Head of Product

Portfolio product leadership & quality assurance: Own the product strategy and user-centred design quality across Arran’s portfolio. Act as a strategic advisor to senior civil servants and the senior escalation point for product vision, quality, and GDS Service Assessment risks. Establish outcome frameworks (KPIs/OKRs) and roadmapping standards across the full product lifecycle from Discovery through to live service operationalisation.

GDS & Service Standard excellence: Champion the GOV.UK Service Standard and UCD best practice across the club. Set the benchmark for Discovery, Alpha, Beta, and Live phases, assuring high-confidence outcomes in rigorous government Service Assessments.

Product management for AI & emerging tech: Lead the product vision for AI-enabled government services. Ensure AI integrations solve real, validated user problems rather than being technology-led, addressing ethical considerations, accessibility, and safe service design.

Problem-focused leadership & integrity: Provide the critical counterweight across Arran's leadership team and senior stakeholders, possessing the standing and conviction to challenge groupthink and tie technical ambition back to validated user needs, ethics, and measurable public value. Obsess over unpicking complex problems rather than jumping to prespecified solutions. Be ready to pivot strategy or halt unviable initiatives when user research, data, or operational realities dictate.

Product & UCD profession leadership: Act as Head of Profession for Product Management, Business Analysis, and UCD. Recruit, manage, and inspire practitioners. Define professional standards, conduct SFIA reviews, manage career and pay progression, and foster a culture of continuous learning and innovation. Support and actively participate in our Community of Practice, collaborating with other Heads of Product to develop and support career pathways, training, and learning opportunities.

Client leadership & consulting: Act as a trusted strategic advisor to senior government stakeholders. Advise senior civil servants on digital strategy, organisational reform, and policy delivery, cutting through ambiguity, defining product visions, and transitioning from traditional IT mindsets to agile, user-centric product management. Influence both explicit and implicit stakeholder needs.

Multidisciplinary team leadership: Partner closely with the Head of Delivery and Head of Engineering to balance user needs, technical feasibility, and delivery constraints. Create multidisciplinary teams focused on outcomes, collaboration, and continuous improvement while maintaining sustainable delivery, accountability, and product quality.

Growth, propositions & bids: Play a pivotal role in winning new business, shaping and pitching product and UCD approaches, estimating team sizes and makeups, and writing compelling technical and commercial responses for strategically important public sector bids.

Club leadership & commercial management: Share accountability with the Club Executive and leadership team for Club Arran’s overall financial and operational performance. Co-manage the Club P&L, maintaining oversight of commercial health, revenue, margin, utilisation, and forecasting. Ensure Statements of Work (SoW) are deliverable and financially viable, balancing client outcomes, team wellbeing, quality standards, and commercial performance to protect and grow client accounts.

You will bring:

• A proven track record of leading Product, BA, or UCD capabilities, underpinned by deep hands-on experience delivering complex, high-stakes digital services within UK Central Government or regulated public-sector environments.
• Demonstrated courage and diplomatic finesse to challenge CEOs, CTOs, and client executives, successfully steering technical conversations toward measurable human and organisational impact.
• Deep expertise in the GDS (Government Digital Service) lifecycle and a strong track record of leading teams successfully through GOV.UK Service Assessments.
• Experience managing, coaching, and inspiring Product, BA and/or UCD practitioners.
• A strategic problem-solving mindset comfortable navigating the ambiguity of emerging technologies (like AI) and translating them into tangible, user-friendly services.
• Strong commercial acumen with experience shaping bids, defining product propositions, and estimating multidisciplinary team requirements.
• Exceptional stakeholder management skills, capable of influencing senior civil servants and coalescing diverse groups around a unified product vision.
• Humility and adaptability; willing to make decisions based on available data, but ready to pivot and change approach when user research or new information dictates.
• Sound technical understanding to work credibly with Engineering, Architecture, DevSecOps and AI specialists.
• Exceptional communication and narrative skills with the ability to translate complex technical or strategic concepts for diverse audiences, win buy-in from skeptical senior stakeholders, deconstruct technical hype, and frame initiatives around public value rather than feature delivery.
• Ability to zoom into detail and zoom out to see the bigger picture, bringing clarity to intricate situations and helping product managers cut through ambiguity.
• Proven experience in establishing rigorous delivery boundaries and outcome-based governance, supporting product managers and teams to prevent uncontrolled project growth and scope creep.

• Real Impact: Work on mission-critical projects that secure and improve the UK's digital infrastructure.
• Autonomy: A culture that empowers you to make decisions, prototype rapidly, and iterate towards success.
• Service & Community: We support those who serve. 10 paid days for Reservist Military Service.

• Time Off: 25 days annual leave + Bank Holidays, with the flexibility to Buy/Sell additional days to suit your lifestyle.
• Giving back: 2 paid volunteering days per year.

• Master Your Craft: Fully funded professional certifications (AWS, GCP, Agile, etc.) supported by 5 days paid study leave.
• Expand Your Horizons: An additional £500 annual "Personal Choice" fund to learn whatever inspires you—work-related or not.
• Support: Access to 1-2-1 professional coaching and team training to accelerate your career.

• Premium Health: BUPA Private Medical Insurance
• Flexibility: Genuine hybrid working with a WFH equipment allowance to perfect your home setup.

• Wellbeing: Cycle to Work scheme and a commitment to sustainable, healthy working practices.