Lead Product Manager

The role is within our Customer Experience Team and we need someone who will lead and drive the team to achieve the best. You will need to be passionate about people as you are about products and be visible in leading the team to define, design and deliver the vision and realise the value for your users.

As a Lead Product Manager, you will lead and drive the Digital customer experience product teams for the Digital Channels within Digital Modernisation & Efficiency. You will also, lead the design of the Department's Channel Strategy.

Our strategy is to have a multi-channel organisation that promotes self-service and provides the right mix of channels to enable a customer to achieve an outcome at first contact.

You will work with a team of Product Managers to deliver high quality products supporting the aims and objectives of DWP. With a goal to define, test, measure and embed our ambitions for a digital first, multi-channel experience that supports the needs of our customers and enables delivery of our services in a modern and consistent way.

As Lead Product Manager, you will be an expert leader as well as an expert in product. You will have deep knowledge of product management techniques and in particular experience of digital customer experience and channel transformation.

Roles & Responsibilities

• Work with strategy, policy and operations to develop an overall strategy for the service and/or programme
• Provide leadership and direction to the product team, working with Product Managers to shape the vision, scope and high-level roadmap for critical products and services
• Track progress against goals and performance metrics for all products within the service or programme evaluating success against defined outcomes and ensuring return on investment
• Co-ordinate product development across multiple products to support the overall strategy for the service or programme
• Ensure the products are developed to an appropriate level of quality taking into consideration expected lifetime, investment and timeframes
• Manage Product Managers within the product team to support their professional development and career progression
• Build and maintain a relationship with providers/suppliers, seeking to capitalise on the value-add offerings
• Maintain a thorough understanding of all elements of inclusivity in our digital services ensuring accessible digital services are core to our service offer.

Person specification

When giving details in your employment history and personal statement you should highlight your experience in line with essential criteria below:

• Lead criteria: Customer Experience is a key aspect of this role, and we need someone who knows how to put users first as part of a commitment to user-centred design, and knows how to achieve this amongst competing priorities, including achieving value for the business*
• Setting the direction of the product, rallying the team, owning the vision and roadmap of the product and be that trusted voice
• Able to draw on insight and expertise to make decisions, often in a time pressured situation
• Experience of applying influence and challenging the status quo so you can meet your vision
• Have experience of mentoring and coaching product people and teams to deliver highly quality products and services
• Experience of agile methodology, when to use it and when to not and how you move through the agile lifecycle.

* Lead criteria: An initial sift may be conducted using the lead criteria stated above. Candidates who pass the initial sift will progress to a full sift.

If you would like to learn more about the role, please contact caicy.sandford1@dwp.gov.uk

Benefits

Alongside your salary of 69,869, Department for Work and Pensions contributes 20,241 towards you being a member of the Civil Service Defined Benefit Pension scheme. Find out what benefits a Civil Service Pension provides.

Alongside your salary, the Department for Work and Pensions contributes 28.97% towards you being a member of the Civil Service Defined Benefit Pension scheme. Find out what benefits a Civil Service Pension provides.

We also have a broad benefits package built around your work-life balance which includes:

• Working patterns to support work/life balance such as job sharing, term-time working, flexi-time and compressed hours.
• Generous annual leave at least 23 days on entry, increasing up to 30 days over time (prorata for part time employees), plus 9 days public and privilege leave.
• Support for financial wellbeing, including interest-free season ticket loans for travel, a cycle to work scheme and an employee discount scheme.
• Health and wellbeing support including our Employee Assistance Programme for specialist advice and counselling and the opportunity to join HASSRA a first-class programme of competitions, activities and benefits for its members (subscription payable monthly).
• Family friendly policies including enhanced maternity and shared parental leave pay after 1 years continuous service.
• Funded learning and development to support progress in your role and career. This includes industry recognised qualifications and accreditations, coaching, mentoring and talent development programmes.
• An inclusive and diverse environment with opportunities to join professional and interpersonal networks including Womens Network, National Race Network, National Disability Network (THRIVE) and many more.

This job role may be suitable for hybrid working, which is where an employee works part of the week in their DWP office and part of the week from home. This is a voluntary, non-contractual arrangement and your office will be your contractual place of work. The number of days that anyone will be able to work at home will be determined primarily by business need but personal circumstances and other relevant circumstances will also be taken into account. If you are successful, any opportunities for hybrid working, including whether a hybrid working arrangement is suitable for you, will be discussed with you prior to you taking up your post.

Salary Information

New entrants to the Civil Service will join on band minimum.

Existing Civil Servants who secure a new role on lateral transfer should maintain their current salary.

Existing Civil Servants who gain promotion may move to the bottom of the grade pay scale or 10% increase in salary whichever would be the greater.

Things you need to know

Selection process details

Stage 1: Application

Your application will consist of three parts:

1. A Personal Details application form.

2. Your employment history detailing your responsibilities, skills, accomplishments, plus your qualifications and relevant training. Please copy this information into the box field provided.

3. Personal statement up to 1000 words. Further details around what this will entail are listed on the application form.

When giving details in your employment history and personal statement you should highlight your experience in line withessential criterialisted inthe Person Specification.

The sift panel will use the information in your employment history and personal statement to assess your experience, skills and knowledge against the essential criteria above.

For Hints and Tips on completing your application visit Applying for jobs at DWP Digital.

Applications will be sifted at regular intervals from the date the posts are advertised. Please apply as soon as you can, do not wait until the end of the campaign.

You will receive one combined score for both your Employment History/CV and Personal Statement, which will be provided in your Personal Statement score.

Important Information

You will be asked to complete your employment history any information that you would customarily share on a CV should therefore be entered onto the application form.
Personal details that could be used to identify you including your name, contact details and address must be removed for your application to be considered.
If your employment history/personal statement contains any personal details your application will be withdrawn.

Stage 2: Interview

If youre successful at sift stage you will be invited to a video interview via Microsoft Teams. There, you will be assessed against the experiences listed in the essential criteria.

Questions in Advance

To help you prepare and settle into the interview you will be sent the experience questions in advance of the interview, 7 days prior to your interview.

These questions should be treated as confidential and should not be shared. The interview panel may ask you other questions which will not be shared in advance, including follow-up questions, and those about your experience. Candidates should be asked further probing questions if their response is deemed to require further information to determine suitability for the role.

Candidates are strongly encouraged to secure their interview slot promptly to ensure fairness in preparation time with the questions provided in advance.

You will also be asked to do a 5-minute presentation on the lead criteria listed in the Person Specification section:

Customer Experience is a key aspect of this role, and we need someone who knows how to put users first as part of a commitment to user-centred design and knows how to achieve this amongst competing priorities, including achieving value for the business.

The use of visual aids such as PowerPoint is optional. There will be a further 5 minutes allowed for questions from the interview panel.

Interviews will take place from early December 2024. Interview dates to be confirmed.

Further information:

Find out more about Working for DWP

A reserve list may be held for a period of 6 months from which further appointments can be made.

All successful candidates and those placed on reserve will be posted in merit list order by location.

Reasonable Adjustment

At DWP we value diversity and inclusion and actively encourage and welcome applications from everyone, including those that are underrepresented in our workforce.

We consider visible and non-visible disabilities, neurodiversity or learning differences, chronic medical conditions, or mental ill health. Examples include dyslexia, epilepsy, autism, chronic fatigue, or schizophrenia.

If you need a change to be made so that you can make your application, you should: Contact Government Recruitment Service via DigitalRecruitment.grs@cabinetoffice.gov.uk as soon as possible before the closing date to discuss your needs.

Complete the Reasonable Adjustments section in the Additional requirements page of your application form to tell us what changes or help you might need further on in the recruitment process. For instance, you may need wheelchair access at interview, or if youre deaf, a Language Service Professional.

For further information on reasonable adjustments, terms and conditions and how we recruit visit the How we recruit page.

The Civil Service values honesty and integrity and expects all candidates to abide by these principles. Please ensure that all examples provided in your application are taken directly from your own experience and that you describe the examples in your own words. Applications will be screened and if evidence of plagiarism or copying examples/answers from other sources is found, your application will be withdrawn. Internal DWP candidates may also face disciplinary action.

Feedback will only be provided if you attend an interview or assessment.

Security

Successful candidates must undergo a criminal record check.

People working with government assets must complete baseline personnel security standard (opens in new window) checks.

Nationality requirements

This job is broadly open to the following groups:

• UK nationals
• nationals of the Republic of Ireland
• nationals of Commonwealth countries who have the right to work in the UK
• nationals of the EU, Switzerland, Norway, Iceland or Liechtenstein and family members of those nationalities with settled or pre-settled status under the European Union Settlement Scheme (EUSS) (opens in a new window)
• nationals of the EU, Switzerland, Norway, Iceland or Liechtenstein and family members of those nationalities who have made a valid application for settled or pre-settled status under the European Union Settlement Scheme (EUSS)
• individuals with limited leave to remain or indefinite leave to remain who were eligible to apply for EUSS on or before 31 December 2020
• Turkish nationals, and certain family members of Turkish nationals, who have accrued the right to work in the Civil Service

Further information on nationality requirements (opens in a new window)

Working for the Civil Service

The Civil Service Code (opens in a new window) sets out the standards of behaviour expected of civil servants.

We recruit by merit on the basis of fair and open competition, as outlined in the Civil Service Commission's recruitment principles (opens in a new window) .

The Civil Service embraces diversity and promotes equal opportunities. As such, we run a Disability Confident Scheme (DCS) for candidates with disabilities who meet the minimum selection criteria.

The Civil Service also offers a Redeployment Interview Scheme to civil servants who are at risk of redundancy, and who meet the minimum requirements for the advertised vacancy.

Diversity and Inclusion

The Civil Service is committed to attract, retain and invest in talent wherever it is found. To learn more please see the Civil Service People Plan (opens in a new window) and the Civil Service Diversity and Inclusion Strategy (opens in a new window) .

---