Senior Product Owner (SC Cleared)

Job Title: Senior Product Owner

Location: London (Hybrid - 2 office days per week)

Contract Length: 12 Months (with scope to extend)

Start Date: ASAP

IR35: Inside

Interview Process: 1 Stage, MS Teams

Clearance: SC

We are supporting a public sector client in hiring a Senior Product Owner to operate at the intersection of strategy, governance, transformation, delivery and stakeholder engagement across a large-scale transformation programme.

This role extends significantly beyond a traditional Product Owner position. The successful candidate will be expected to think strategically, challenge ambiguity, drive clarity and hold senior stakeholders to account, while maintaining strong delivery discipline and backlog health across complex, multi-team Agile environments. GDS experience is a pivotal requirement for this role.

This role suits a confident, outcome-focused Product Owner with a strong public sector background, the gravitas to challenge upwards and the delivery rigour to keep complex programmes on track. Candidates who focus on outcomes over activity and build credibility quickly across both technical and non-technical audiences are particularly encouraged to apply.

Key Responsibilities

• Own and govern the product backlog across a large-scale transformation programme, managing prioritisation, dependency mapping and epic-to-feature-to-story decomposition
• Translate strategic objectives into executable delivery plans, linking backlog items directly to outcomes and tracking benefits realisation throughout the programme lifecycle
• Maintain strong backlog health across readiness, refinement and flow, working closely with Business Analysts to ensure a continuous pipeline of well-defined, ready work
• Support Programme Boards, Change Authorities and senior governance forums, producing executive-level delivery packs, RAID updates and status reporting
• Define acceptance criteria, success measures and evidence requirements, challenging ambiguous requirements and driving clarity across delivery and business teams
• Facilitate workshops and stakeholder discovery sessions, operating effectively across large, federated organisations and managing conflict resolution where required
• Work alongside Change Managers and adoption teams to support operating model implementation and define success measures beyond delivery outputs
• Engage and constructively challenge senior technical stakeholders, architects and engineering leadership, influencing without direct authority

Essential Skills

• 6 to 8 or more years of Product Owner or Product Manager experience, with a proven track record in large-scale transformation programmes
• Strong GDS experience, including familiarity with GDS service standards and delivery within or alongside GDS-aligned frameworks
• Demonstrable experience translating strategic objectives into backlog items and delivery plans, with a clear focus on outcomes and benefits realisation
• Strong Agile delivery background across complex, multi-team environments with hands-on experience of backlog governance, prioritisation and dependency management
• Experience supporting senior governance forums, producing executive-level reporting and managing RAID and escalation processes
• Strong business analysis and requirements leadership capability, including facilitating discovery workshops and defining acceptance criteria and success measures
• Proven ability to challenge senior stakeholders constructively, drive accountability and operate effectively in ambiguous, fast-moving environments
• Proficient in Jira and Azure DevOps
• Experience working within operating model transformation or organisation-wide change initiatives, not purely software delivery

Desirable Skills

• Direct experience within the Home Office, central government or a GDS-aligned delivery environment
• Experience navigating leadership transitions and organisational change within large, complex programmes
• Background working with Change Managers and adoption teams on behavioural and organisational change
• Familiarity with complex operational and engineering environments within large enterprise or government settings