Product Manager in Oxford

We’re looking for a Product Manager to join a supportive, multidisciplinary team developing AI/ML systems to solve critical Defence and National Security challenges. In this role, you’ll collaborate across the whole business; from your colleagues in the product team to commercial, design, engineering, research and marketing, to capture the most relevant insights in our commercial relationships and translate them into building and extending innovative products. Mind Foundry works on some of the most complex and urgent challenges in Defence and National Security. We specialise in supporting customers across the community to make sense at the speed of relevance from the ever-increasing volumes of data collected by sensors and systems. The work is challenging, the customer needs products and applications they can trust, and the sense of achievement is therefore substantial.

This is an opportunity to build atop our products, ensure the collective capabilities of the platform are powerful and intuitive, while the value that they deliver in the form of commercial solutions is targeted and delivers customer value in our target markets.

Because of the nature of this work:

• This role can be office-based or hybrid from our Summertown, Oxford office. You will be required to travel to and work from client sites and partner locations.
• You will need to hold existing or be eligible for UK Security Vetting (SC), details of which can be found on the Gov UK website.

Key day-to-day activities:

• Manage commercial product life cycles including product definition, requirement gathering, user testing, market testing, go-to-market strategy and business justification.
• Manage and prioritise specific commercial product roadmaps, ensuring requirements are well-defined and understood by development team members.
• Contribute product pricing and positioning strategies, driven by an understanding of competitors and customers, evaluate product opportunities within our current and intended markets and work across sectors where required, quickly adapting to different market requirements when challenged.
• Testing and validating product ideas and designing solutions.
• Contribute to, and communicate, our product strategy to different parts of the company, presenting product progress to both internal and external stakeholders at regular intervals.
• Lead user workshops and interviews to gather requirements and feedback, sharing key user research findings effectively with broader teams in an engaging and easy-to-understand manner, supporting the company's mission in continuous learning.
• Contribute to product marketing by delivering clear value propositions and messaging.
• Provide effective project management for your domain, and documenting progress on your products.
• Assist the Head of Product and Head of Marketing & Sales Operations with externally facing product communications.
• Keep up to date with emerging challenges/trends in the Responsible AI field, and understand them in relation to the product strategy, value proposition, differentiation.
• Contribute to the writing of R&D bids for the relevant teams.

Core skills & experience:

• Demonstrable experience in the technology industry.
• End-to-end experience solving complex problems from ideation to post-launch through product/technology development.
• Familiarity with data-driven decision making and AI/machine learning.
• Experience leading and working in interdisciplinary teams (e.g. designers, software engineers, commercial leads).
• Strong prioritisation and organisation skills.
• You will be enthusiastic and be keen to share your knowledge and passion with others.
• You will be willing to share your experience and your skillset and upskill other members of the team in your best skills, and you will search for ways to improve your approaches to learn and move forward quickly.

Nice to Have:

• Experience in a Product role in the Defence and National Security sector.
• While we think the above experience is important, we’re keen to hear from people that believe they have valuable skills, ideas, or perspectives that will make an impact in this role. If our team and mission resonate with you, but you do not necessarily meet all our requirements, we still encourage you to apply.

Why Mind Foundry?

Mind Foundry is a sovereign UK artificial intelligence company delivering assured, dependable and operationally ready machine learning capabilities for the Defence & National Security community. Founded in 2015 as a spin-out from the University of Oxford Machine Learning Research Group, the company was established to bridge the gap between academic research and real-world applications in mission-critical, high-stakes operational environments. Today, Mind Foundry comprises a multidisciplinary team of specialists who combine deep technical, commercial, domain and regulatory expertise to solve complex challenges.

As a close-knit team, we maintain delivering on this ambition requires more than advanced technology. It demands partnership, creativity and calculated risk-taking, anchored by pragmatism, perseverance and technical excellence. Mind Foundry has deep expertise in complex signal processing encompassing radar, sonar and RF as well as advanced information fusion. Our solutions are designed for deployment in challenging operational contexts, including edge environments and contested, remote and bandwidth constrained environments. As a software company; we don’t manufacture or sell hardware, nor do we sell an end-to-end platform. We deliver the intelligence layer, that sits between sensor and operator, turning sensor data into insights that provide operational advantage.

We work in close partnership with our customers and partners to ensure that we align carefully with strategic objectives, the wider operational context and the realities of the deployment environment. We are particularly well-suited to contexts where operational requirements are complex, nuanced, and rapidly evolving.

What do we offer?

We believe in investing in our people by encouraging career and personal development that aligns with your goals and ambitions. We make sure all staff have the tools, time and support they need to shape their own professional development. We want to help you excel at what you do and support your growth within the company.

You’ll enjoy a competitive compensation package and great benefits such as:

• 25 days of annual leave plus Bank Holidays
• Salary Sacrifice Pension scheme with a 5% employer contribution (minimum 5% employee contribution)
• Private Healthcare (including dental and optical cover)
• Group Life Cover at x3 your annual salary
• Enhanced Paid Parental and Sickness Leave
• Workplace Nursery Scheme
• Volunteering days
• Pet friendly office
• Professional and personal development

For more information, please visit our website www.mindfoundry.ai or email recruitment@mindfoundry.ai

Interview Process:

• Initial discussion with the People team
• 30 minute interview with the Head of Product
• 1 hour interview, including a 10 minute presentation
• In-person meet the team at our Summertown, Oxford office