Associate Product Manager - External Contractor (Immediate Start) in Manchester

Note: This is an External Contractor Agreement

Agreement Type: 2-3 Months (option to extend / become permanent)

Location: Remote (UAE Hours)

Whiteshield is a global policy advisory and AI economics firm known for our ability to respond to global challenges rapidly and incisively. We use the most advanced tools and technology and combine them with our team of leading international experts to engage decision-makers in tackling society’s most significant challenges. We are recognized for our rapid decision support, innovation, data science algorithms and deep policy expertise. We are specialists in “connecting the dots” between policy, business and technology.

Whiteshield X is Whiteshield’s product business, hosting our PaaS and SaaS product offering. Partnered with Google Cloud, we bring advanced solutions to governments around the world to drastically improve citizen outcomes in areas such as employment, trade, and education. We develop a host of different SaaS modules from job matching to managing scholarship programs, and from delivering financial support to growth support for SMEs. These modules support governments around the world with delivering G2C and G2B services efficiently and significantly improve policy outcomes.

Role Description

We are seeking highly capable and driven associate product managers (APMs) to join Whiteshield X and become an integral part of our core product development team. APMs are instrumental in bringing our newest modules, and thereby products, to the next level. For these roles we target recent graduates and those with 1-2 years of experience as business analysts, product interns, or in other relevant business/technology-related roles. Most important for us are candidates with extremely strong analytical skills, creativity, and communication skills – even if not yet fully well‑versed in the product domain.

APMs play a huge role in our innovation and product design and development. These are roles with a lot of responsibility and ownership to shape completely new modules and services from scratch, providing an opportunity to make a true impact – on the product, within the business, and on societies around the world. We look for entrepreneurial people that want to make their mark on the world and we empower and reward our staff accordingly. There is a lot of room for creativity and big ideas that shift the status quo. We are constantly building large new features and modules. This is not a role where you’ll be making small iterative improvements on autopilot, this is a ‘roll up your sleeves’ role where you’ll tackle huge challenges and create truly meaningful products.

You will report to a Product Manager and/or the Head of Product and will become part of one of our cross‑functional product studios, closely collaborating with developers, UI/UX designers, business analysts, data scientists, and QA. For high performers, there are significant chances to advance rapidly to the Product Manager level and beyond.

What You’ll Do

• Product Strategy: Develop a product vision, strategy, and roadmap in line with business goals.
• Product Discovery: Participate in discovery activities such as client and internal stakeholder to define and break down (policy) problems and ideate product solutions.
• (User) Research: Conduct research (competitor research, user research, market analysis, stakeholder interviews, etc.) to inform product decisions.
• Experimentation: Design and conduct experiments to verify requirements.
• Requirements Definition: Gather and define business requirements and translate them into clear specifications for engineering, design, and QA teams.
• Lifecycle Management: Own your team’s product from ideation through development and testing to launch and maintenance.
• User Experience: Work closely with UI UX design to define the customer journey and create a great user experience.
• Performance Management: Monitor product performance by building a data ecosystem around the product, using KPIs and data analytics to drive continuous improvement.
• Stakeholder Collaboration: Work closely with our policy, product, engineering, design, QA and ops colleagues as well as company leadership to make informed product decisions and achieve results.
• Client Management: Participate in and manage interactions with client counterparts on the product side, where necessary.

Requirements

Who You Are

• Entrepreneurial and ambitious, with your own perspective and ideas, and with an eagerness to contribute to the success of the studio and the organisation.
• Highly independent and self‑motivated, with strong leadership skills and a get‑things‑done attitude to deliver results.
• Passion for the public good and eagerness to make a societal impact with their work, ideally with a particular interest in economic development, workforce development, and education.
• Highly creative and eager to push the boundary on innovation and really rethink the standard within traditional (policy) areas.
• Eager to work in a fast‑paced, high‑growth environment that challenges you to excel.
• Detail‑oriented with high standards for quality.

What You’ll Need

• Some initial experience product management, preferably in a dynamic, high‑growth and highly innovative environment.
• Exceptional analytical, critical thinking, and problem‑solving skills.
• High attention to detail and top‑notch quality standards.
• A strong eye for great UI/UX and strong understanding of design best practices.
• Strong organizational and project management skills, with the ability to multitask and resilience to meet deadlines and manage stressful situations.
• Excellent communication, presentation, and interpersonal skills and experience with client/stakeholder management.
• Preferably some proficiency with relevant tooling (such as Jira, Confluence, Azure DevOps, Figma, etc).

Benefits

WHY CHOOSE US

• Our Commitment to Equal Opportunities: At Whiteshield, we are committed to providing equal opportunities in employment regardless of individual characteristics. We recognize that our employees feel appreciated when their thoughts and values are respected and considered. We’re committed to maintaining and driving an inclusive culture and workplace where all talents are nurtured and feel empowered to contribute.
• Celebrating Achievements: At Whiteshield, we seek to reward those who demonstrate exceptional individual achievements above and beyond expectations in the pursuit of continuously seeking excellence for our clients. When individuals excel, we show our appreciation and celebrate achievements by generously recognizing and supporting the career progression of those who make unique contributions to the firm.
• Empowering Our People: At Whiteshield, we recognize that our employees are the core to our success and believe that when our exceptional talent comes together, and wellbeing is a priority – innovation thrives. We are dedicated to promoting and encouraging a healthy work‑life balance and adopting a genuinely flexible working model to empower our employees to pursue a balance that suits their personal needs.