About the job

Job summary

We encourage applications from a diverse range of candidates  

At DfE, we are proud of the commitment we make to diversity and inclusion and of the progress we have made. We have active & vibrant staff networks, special leave policies and workplace adjustments put in place for those who need them. We are continuing to build a diverse DfE, in an inclusive environment which nurtures and realises potential in all, at all levels.

Equality and Diversity - Department for Education

Our Division

Teacher Services is a cross cutting division supporting digital services across multiple areas within the two Teacher Workforce Directorates, these are:

• Candidates, Trainees, Strategy, Portfolio and Analysis (CaTSPA)
• Teachers and Tutors (TaT)

We are an empowered, multidisciplinary team with a passion for delivering digital services to provide more great teachers. We have strategic oversight over the whole digital teaching journey from becoming a teacher to continued professional development. We focus on how digital services, combined with bold policy making, can solve problems in teacher recruitment, retention, professional development, and more.  

We bring together policy and delivery to build effective user-centred services. You can read about our teacher retention ambitions in our teacher recruitment and retention strategy.

You can read more about our strategy and the work that we do on the DfE digital and technology blog.

Job description

We are looking for an experienced Senior Product Manager who is passionate about user-centred design and enjoys working in on complex problems. You will lead a multidisciplinary product team, delivering services that support the teacher development reforms. You’ll work across disciplines and the wider programme to transform our services and ensure they meet the needs of teachers, schools and training providers.  

As Product Manager you will lead a multidisciplinary delivery team working on services that deliver reforms to teacher development. Our services collect and store huge amounts of data about teachers and training providers. We ensure that the department can accurately fund training for early career teachers, mentors and experienced teachers looking to develop their practice. We help users register for training, check eligibility, access training materials and ensure that payments are accurate and efficient.  

You’ll have an analytical mindset and be able to delve into complex problems around data and design. You’ll also be experienced at balancing the needs of different user groups to deliver value for teachers and meet the policy goals of the Department. You’ll own the product road map, and work with the Deputy Service Owner and other product managers to deliver end to end services across complex journeys. You’ll know how to define and measure success, and provide clarity on priorities to your team and to stakeholders. You’ll be comfortable making decisions and managing risks.   

As a Senior Product Manager, you will:  

• Own the product roadmap, defining and prioritising work that aligns with strategic priorities and meets user needs.
• Identify opportunities to improve existing services, and respond to evolving user and business needs.
• Provide leadership to your team and represent the team in both internal and external stakeholder forums and when engaging with decision-makers and other senior stakeholders. 
• Collaborate closely with business analysts and developers to diagnose and fix bugs and improve existing features.
• Identify and prioritise areas for user research, analysis and design to solve crucial problems.  
• Develop an expert understanding of the users’ needs and champion these in the design and delivery of solutions.
• Be a strong communicator and advocator of your team’s work to secure buy-in and successfully deliver solutions through others.   
• Create a diverse, inclusive, supportive culture that stimulates innovation and enables high-performing teams to build and sustain high quality delivery. 
• Play an active role in the DfE product community sharing your learning and celebrating progress made by other people and teams. 

Person specification

We will assess you on the following essential criteria during the selection process. Should we receive a large volume of applications we will only assess your application on the first three essential criteria: 

Essential Criteria

• Product Ownership: You’ll be able to prioritise effectively, seek out information to make effective decisions and develop a product roadmap that has the buy in of your team and stakeholders.  
• Problem management: You’ll anticipate problems and identify solutions that save users time and ensure training records are robust and reliable 
• Working within constraints: We run high volume services that serve a range of user groups in a complex technical and policy environment. You’ll be able to adapt your delivery approaches, identify creative solutions to problems and constructively collaborate with and challenge senior stakeholders.  
• Strategic ownership: You can develop a product strategy, looking at long term opportunities, constraints and risks. You can connect your strategy to a more tactical product roadmap showing what do to now, next and later.  
• Agile working: You can adapt your delivery approach to the needs of your users, and get the most out of your team.  
• User focus: You can engage with and critique quantitative and qualitative evidence to better understand how to deliver value to users.  
• Life cycle perspective: You understand the different phases of product delivery and can contribute to, plan or run these. You can identify which tools and techniques should be used and can identify and deal with potential risks across all phases of the life-cycle. 

Benefits

Applicants currently holding a permanent post in the Civil Service should note that, if successful, their salary on appointment would be determined by the Department’s transfer / promotion policies.
As a member of the DfE, you will be entitled to join the highly competitive Civil Service Pension Scheme, which many experts agree is one of the most generous in the UK, with an average employer contribution of 27%.

You will have 25 days leave, increasing by 1 day every year to a maximum of 30 days after five years’ service. In addition, all staff receive the King's Birthday privilege holiday and 8 days’ bank and public holidays.
We offer flexible working arrangements, such as job sharing, term-time working, flexi-time and compressed hours.

Most DfE employees will be working a hybrid pattern, spending at least 60% of their time in an office or work setting. Changes to these working arrangements are available in exceptional circumstances but must be agreed with the line manager and in line with the requirements of the role. 

Travel to your primary office location will not be paid for by DfE, but costs for travel to an office which is not your main location will be covered.  

As an organisation, which exists to support education and lifelong learning, we offer our staff excellent professional development opportunities.

Things you need to know

Selection process details

Please read the information in this section carefully.

Key Dates:

• Close: Sunday 14th January 23:55
• Sift: from Friday 19th January
• Interview: likely to be from 29th - 31st January

These dates are for guidance only and may be subject to change. 

• All communications regarding this vacancy will be updated on your Civil Service Jobs account and sent to you via email. It is important to regularly check for updates on your CS Jobs account and especially in your spam/junk email folders.
• Please make sure you download or print a copy of the advert BEFORE it closes as it will contain important information on the selection process and how you will be assessed. Once the vacancy closes, you won’t be able to access this information again.
• Your application does not need to be completed in one sitting. You can save your progress, close down your application mid-way through and return to it at a later date. To find your application again, sign in to your Civil Service Jobs account and select "Applications".
• Details of your CV and application must be contained within the application form template; any CV or statement of suitability sent to us as an email or attachment will not be considered.
• Feedback will only be provided if you attend an interview.

There will be three stages to the selection process.

Stage 1: Application

To apply for this position, please complete the application form by clicking the "apply now" button at the top or bottom of this page. You will be required to provide a CV and a personal statement

• CV - Set out your career history, highlighting specific responsibilities and achievements that are relevant for this role and how they align with the essential criteria. There is no word limit for this section. Start with your most current employment details first and please format as follows:
  
  • Name of Employer - Job Title - Dates Worked
  • Key Achievements
  • Responsibilities
    
    
• Personal statement - (Maximum 750 words) Please provide examples of how your personal skills, qualities and experience meet the essential criteria. This is not intended to be a cover letter, instead work through each essential criteria in turn. You may wish to follow the STAR technique to help focus your examples. The key things we are looking for are what you did, how you did it and what the outcome was. Desirable criteria will only be assessed at interview stage in the event of a tie break situation. 

Stage 2: Sift

At sift stage, your application will be assessed by the interview panel who will review your Experience. This will be scored holistically by assessing your CV and personal statement together on how well your experience meets each of essential criteria. 

If we receive a large volume of applications, we will only assess you on the first 2 essential criteria.

Candidates successful at sift stage will be invited to an interview.

Stage 3: Interview

You will be interviewed by a panel which will last for approximately 60 minutes. The panel will ask you questions focusing on your Experience and how well you are able to demonstrate your suitability for the role in alignment to the essential criteria.

At interview, you will also be required to complete a task in advance and present your outcome to the panel. You will have 10 minutes to present, followed by a short Q&A before your interview questions will begin. The details of the task will be released at a later date, should you be invited to interview.

Interviews will held virtually via Microsoft Teams. Please make sure you have access to this software and have your camera turned on during your interview in the event of the interview being virtual.

If you have any questions regarding the selection or application process, please do not hesitate to contact teacher.services@education.gov.uk.

Other Information

We reserve the right to raise the minimum pass mark in the event of a high volume or strong field of candidates.

Please be aware that this role can only be worked in the UK from the location options provided and not from overseas.

The government is committed to supporting apprenticeships, enabling people to learn and progress in a role whilst earning. We want to monitor the number of people who have completed apprenticeships who are now applying to progress further in their career and are asking this question to all candidates, on all vacancies. You will be asked a question as part of the application process about any previous apprenticeships you have completed. Your response to this question will not affect your application and it is not a requirement of the role to have completed a previous apprenticeship.  

DfE cannot offer Visa sponsorship to candidates through this campaign. DfE holds a Visa sponsorship licence but this can only be used for certain roles and this campaign does not qualify.

If successful and transferring from another Government Department a criminal record check maybe carried out.

In order to process applications without delay, we will be sending a Criminal Record Check to Disclosure and Barring Service on your behalf. However, we recognise in exceptional circumstance some candidates will want to send their completed forms direct. If you will be doing this, please advise Department of Education of your intention by emailing Pre-Employment.Checks.DFE@education.gov.uk stating the job reference number in the subject heading.

Department for Education do not cover the cost of travel to your interview/assessment unless otherwise stated.

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

Candidates will be posted in merit order based upon location preference. Where more than one location is advertised you will be asked to state your preferred location.

New entrants are expected to join on the minimum of the pay band. 

Applicants who are successful at interview will be, as part of pre-employment screening subject to a check on the Internal Fraud Database (IFD). This check will provide information about employees who have been dismissed for fraud or dishonesty offences. This check also applies to employees who resign or otherwise leave before being dismissed for fraud or dishonesty had their employment continued. Any applicant’s details held on the IFD will be refused employment.

Terms and conditions of candidates transferring from ALBs and NDPBs

Bodies that are not accredited by the Civil Service Commission and are not able to advertise at Across Government on Civil Service jobs will be treated as external new starters and will come into DfE on modernised terms and conditions with a salary at the band minimum.

Bodies that are accredited by the Civil Service Commission but do not have civil service status will be offered modernised terms and will not have continuous service recognised for leave or sickness benefits. Salaries should be offered at band minimum, but there is some flexibility where this would cause a detriment to the individual.

Bodies that are accredited by the Civil Service Commission and do have Civil Service status will be treated as OGD transfers. Staff appointed on lateral transfer will move on to pre-modernised DfE terms (unless they were on modernised terms in their previous organisation). Staff appointed on promotion will move on to modernised DfE terms. Staff will transfer over on their existing salary (on lateral transfer) and any pay above the DfE pay band maximum will be paid as a mark time allowance. Staff moving on promotion will have their salaries calculated using the principles set out in the attached OGD transfer supplementary information.

Reasonable adjustment

If a person with disabilities is put at a substantial disadvantage compared to a non-disabled person, we have a duty to make reasonable changes to our processes. If you need a change to be made so that you can make your application, you should:

Contact Department of Education via centralrecruitment.operations@education.gov.uk soon as possible before the closing date to discuss your needs.

Complete the “Assistance required” 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 you’re deaf, a Language Service Professional.

Any move to Department for Education (DfE) will mean you will no longer be able to carry on claiming childcare vouchers. This includes moves between government departments. You may however be eligible for other government schemes, including Tax-Free Childcare. Determine your eligibility at https://www.childcarechoices.gov.uk/

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.