Senior Product Manager

Location: London HQ (Oval) Hybrid (3 days in office)

Type: Full-time

Salary: £85K-£105K + compelling package (incl. options)

Our vision is that every child deserves a better start toward the best possible future. The right educator in the right classroom at the right time can change a child's chances and, at scale, a nation's trajectory. At Zen Educate, we are changing that through technology: helping schools save millions in tight times, helping educators find work that rewards their skills and fits their lives, and building a better educated society that invests its best in every child.

The software, tools, systems, processes, and people are how we make it happen. We have already helped schools save over £30 million so far. Now we are scaling fast in the UK and US, and the next chapter is about building the machine that keeps delivering that outcome at scale.

We are looking for a Senior Product Manager who is outcome obsessed, data savvy and happy being in the messy middle where product, people and process meet. This isn’t a people management role, although it will require a great deal of leadership. It’s an individual contributor role for a savvy Product Operator who still loves building: defining problems, finding leverage and turning ambiguity into momentum.

At Zen, "product" doesn’t stop at the software. The software is one part of a much bigger system that connects schools, teachers, data and processes. Sometimes the right answer is a feature. Sometimes it’s an operational tweak, a better metric or a mindset shift that changes how people work. You’ll care more about the outcome than about what shape the solution takes.

What you’ll be doing:

• Frame real problems and find the shortest path to proving or disproving them
• Combine qualitative insight with quantitative data to guide priorities
• Work closely with design, engineering and ops to ship, learn and repeat
• Define success metrics that link to business outcomes
• Keep improving how we do product at Zen through better tools, habits and feedback loops

You’ll be in the thick of it: shaping, testing, talking to users, untangling blockers and helping the team focus on what moves the needle.

The kind of PM we’re looking for:

• Calm in the chaos and curious in the unknown
• A natural mediator who can hold multiple perspectives
• Knows when to lead and when to let others run with it
• A restless learner who collects ideas and frameworks for fun
• At your best when something is fuzzy and needs shaping into something testable
• Moves fast once it’s clear enough
• Happiest when learning, shipping and seeing tangible change

The experience we think helps:

• 5-8 years building and scaling digital products or systems with measurable impact in a marketplace business, preferably in EdTech or adjacent verticals
• Experience running discovery, experiments and delivery end to end
• Comfort working with data (spreadsheets, dashboards, SQL if needed)
• Strong collaboration with engineers, designers and operations
• Evidence of making complex systems simple and usable

What you’ll get:

• Work that directly improves children’s futures
• Competitive salary and stock options
• 25 days holiday plus bank holidays
• Health and life insurance
• Cycle to Work and Electric Vehicle schemes
• Coaching and development support
• A culture that values clarity, pace and sustainability alongside human kindness and understanding

How we hire:

• Intro chat - a real conversation, not a quiz
• Product deep dive - how you think, what you’ve built, what you’ve learned
• Optional problem solving session - if useful
• Meet the team - the people you’ll actually work with

We expect you to share what’s great, what’s still messy and where you’ll have an impact. If you’re excited by the idea of building the machine that gets the right educator into the right classroom at the right time, let’s talk.

Diversity & inclusion:

At Zen, we strive to build a culture of equity and inclusion, where everyone is respected, valued and appreciated for their unique traits, experiences and perspectives. We are committed to creating a safe, inclusive and equitable environment where our team can thrive, regardless of age, ethnicity, race, gender identity, sexual orientation, socio-economic status, disability, religion or beliefs. We value our differences and believe that practices of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion help us create a fairer, more compassionate environment for all.

We welcome applicants with diverse backgrounds and different experiences and perspectives, just like the staff who teach through Zen and the children at the schools we work with. We believe in hiring the best people from the widest pool and creating an inclusive culture where people’s voices are heard and all our team can look forward to coming to work. We are committed to building a team that reflects the diversity of our community and promoting an equitable and inclusive environment for all.