Lead Product Manager

Aker Systems was founded in 2017 by a team of experienced technology professionals who recognised an opportunity to provide highly secure enterprise data platforms to large organisations.  We build and operate ground-breaking, ultra-secure, high performance, cloud-based data infrastructure for the enterprise. Our proprietary technology solutions drive performance and reduce costs while helping our clients to improve the management and sharing of data across their organisations.

In 2024, Aker Systems won the Breakthrough Culture Awards highlighting growth companies putting culture first. In 2020 Aker Systems was recognised as a ‘One to Watch’ on the Sunday Times Tech Track.  The Company was also recognised at the Thames Valley Tech Awards 2020; winning the Thames Valley Tech Company of the year, the Emerging Tech Company and High Growth Tech Business categories.  We encourage people of all different backgrounds and identities to apply.  We are committed to maintaining an inclusive, and supportive place for you to do your very best work.

A UK Government Security Check (SC) clearance is required for this role.  If you don’t hold SC clearance, we will support you to apply assuming you have lived and worked in the UK for a minimum of 5 years. 

As a Lead Product Manager, you will have considerable experience outlining the product strategy, managing product backlogs and producing a product roadmap. You’ll be responsible for working with a Delivery Manager to ensure products are delivered with a high-level technical assurance and to meet the businesses requirements & acceptance criteria.

Duties & Responsibilities

• Take overall responsibility for the delivery of the client’s product, whether first release or iterative development of an existing product
• Define and delivering a product strategy & roadmap
• Meet regularly with business stakeholder and delivery teams, attending in-person as required.  Manage relationships with a wide range of public sector and Aker internal stakeholders.
• Develop a deep understanding of the client’s mission and strategic targets
• Evaluate new ideas, planning features and changes to a product
• Demonstrate new features to stakeholders and helping people understand how the technical delivery meets the businesses requirements.
• Take ownership for timelines and roadmaps that bring the team and sponsors on the journey
• Host regular Show & Tells, driving the client engagement and buy in to product delivery.
• Work with the Delivery Manager to ensure product requirements are met with a high level of technical assurance.
• Take ownership of any impediments that occur within the team, working with the Delivery Manager to ensure an appropriate solution is found, escalating where necessary
• Champion quality software and Agile and lean development methodologies such as test-driven development, continuous improvement and continuous delivery
• Assess opportunities for application and process improvement and share with team members and/or stakeholders
• Coach the wider delivery team on Product Management methodologies and best practices within the public sector context
• Navigate the UK public sector's governance and assurance landscape, including GDS assessments. You will identify and manage product risks, ensuring all work is transparent and compliant with government standards

Core Competencies

• The successful candidate will have over 7 years’ experience in the Product Management discipline
• Proven experience of leading the development of cloud-based software data products & services
• Working within technical environments with a high-level of data privacy and security considerations
• A strong technical understanding and ability to communicate with technical and design/UX teams to lead all teams through to delivering the best possible products
• Extremely knowledgeable about data-driven product's
• Ability to provide guidance and insight to business stakeholders, challenging decisions &/or requirements as appropriate
• Ability to share and motivate others towards a vision and able to support your decisions with fact
• Organised and able to work to deadlines and roadmaps
• A very strong and clear communicator, with the ability to communicate to a variety of stakeholders at different levels of seniority
• Able to take a concept, nurture it, and develop through to a tangible improvement to the product
• Experience in data processing solutions in the public cloud providers AWS & Azure along with an appreciation for automation improvements for platforms that utilise IaC
• Ability to build a strong relationship with a Delivery Manager to collaboratively deliver at a high level
• Ability to work within multi-supplier rainbow teams, with an ethos of working together as one badge-less team
• Able to show empathy for the end-users, driving the client’s requirements in a sensitive environment
• A strong ability to identify problems and devise effective, innovative solutions to challenges that arise during the product lifecycle

Aker Systems Attributes

At Aker we work as a team; we are collaborative, hardworking, open, and delivery obsessed. There is no blame culture here: try things, and take responsibility for the outcomes. You are always part of the wider Aker. We help our colleagues and take pride in successfully achieving difficult tasks. We run towards problems and help to solve them. Communicate always, do so accurately and in a timely fashion.

In return, we offer a competitive salary, 25 days holiday plus bank holidays, company paid medical insurance and life assurance, pension scheme, annual training allowance, wellbeing allowance, virtual GP, Employee Assistance plan and more.

Equal Opportunities

Aker Systems fosters a diverse environment that encourages openness in its communications and is committed to providing equal employment opportunity for all people regardless of race, religion, gender or sexual orientation, age, marital status, national origin, citizenship status, disability, veteran status or other personal characteristics. We embrace differences of opinion and diversity because they help challenge us and find new groundbreaking technical solutions.