About the job

Job summary

We’re looking for an exceptional Product Manager to help us make a difference to our planet.

Job description

This job may be suitable for hybrid working, which is where an employee works part of the week in the office and part of the week from home. This is a voluntary, non-contractual arrangement and the location advertised will be your contractual place of work.

This opportunity is full time, 37 hours per week, based at our Exeter HQ.  Our people are at the heart of what we do and we'll do our best to agree a working pattern that works for everyone.

Whilst this is a temporary 12- month position, there is potential for it to develop into a permanent position.

World changing work

From science to technology, from meteorology to management, and from planning to communication, our expertise helps us stand out as the authority on weather accuracy and climate prediction. We help individuals, industries and government to make better decisions to stay safe and thrive. This is the Met Office. This is who we are.

• We’re a force for good - focusing on our environmental and social impact
• We’re experts by nature - always learning and developing to do things better
• We live and breathe it - putting our purpose at the heart of decision-making
• We’re better together - understanding partnerships and inclusivity make us greater
• We keep evolving - pushing boundaries to make tomorrow better for our customers

Your world of expertise

We are looking for an experienced, enthusiastic and driven Product Manager to join our Operational Expertise Team. You will be responsible for the development and lifecycle management of a range of Met Office products. These products extend across a wide range of customers and include our External Training products which may be one of your key areas of responsibility.

Product Management is an established profession within the Met Office with an active Community of Practice group offering support and best practice. We're a supportive and proactive team and work together to develop Product Management skills aligned to the Government Digital and Data framework. 

Your key duties

• Effective and efficient product lifecycle management. Feed into product development and optimisation, rationalisation, and retirement in line with Met Office project and programme plans, ensuring we do not commit to anything outside of our organisational strategies.
• Have a strong customer focus. Gather and analyse user feedback to create customer requirements and to help develop product strategy. 
• Develop, and build effective internal and external relationships to drive product vision and development by bringing together a wide variety of experts across the office including People Development team, Applied Scientists, Operational Meteorologists, Service team and Civil Contingencies team.
• Work with Senior Product Managers to maintain pricing for specific products and undertaking targeted financial appraisals of products to help decide whether they are a viable proposition in line with the benefit they deliver. 
• Maintain product information in the Products and Services catalogue.

Person specification

Essential Criteria, skills and experience:

1. Strong understanding of, and preferably proven experience in, managing product lifecycles.
2. You live and breathe itby championing a user and customer focus – experienced in user research techniques and confidently able to gather, analyse and prioritise customers’ requirements.
3. You’re an expert by nature, with working knowledge of Agile practices and terminology. You have experience of being the Product Owner within an Agile development.
4. Proven experience of working better togetherin multi-disciplinary teams, with evidence of effective communication, influencing and negotiating skills.
5. We keep evolving- you will have a proven record of pushing the boundaries and delivering products that make tomorrow better for your customers.

Desirable Criteria:

We encourage you to apply if you believe you meet our essential criteria, but we’re also keen to discover if you have:

1. Experience of working in a training or learning environment.
2. Experience in undertaking targeted financial appraisals of products to help determine whether they are a viable proposition in line with the benefit they deliver.

Benefits

Alongside your salary of £41,725, Met Office contributes £11,307 towards you being a member of the Civil Service Defined Benefit Pension scheme. Find out what benefits a Civil Service Pension provides.

Things you need to know

Selection process details

If you share our values, we’d love to hear from you! Click apply to begin your application. Please complete your career history and provide evidence against each of the essential criteria in the supporting statement questionnaire. We recommend candidates use the CARL method (Context, Action, Result and Learning) for presenting evidence of experience and skills.

Closing date 29/07/2024 at 23:59 with first stage interviews commencing from 12/08/2024. You will hear from us once the closing date has passed.

How we can help

If you are considering applying and need support to do so, please contact us via careers@metoffice.gov.uk. You can request adjustments either within your application or by contacting us. Should you be offered an interview, please be aware there may be a selection exercise which could include a presentation, written test or a scenario-based activity. You can select in your application to be considered under the Disability Confident Scheme. To be invited to interview/assessment under this scheme, your application must meet the essential criteria for the role.

We understand that great minds don’t always think alike and as an equal opportunities employer we welcome applications from those with all protected characteristics. We recruit on merit, fairness, and open competition in line with the Civil Service Code.

We can only accept applications from those eligible to live and work in the UK - please refer to GOV.UK for information. We require Security clearance, for which you need to have resided in the UK for at least 3 of the last 5 years to be eligible. You will need to achieve full security clearance within your first 6 months with us.

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

Security

Successful candidates must meet the security requirements before they can be appointed. The level of security needed is security check (opens in a new window).

See our vetting charter (opens in a new window). 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.