Rowden
Product Manager
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Product Manager
Department: Product Employment Type: Permanent – Full Time Location: Bristol, UK Reporting To: Jake Reynolds Compensation: £70,000 – £90,000 per year
About the Role
We’re building the UK’s next-generation engineering powerhouse, providing critical technology that strengthens national security and resilience. We specialise in transforming advances in sensing, AI, and communications into operational capability for the edge, where connectivity may be degraded or denied. Our work focuses on accelerating technology deployment, improving decision-making for frontline teams, and protecting people and assets in demanding environments.
Headquartered in Bristol, Rowden employs around 160 people across 20,000 sq ft of engineering and manufacturing facilities. We are one of Europe’s fastest-growing engineering businesses, with a growing international footprint.
The Role
We are seeking a Product Manager to lead the product development cycle from concept to deployment. You will collaborate with customers, engineers, and delivery teams to define product direction, set priorities, and ensure successful execution.
Key responsibilities include:
- Ownership of the product roadmap, aligning it with market needs and commercial strategy.
- Translating customer challenges into actionable requirements and making informed trade-offs across scope, schedule, cost, and technical complexity.
- Balancing user needs, technical constraints, and commercial considerations in a fast-paced environment.
This role reports indirectly to the VP of Product and works closely with a Technical Lead (responsible for technical execution), ensuring products deliver operational impact while meeting business goals.
** Eligibility for UK SC Security Clearance is required. Further details here. **
This position requires 3+ days per week working on-site at our Bristol HQ.
Key Responsibilities
Product Leadership & Roadmap
- Develop and maintain the product roadmap in line with market demand and business strategy.
- Define a clear product vision, turning customer pain points into actionable requirements.
- Prioritise features across multiple platforms while managing constraints.
- Communicate vision effectively to cross-functional teams, customers, and stakeholders.
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Delivery & Execution
- Manage hardware product development through concept, design, prototyping, and production.
- Oversee schedule, quality, cost, and technical risk management. -Make pragmatic trade-offs between performance, cost, timeline, and capability in dynamic environments.
- Ensure manufacturing readiness, supply chain efficiency, and logistical optimisation.
- Drive adherence to specification, reliability, cost targets, and customer expectations.
Team Leadership
- Lead a cross-functional team (design, engineering, operations).
- Mentor and develop team members through technical problem-solving and career growth.
- Foster a culture of accountability and pragmatism.
- Collaborate with engineering, manufacturing, supply chain, and customer teams.
Customer & Market Engagement
- Maintain strong relationships with customers to understand their operational needs.
- Respond quickly to market feedback and incorporate insights into product development.
- Contribute to go-to-market strategies, pricing, business cases, and bid processes.
- Ensure end-user needs guide product priorities and decision-making.
Risk & Quality Management
- Identify and escalate schedule, supply chain, and technical risks proactively.
- Manage design and delivery risks under ambiguity, achieving clarity without delay.
- Ensure quality and reliability standards are met via robust testing and validation strategies.
- Make prudent decisions when information is limited or timelines tight.
What Success Looks Like
Within 12–18 months, you will have:
- Delivered a product (or increment) on time, within budget, with quality compliance.
- Clearly owned the roadmap, demonstrating responsiveness to customer/market feedback.
- Built a high-performing, accountable team with strong technical expertise.
- Navigated supply chain challenges without compromising quality or cost.
- Balanced competing priorities (e.g., performance vs. cost, speed vs. quality, scope vs. timeline).
- Earned trust from engineering, manufacturing, stakeholders, and customer teams through transparent, results-driven delivery.
Key Skills, Experience & Behaviours
Essential
- Proven experience delivering hardware products from conception to production.
- Track record of leading cross-functional teams through complex, multi-disciplinary projects.
- Ability to priortise effectively, make trade-offs, and execute in resource-constrained or ambiguous scenarios.
- Strong grasp of supply chain, manufacturing, cost management, and logistics.
- Experience defining product requirements and managing roadmap translation from customers to development.
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Desirable
- Software product development experience or hardware-software integration.
- Knowledge of RF, electronics, or communications domains.
- Background in defence, aerospace, or mission-critical systems (familiarity with compliance regimes).
- Familiarity with agile methodologies, rapid prototyping, and iterative development.
Technical Capability
- No need to be an RF/expert engineer, but you must engage credibly with technical teams.
- Comfortable operating in ambiguous environments and driving progress despite incomplete information.
- Pragmatic problem-solver—values deployment over over-engineering.
About You
- You are results-driven and champion customer/end-user needs, translating them into product direction.
- You thrive in fast-paced, ambiguous environments with a bias towards clarity and execution.
- You balance competing priorities (factors like user needs, technical constraints, and commercial realities).
- You are directly hands-on—willing to support your team, mentor colleagues, and push timelines forward.
- Strong communication and relationship-building skills—trust is earned quickly.
- You are comfortable leading across engineering, delivery, and business functions.
Working at Rowden
Rowden is committed to an inclusive, flexible workplace where diversity is celebrated. We recognise the importance of flexible working and adapt where possible, offering hybrid models with 1–2 in-office days per week (depending on the role).
We are a Disability Confident Committed employer, actively encouraging applicants with disabilities, chronic conditions, or neurodivergence. If you require adjustments, please disclose them early so we can support you.
Finally, if you feel your experience is partially, rather than wholly aligned with the criteria—we’d still love to hear from you!
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