Product Innovation Manager

Product Development Lead

Ocado Group is committed to fostering an inclusive workplace where all potential employees are treated equitably, irrespective of their gender, sexual orientation, marital status, race, color, nationality, ethnic or national origin, religion or belief, age, disability, or union membership status.

About Us

Our teams are revolutionizing the retail landscape by leveraging cutting-edge technologies such as cloud computing, robotics, artificial intelligence, and the Internet of Things (IoT). We provide comprehensive services to our partner clients worldwide through our pioneering advanced robotics technology, known as the Ocado Smart Platform (OSP). This technology underpins our highly automated, multi-million-pound Customer Fulfilment Centres (CFCs), enabling us to operate a world-class online grocery service that automates the precise picking of products for delivery.

About the Role

The Network team is dedicated to defining, designing, delivering, deploying, and supporting high-performance, scalable, and resilient connectivity solutions across our UK and international Customer Fulfilment Centres. Our technology facilitates critical machine-to-machine communication for our fleet of robots and warehouse devices, provides high-speed Wi-Fi connectivity for our delivery personnel and engineers, and ensures access to our office applications.

With ambitious growth strategies extending beyond grocery markets, we are expanding our network teams into two specialized units—one focused on wired networking and the other on wireless solutions. The team will comprise a blend of engineers and software engineers, all adopting a full-stack, agile, infrastructure-as-code approach.

Your Responsibilities:

Lead Product Initiatives

• Guide your Product Team in developing a clear product vision and strategy aligned with your designated area.
• Establish objectives for your product that correspond with business goals.
• Collaborate closely with various disciplines within your product team, sharing insights and understanding the challenges to address for your product.
• Facilitate cross-functional sessions to ensure all viewpoints are integrated into product strategy development.
• Act as the primary advocate for your product, regularly communicating with stakeholders regarding roadmap planning, product strategy, and outcomes.
• Oversee significant product initiatives that span multiple domains and confidently lead large groups.
• Make strategic decisions in uncertain environments.
• Foster a high-trust relationship with your Engineering Partner and Product Team.
• Manage the business case and return on investment for your product, keeping stakeholders informed of changes and their implications.
• Oversee the end-to-end launch of new capabilities for your product, addressing challenges along the way by collaborating with project and delivery teams to ensure successful execution for the end customer.

Drive Customer and Commercial Value

• Develop a comprehensive understanding of the metrics that contribute to your product's success, collaborating with stakeholders and analysts to identify and comprehend relevant metrics.
• Assess the relative value of product opportunities, balancing customer needs with product health across the platform.
• Work towards established goals for your product and employ suitable prioritization techniques.
• Make informed strategic decisions for your products and guide others in making similar decisions by understanding the trade-offs between time to market, scope, and overall risk profile.
• Create a credible roadmap that highlights the most valuable opportunities for your product while managing dependencies and sequencing through collaboration with stakeholders and team members.
• Adopt a dynamic prioritization mindset when updating your roadmap, presenting new insights, opportunities, recommended changes, risks, and trade-offs to peers and product leaders for feedback.
• Encourage the use of data to effectively measure both platform and customer impacts resulting from changes made to your product.
• Work to enhance development efficiency and effectiveness through close collaboration with Engineering leadership.

Master Your Domain; Shape Its Future

• Develop empathy with end users and stakeholders, collaborating with UX, Data, and Engineering to better understand user needs, desired outcomes, and pain points.
• Continuously enhance your domain knowledge by understanding customer needs, user requirements, technology, competitors, and the broader business context related to your product area. Utilize this knowledge to lead product discovery and ideation by identifying, facilitating, and researching opportunities.
• Lead discovery efforts for your products and beyond your immediate team by assembling the right people to achieve desired outcomes with optimal solutions, focusing on asking "why" before "what" or "how".
• Gather and disseminate insights from user research, product data, and market trends by employing best product practices and leveraging available resources.
• Utilize a lean approach to discovery, ensuring that the time invested in finding solutions is balanced with the associated risks and the value we aim to deliver.
• Become proficient in product discovery techniques and consistently seek to enhance the quality of discovery activities.
• Validate new concepts through experimentation and testing, adopting a fail-fast, learn-fast methodology.
• Possess a strong understanding of the data landscape for your product and experience with analytics tools and techniques.

Elevate Product Mindset

• Identify and create opportunities to develop your own product expertise and that of others through sharing best practices, mentoring, and coaching.
• Regularly reflect on and seek feedback regarding your product knowledge, applying insights in your daily work.
• Explore ways to elevate product craftsmanship within Ocado Technology by staying informed about leading industry practices and research, and seeking to implement these across the organization.
• Facilitate innovation throughout the organization by identifying opportunities and acting as a catalyst for change.
• Serve as a role model for others in the field, demonstrating curiosity, problem-solving abilities, and communication skills while delivering successful product outcomes for customers.
• Possess a deep understanding of product management and leadership.
• Have extensive experience in building and launching successful products in collaboration with software and hardware engineering teams.
• Communicate confidently with senior stakeholders.
• Exhibit exceptional storytelling abilities.
• Demonstrate excellent interpersonal, collaboration, coaching, and mentoring skills.
• Showcase sharp analytical and problem-solving capabilities.
• Possess experience in developing technology solutions for grocery e-commerce.
• Have experience in creating disruptive B2B SaaS platforms.

We Would Love to Hear From You If You Have...

• Relevant industry experience or background in technology businesses, particularly in grocery and non-grocery sectors.
• Experience managing products developed by engineering teams.
• Knowledge and experience in delivering network and connectivity services from an infrastructure perspective.
• Experience collaborating with multiple functional areas, including project management, engineering, and UX/UI.
• Proven ability to plan, manage, track, and fulfill commitments.
• Ability to work effectively in a team and/or independently.
• Capability to manage multiple competing priorities in a fast-paced environment.
• Experience in defining product roadmaps, collaborating with design and engineering peers, and delivering at scale.
• Ability to capture and communicate requirements to support product realization.
• Team player with a bottom-up ideation approach.
• Ability to maintain a broad perspective while paying attention to product details.
• Strong analytical and problem-solving skills.
• Fluency in English, both spoken and written.

Bonus Points If You Also Have...

• Experience in the fulfillment, warehouse, or commercial software development sectors.
• Specific experience in Wi-Fi networking.
• Product management experience in a software engineering context.

What We Offer You

Our employee benefits are designed with your well-being in mind. We regularly review our offerings to ensure we are supporting our employees effectively.

• 30 days of 'working from anywhere in the world' policy.
• 22 weeks of paid primary carer leave.
• Well-being support through dedicated applications and an Employee Assistance Programme.
• 25 days of annual leave, increasing to 27 days after five years of service (plus optional holiday purchase).
• Pension scheme with various options, including employer contribution matching up to 7%.
• Comprehensive Private Medical Insurance (available within the first month of joining).
• Income Protection (up to 50% of salary for three years) and Life Assurance (three times annual salary).
• 22 weeks of paid maternity leave and six weeks of paid paternity leave (subject to relevant service requirements).
• Interest-free Train Ticket loan.
• Cycle to Work Scheme.
• Free shuttle bus service to and from local train stations.
• Opportunity to participate in Sharesave and Buy as You Earn share schemes.
• 15% discount and free delivery for all employees (available within the first month of joining).