Digital Waffle
Head of Product
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Head of Product
A well-established ecommerce retailer is hiring a Head of Product Lead on a contract to give a newly established Digital Product function the foundations it currently lacks.
The business is early in its shift from project-based, waterfall delivery towards a genuine Product Operating Model, and needs a hands-on senior leader to set that up. For the duration of the contract, you'll effectively lean into the Head of Product remit, setting direction across the full Digital Product portfolio, making the senior calls and representing the function at leadership level. This is explicitly a build-and-hand-over engagement, so success is measured by what you leave behind: working governance, a coached and capable Product Owner community, and a leadership team more confident operating in a product model.
Role: Head of Product
Rate: Dependant on experience, Inside IR35
Location: Hybrid, West Midlands
What you'll be doing:
- Define and articulate a single, coherent Digital Product vision and strategy spanning all product verticals, tightly connected to commercial priorities
- Design the target Product Operating Model, including roles, responsibilities, ceremonies, governance, tooling and ways of working, appropriate to the organisation's current maturity
- Establish delivery governance the business has previously lacked, including reporting structures, decision rights, prioritisation forums and escalation routes
- Make portfolio-level investment and trade-off calls across verticals, balancing competing demands from Senior Product Owners and business stakeholders
- Set function-wide OKRs and establish the commercial metrics framework and reporting cadence the function will be judged by
- Assess current team structure and capability and recommend, where appropriate implement, changes to squad/vertical structure and resourcing
- Put in place consistent backlog management and prioritisation mechanisms across the whole function
- Coach and mentor Senior Product Owners across all verticals and build the Head of Digital Product's leadership capability
- Establish a lasting Product Owner community of practice with playbooks and induction materials so capability-building continues without ongoing external support
- Act as the most senior visible champion for the shift away from project/waterfall delivery, bringing sceptical stakeholders along
- Document the operating model, governance, standards and key decisions, and run a structured knowledge transfer ahead of contract end
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What you'll need:
- Proven track record establishing or maturing a Product Operating Model in a business transitioning away from waterfall or project-based delivery
- Senior product leadership experience, ideally at Head of Product level or equivalent, with the credibility to influence executive stakeholders
- Strong experience coaching, mentoring and developing Senior Product Owners and wider PO communities
- Experience designing governance, ceremonies, prioritisation frameworks and reporting cadences that outlast an individual leader
- Able to interpret commercial and user behaviour data confidently and make decisions at pace
- Skilled at managing conflict, resistance and organisational scepticism to keep focus on high-value outcomes
- Excellent communicator with experience leading workshops and translating product work into commercial language for non-product audiences
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Nice to have:
- Prior contract or interim experience delivering build-and-hand-over engagements
- Background in digital retail or ecommerce
- Experience partnering with Agile Delivery Leads, Agile coaches or transformation leads
- Familiarity with third-party product ecosystem partners (e.g. Search & Discovery, PxM or similar)
This role would suit a senior product leader who takes as much pride in what they leave behind as in what they personally deliver, and who wants a defined engagement to set a Digital Product function up properly from the ground up.
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