About the job

Job summary

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

As our Product Manager the 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.

Our opportunity is full time, 37 hours per week. 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.

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

Job description

Your world of expertise

We are looking for an experienced, enthusiastic and driven Product Manager to join our Product Management team. You will be responsible for product owner and product management tasks for key underpinning products and services within our Platform Technology department.

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 Digital Data and Technology framework.

Your key duties

You will be responsible for product managing products and services, aligned with customer and Met Office priorities and requirements outlined in product strategies and roadmaps. 

The key responsibilities are:

• Have an in-depth knowledge of users and their current and future needs, including understanding their workflow and the problems they need to solve through effective observation, communication and analysis.
• Develop current and potential customer domain knowledge and product expertise.
• Develop and maintain a product vision, strategy and roadmap, based on Customer and Met Office requirements.
• Fulfil the Product Owner role, as a key member of the Agile delivery team;  translate product requirements into user stories and prioritise for the Agile delivery team - maintaining focus on the product vision.
• Maximising the value delivered in a development - taking into account the balance between delivering business benefits and responding to end user needs.
• Understand how your product portfolio is performing both in relation to customer expectations and the wider external environment to inform backlog prioritisation and future lifecycle needs. 
• Show high levels of collaboration, trust and innovation and contribute towards building a high performing team.

Person specification

Essential Criteria, skills and experience:

1. Experts by nature - Experience of working as a Product Manager/Owner in a Technology Dev/Ops environment including a good understanding of the agile software development lifecycle
2. Keep Evolving - Practical experience of customer research methods, the ability to translate user requirements into user stories and to lead the prioritisation of the product backlog.
3. Better Together - Proven experience of working in multi-faceted teams, with evidence of strong communication skills including influencing and negotiating. 
4. Force for good - A track record of taking ownership for key software projects and delivering them within a given timeline; recognising when to escalate risks to support decision making.
5. Live and Breath it - Demonstrate strong user/customer focus with experience building trusted relationships and using that to improve products or services.

Benefits

Alongside your salary of £41,725, Met Office contributes £11,265 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

How to apply

If you share our values, we’d love to hear from you. Apply below with your CV 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 at Sunday 14/07/2024 23:59 with first stage interviews commencing from 29/07/2024. You will hear from us once the closing date has passed.

How we can help

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

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.