Product Manager

Person Specification

• Define the product vision, strategic intent and scope for early-stage concepts, ensuring alignment with organisational goals, user needs and initial MVP direction.
• Shape clear problem statements and high-level options to guide direction before formal discovery, using insight from users, data, technology and business analysis.
• Build strong relationships with stakeholders, understanding their goals and securing alignment around vision, priorities, early road mapping and strategic choices.
• Guide and coordinate multifunctional teams, including civil servants, commercial partners, user researchers, analysts, designers, engineers and technical specialists, to explore and develop early concepts.
• Integrate user insight and performance data to refine opportunities, test assumptions and develop evidence-based recommendations.
• Prioritise opportunities using evidence, impact and feasibility, shaping early product roadmaps and initial backlogs where appropriate to support exploration and learning.
• Oversee controlled proofs of concept and proofs of value to safely test ideas, validate hypotheses and inform senior decision-making.
• Assess options in collaboration with area leads, including high-level financial, technical and organisational considerations.
• Ensure early-stage outputs meet high standards of quality, clarity, usability and accessibility, in line with Government expectations for user centred design.
• Contribute to the product management community of practice and support the development of others through coaching, mentoring and sharing learning.

Candidates who are offered the role will be judged as performing successfully if:

• they provide clear product vision, strategic direction and well-reasoned recommendations that support senior decision-making.
• stakeholders feel informed, engaged and aligned around early-stage priorities, options and next steps.
• early-stage concepts, proofs of concept and proofs of value are delivered to a high standard, grounded in evidence and user insight.
• multifunctional teams feel supported, coordinated and able to work effectively—across civil servants, commercial partners and other specialists.
• they make a positive contribution to both their immediate teams and the wider product management community.

Successful candidates in this role often progress to roles such as Lead Product Manager, Senior Product roles across HMRC, or Service Owner positions, should they wish to continue their career development within the organisation.

Essential Criteria

• Demonstrable experience of strong stakeholder management and communication, including building trusted relationships and securing alignment around vision, priorities and early direction.
• Knowledge of user research, service design, interaction design or software engineering practices, and how these disciplines contribute to shaping effective, user centred concepts and products.
• Experience of leading a multifunctional team or project team across civil servants, commercial partners and specialists to deliver agreed outcomes.
• Ability to define, shape and adapt product scope based on new insights, emerging evidence and changing organisational needs.
• Experience of analysing problems in a service, product or process and developing clear, evidence-based options or recommendations to resolve them.
• Ability to prioritise work using evidence, impact and feasibility, and to secure stakeholder buying for early plans, strategic direction or road mapping activities.
• Experience of managing or contributing to early backlog and roadmap development, ensuring work is sequenced in a way that supports exploration and learning.
• Ability to collaborate effectively with a range of professions such as user research, analysis, design and engineering to shape high-quality.

Desirable Criteria

• Prior experience working on digital services or technology enabled products, ideally within complex or multistakeholder environments.
• Experience of agile or iterative ways of working, and an understanding of how flexible methods can be applied in exploratory or rediscovery contexts.
• Experience supporting, coaching or managing junior colleagues or peers to build capability and strengthen product practice.
• Certification in agile, product management or related disciplines (e.g., APM, Scrum, SAFe) is advantageous but not essential.

Further Location Information

Please ensure that you only apply for a location that you are willing and able to work from, as we will only make one offer of employment. Any additional notes included in a ‘Further Location Preferences (optional)’ field within the application form, will not be considered. Please be aware that you cannot change your location preference after submitting your application.

Office Closures

For more information on where you might be working, review this information on our locations.

If your location preference is for one of the following sites, it’s important to note that these are not long-term sites for HMRC and we will require you to move to a new building in the future, subject to our location strategy and the applicable employee policies at that time.

These Sites Are

Benton Park View, Newcastle - moving to Pilgrims Quarter, Newcastle

Telford Plaza, Telford - moving to Parkside Court, Telford

You will be given more information about what this means at the job offer stage.

Leeds Locations

Moves Adjustment Payment will be available for this role, provided the successful applicant is a current HMRC colleague in Bradford and meets the eligibility requirements outlined in the HMRC’s Moves Adjustment Payment guidance.

Behaviours

We'll assess you against these behaviours during the selection process:

• Leadership
• Communicating and Influencing

Alongside your salary of £58,541, HM Revenue and Customs contributes £16,959 towards you being a member of the Civil Service Defined Benefit Pension scheme. Find out what benefits a Civil Service Pension provides.

HMRC operates both Flexible and Hybrid Working policies, allowing you to balance your work and personal commitments. We welcome applications from those who need to work a more flexible arrangement and will agree to requests where possible, considering our operational and customer service needs.

We offer a generous leave allowance, starting at 25 days and increasing by a day for every year of qualifying service up to a maximum of 30 days.

Pension - We make contributions to our colleagues’ Alpha pension equal to at least 28.97% of their salary.

Family friendly policies.

Personal support.

Coaching and development.

To find out more about HMRC benefits and find out what it’s really like to work for HMRC hear from our insiders or visit Thinking of joining the Civil Service.

Artificial intelligence

Artificial intelligence can be a useful tool to support your application, however, all examples and statements provided must be truthful, factually accurate and taken directly from your own experience. Where plagiarism has been identified (presenting the ideas and experiences of others, or generated by artificial intelligence, as your own) applications may be withdrawn and internal candidates may be subject to disciplinary action. Please see our candidate guidance for more information on appropriate and inappropriate use.

Selection process details

This vacancy is using Success Profiles, and will assess your Behaviours and Experience.

How To Apply