Cambridge University Press & Assessment
Product Owner - 7434
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Job Title: Product Owner
Salary: £49,300 - £65,950
Location: Cambridge, UK - Hybrid, requiring 40-60% of your time on-site in Cambridge (at least 2 days per week in the office)
Contract: Fixed-term, 12 months
Hours: Full time, 35 hours per week
We're looking for a highly capable and forward-thinking Product Owner to join our team.
In this role, you will bridge the gap between business and technology, driving impactful change by prioritising stakeholder needs and leading agile teams to deliver high-quality solutions. If you are passionate about user-centred design, strategic problem-solving, and thriving in a collaborative environment, we would love to hear from you.
We are Cambridge University Press & Assessment, a world-leading academic publisher and assessment organisation and a proud part of the University of Cambridge.
About The Role
As a Product Owner you will lead complex transformation and the development of our core applications to ensure successful delivery across the full end-to-end qualification and assessment processes.
The role adds value by translating complexity into clarity and coordinating process and technology to develop and validate product approaches. You will also collaborate with Business Analysts, business stakeholders, technical architects, developers, and other business and technical SMEs to maintain and prioritise product backlogs representing the needs of business stakeholders across UK and International for Educational Operations. You will ensure technology development harmonises processes and creates efficiencies for UK and International qualification delivery.
Within a complex environment, you will represent the interests of the business and customers, informing and supporting tactical and strategic decision-making to ensure proposed solutions align with organisational strategy and vision.
All roles within the Operational Systems and Solutions team are expected to work collaboratively, share knowledge and support each other to achieve successful outcomes, regardless of role or level.
Additional responsibilities and accountabilities include:
- Leads large scale development which impacts key customer and CUP&A delivery functionality end-to-end
- Influences senior stakeholders, such as Director and Head of Assessment, Operations Directors, to lead and deliver transformation and harmonisation of processes across CUP&A and within the wider industry
- Manages both short-term and long-term development - ability to deliver key short-term business goals whilst creating and delivering long-term strategic roadmap
- Challenges status quo and creates vision for wider-team members, supporting their goals and deliverables
- Will take the lead on complex and more industry-wide applications and enabling functions.
- Develop strong ties with business and technology stakeholders to understand the context of the UK qualifications division to co-create solutions to business problems.
- Ensure customer requirements are captured and documented, maintaining appropriately sized and prioritised backlogs for delivery into a release.
- Identify risks and issues, particularly those which may impact on business integrity and reputation and is expected to play an active role in developing effective strategies to mitigate risks.
This position has been classified as a hybrid role, requiring the selected candidate to typically spend 40-60% of their time collaborating and connecting face-to-face at their dedicated location. Aside from our hybrid principles, other flexible working requests will be considered from the first day of employment, including other work arrangements should you require adjustments due to a disability or long-term health condition.
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About You
As someone driven by problem-solving, you excel in translating complex business needs into actionable technology requirements, adapting effectively to agile and waterfall environments.
You bring a passion for web technology, data-driven insights, and user-centred design. As a skilled communicator, you present ideas clearly and can use varied methods to connect with and influence customers, users, and stakeholders at all levels. Proactive and analytical, you make sound recommendations on backlog prioritisation, resource allocation, and task feasibility. Your technical acumen extends to tools like JIRA, SharePoint, and web analytics, along with a solid understanding of structured development methodologies, helping ensure that the product meets the evolving needs of the International Education ecosystem.
Essential
- Certified SCRUM Product Owner or equivalent
- Practitioner of delivery using Agile methodologies, with experience of using JIRA an advantage
- Lead on business process transformation
- Lead on enabling functions.
- Experience of supporting the development lifecycle for requirements from concept through to testing and usage.
- Skilled in translating requirements into quality user stories with clear and valid acceptance criteria
- Understand the principles of good software development
- Ability to work independently with strong communication, influencing, and leadership skills
- Ability to build partnerships and work in a collaborative environment
- Strategic thinker with the ability to motivate and drive tactical execution
- Excellent analytical and problem-solving skills, especially in a teamwork environment
- Highly organised with strong time management including the ability to coordinate multiple efforts and address changes in priorities.
- Strong oral and written communication skills particularly to support cross business and technology dialogue including demonstrating progress and communicating issues to stakeholders
- Self-motivated with a proven ability to motivate and empower others
- Ability to present ideas succinctly and clearly and to use a variety of skills and methods to communicate.
- Flexible approach to work practices with demonstrable ability to respond constructively to a rapidly changing work environment.
- Experience of working on an online system and developing user stories and writing development specifications/acceptance criteria
- Experience and understanding of web analytics tools (e.g. Google Analytics)
- Comfortable reading and understanding technical documents
- Systematic; able to document effective plans and report on results in a methodical, consistent and comprehensive manner
- Ability to deal with ambiguity, multiple priorities and stretching goals
- Knowledge of risk management, risk identification and risk-based testing
If you meet the above minimum requirements, we encourage you to apply. Your application will be even stronger if you can also demonstrate the following desirable criteria:
- Contribution to a community of practice, internally or externally.
- Experience and interest in the use of AI, AI techniques, and technologies, with a willingness to explore their adoption.
- Experience coaching or mentoring others within delivery teams.
- Experience working across distributed or off shore teams.
For a detailed job description, please refer to the link at the bottom of the advert on our careers site.
We are a Disability Confident (DC) employer that is committed to equality and inclusion ensuring our recruitment process is accessible to all. The DC scheme's Offer of an Interview commitment applies to applicants who opt in, and disclose a disability or a long-term health condition, and who best meet the minimum criteria for the role. In instances where interviewing all qualifying candidates is not practicable and/or appropriate, we prioritise those who best meet the minimum criteria, as we would for applicants who do not have a disability or long-term health condition.
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Please note that Cambridge University Press & Assessment will not ordinarily be able to provide sponsorship for vacancies of less than 12-months in duration. Applicants must therefore have an existing right to work in the UK to be eligible for this position.
Rewards And Benefits
We will support you to be at your best in work and to live well outside of it. In addition to competitive salaries, we offer a world-class, flexible rewards package, featuring family-friendly and planet-friendly benefits including:
- 28 days annual leave plus bank holidays
- Private medical and Permanent Health Insurance
- Discretionary annual bonus
- Group personal pension scheme
- Life assurance up to 4 x annual salary
- Green travel schemes
Ready to pursue your potential? Apply now.
We aim to support candidates by making our interview process clear and transparent. The closing date for all applications will be 13 September 2026. We will review applications on an ongoing basis, and shortlisted candidates can expect interviews to take place from the week commencing 14 September 2026.
If you are shortlisted and progressed through the stages, you can expect:
- Interview: in-person at our offices in Cambridge.
If you require any reasonable adjustments during the recruitment process due to a disability or a long-term health condition, there will be an opportunity for you to inform us via the online application form. We will do our best to accommodate your needs.
Please note that successful applicants will be subject to satisfactory background checks including DBS due to working in a regulated industry.
We are committed to an equitable recruitment process. As such, applications must be submitted via our official online application procedure. Please refrain from sending your CV directly to our recruiters. If you experience technical difficulties or require additional support with submitting your online application, contact the Recruiter.
Why join us
Joining us is your opportunity to pursue potential. You will belong to a collaborative team that is exploring new and better ways to serve students, teachers and researchers across the globe – for the benefit of individuals, society and the world. Sharing our mission will inspire your own growth, development and progress, in an environment which embraces difference, change and aspiration.
Cambridge University Press & Assessment is committed to being a place where anyone can enjoy a successful career, where it is safe to speak up, and where we learn continuously to improve together. We welcome applications from all candidates, regardless of demographic characteristics (age, disability, educational attainment, ethnicity, gender, marital status, neurodiversity, religion, sex, gender identity and sexual identity), cultural, or social class/background.
We believe better outcomes come through diversity of thought, background and approach. We welcome applications from people from all backgrounds and communities, actively seeking to employ people from a wide range of different communities.
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