Product Manager

Job Introduction

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

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.

Why join us

Our work is life-changing, often life-saving and always life-enhancing. The Met Office is accredited as a 'Great Place to Work UK 2023' and in addition has achieved a place on both the UK's 'Best Workplaces in Tech' and 'Best Workplaces for Women' lists.

As our Product Manager, your total reward package will be up to £57,639 annually, which includes:

• £41,725 base pay
• An outstanding Civil Service pension, with an average employer contribution of 27%
• Annual Leave starting at 27.5 days (plus Bank Holidays) rising to 32.5 days (plus Bank Holidays) after 5 years and option to buy or sell up to 5 days per year of annual leave.

Essential Criteria, skills and experience:
 

1. Strong understanding of, and preferably proven experience in, managing product lifecycles.
2. You live and breathe it by 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 together in 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.

How to apply

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.