the rest of the organisation. When five departments want something from the same PM at the same time, you are the person who triages, filters, and protects their focus.

This is not a line management role. You will not own any products. You will not make product decisions. You build the processes and frameworks that help the people who do those things operate better. Think of it as the operating system underneath the product team.

We expect you to use AI every day. Dashboards, delivery reports, governance materials, communications, data analysis: if it can be done faster and better with AI, we expect you to do it that way. We are not looking for someone who builds manual spreadsheets. We want someone who builds AI-powered processes from day one.

You will not inherit a finished operating model. You will build it.

The cross-functional exposure you get in this role is wide: stakeholder management, process design, data systems, coaching coordination, working across every product stream. For the right person, that breadth is exactly what prepares you for senior product leadership. We see this as a genuine progression path, not a dead end.

What You’ll Be Doing

• Process and Governance
  • Standardise Jira boards, backlog structure, and estimation methods across all product teams
  • Establish a consistent refinement cadence and format
  • Create a lightweight discovery framework and embed it across the team
  • Design initiative kickoff templates so large projects start with clear scope, stakeholders, and success criteria
  • Coordinate release cadence with engineering
  • Prepare investment cases, health cards, and delivery metrics for the fortnightly Product Review Board
  • Evaluate and manage the product team's tooling. Not just Jira, but analytics platforms, feedback collection tools, and roadmapping software. Make sure the team has the right tools and actually uses them consistently.
• Data and Insights
  • Set up systems to capture product usage data, feature adoption, and customer satisfaction metrics so PMs have real evidence for prioritisation decisions, not just gut feel
  • Build and maintain dashboards that track product health across all streams. Not just delivery velocity, but adoption, support ticket trends, and customer feedback patterns.
  • Create a structured system for collecting, tagging, and routing customer feedback and feature requests so nothing falls through the cracks and PMs can see patterns across their portfolio
  • Work with PMs to define what 'success' looks like for shipped features and track whether they actually delivered value after launch
  • Help PMs set up lightweight experimentation practices: hypothesis tracking, feature flag coordination with engineering, and post-launch measurement. Not a full experimentation platform on day one, but the foundations.
• Stakeholder Triage and Communication
  • Filter and prioritise incoming demand before it reaches Product Owners. You are the shield. When commercial, support, customer services, and leadership all want something at the same time, you decide what gets through and what waits.
  • Build a go-to-market playbook and coordinate launches across product lines
  • Set up delivery metrics and reporting so there is real visibility into how every stream is performing
  • Use Claude and ChatGPT to build dashboards, pull together delivery data, and draft governance materials
• Coaching and Transition
  • Build and maintain a structured peer coaching framework across the product team. We already have senior PMs who can mentor on delivery excellence and domain expertise. Your job is to make that coaching consistent and keep it running.
  • Own the transition process when externally-built products move into mainstream product ownership. Document what needs to be handed over, define the criteria for when a transition is complete, and capture what we learn so it works better next time.
  • Track and manage dependencies between classic Delphi and modern Pulse product teams
  • Build onboarding materials and processes for new Product Owners joining the team. We are actively hiring. Getting new PMs productive quickly is part of your job.

Core Experience

• 3+ years in Product Operations, Agile coaching, delivery management, or programme management in a SaaS or software product company.
• Process design. You have built ways of working from scratch: estimation methods, refinement cadences, governance frameworks. Not just followed ones that already existed.
• Stakeholder management and triage. You have filtered demand, protected delivery teams from noise, and said 'not now' with evidence. Multiple departments will compete for your team's time and attention. You are the person who decides what gets through and what doesn't. Keeping the relationship intact while doing it is essential.
• Governance experience. Review boards, investment cases, delivery reporting, health cards. You have prepared these materials, not just attended the meetings.
• Jira proficiency and experience with delivery metrics tooling.
• AI mindset. You already use AI tools daily for dashboards, communications, data analysis, and governance materials. You build AI-powered processes, not manual spreadsheets. We are an AI-first business and this is a baseline expectation.
• Data literacy. You can build dashboards, interpret product usage data, and turn messy customer feedback into clear patterns. You do not need to write SQL, but you need to be comfortable working with data and making it useful for others.
• Clear communication across product, engineering, commercial, and leadership audiences. You can explain process decisions and trade-offs to both technical and non-technical people.
• Comfortable in ambiguity. This role is new. The processes do not exist yet. That is the point. If you need a fully defined job to walk into, this is not it.

Nice to Have

• Experience in higher education, student accommodation, conferencing and events, or hospitality technology.
• Multi-product environment. We have 36 products across 4 technology stacks.
• Experience building coaching or mentoring frameworks for product teams.
• Go-to-market coordination across multiple product lines.
• Experience managing product transitions, specifically absorbing externally-built products into mainstream ownership.
• Delivery forecasting and predictability metrics.
• Experience setting up customer feedback systems or product analytics tooling.
• Familiarity with product analytics tools like Pendo, Amplitude, Mixpanel, or similar.

What Makes You Stand Out
Candidates who can show hands-on experience with tools like Claude, ChatGPT, or GitHub Copilot applied to operational and governance work will stand out. We want people who are already using AI to build dashboards, draft communications, analyse delivery data, and automate reporting. Not people who are planning to start.

How We Work

• Your scope. This is a cross-cutting role. You will work across six Product Owners covering both classic Delphi and modern Pulse platforms, with two to three more PMs joining the team this year. You do not own any products yourself. You build the processes, data systems, and frameworks that help the people who do.
• Your team. You will join a product team of around nine people, reporting to the Head of Product. You will work alongside Product Owners, engineering squads, QA, and UX.
• Decision-making. Prioritisation runs through a fortnightly Product Review Board. Decisions are binding, rationale is published, and every 'no' gets a written explanation. You will prepare the materials that make those decisions possible. Sprint commitments are protected. No mid-sprint disruptions.
• AI-first tooling. We use Claude, ChatGPT, and Copilot across the product and engineering lifecycle. You will use AI to build dashboards, draft governance materials, analyse delivery data, and automate reporting. This is how we work, not a side project.
• Where we are. We are building our operating model right now. Discovery processes, estimation standards, go-to-market practices, delivery predictability. None of these are finished. You will not walk into a finished system. You will build it. If that sounds like the kind of challenge you want, this is the right role.
• Career progression. The cross-functional exposure you get here, working across stakeholder management, process design, data and insights, and coordination across every product stream, develops the capabilities that product leadership demands at scale. We have a tiered product management framework with clear criteria and salary bands. For the right person, this is a genuine path into senior product leadership.

Benefits & Perks
At Kinetic, we believe work should come with rewards that make a real difference. Here’s just a taste of what you can expect when you join us:

• 25 days holiday (plus bank holidays) - with extra days the longer you’re with us
• Two paid wellbeing days each year, with a budget to enjoy some time out with someone important to you
• Enhanced pension contributions to support your future
• Two paid days a year to give back through volunteering, charity work, or sustainability projects with our Green Team
• Salary sacrifice schemes for electric vehicles and cycle-to-work
• 24/7 access to our Employee Assistance Programme for confidential advice and support
• A full annual health check to keep you at your best
• A flexible benefits platform - from life assurance and learning opportunities to retail discounts and cinema tickets
• A genuine people-first culture where your growth and wellbeing come first
• Performance-related bonus scheme to reward your contribution
• Regular socials - from team get-togethers to all-company celebrations, with each department owning a budget for their events
• The opportunity to attend group conferences, away days and learning forums both in the UK and abroad - network with other talent
• We’ve created a welcoming office environment, with well-stocked kitchens offering free breakfast, fresh fruit, hot and cold drinks, and a range of tuck shop goodies to keep you fuelled throughout the day.

Kinetic is an equal opportunity employer, fostering diversity and committed to creating an inclusive environment for all employees.