2027 Digital Product Owner Apprentice: Thales Manor Royal Business District Crawley, UK Software Development & Engineering

Manor Royal Business District Limited; Crawley; Hybrid; GBP 21,000 - 28,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Hybrid/flexible working options

Health Care Cash Plan

Performance-related pay uplifts

Annual leave 201 hours

Job summary

Thales UK is offering a 24-month Digital Product Owner Apprentice role in Crawley. You will collaborate with engineers, designers and data teams to turn user needs into clear, prioritized outcomes. The programme blends academic study with hands-on delivery and concludes with a permanent role at Thales UK.

The entry requirements include GCSEs with English and Maths, plus A Levels or equivalent. The role features a £24,000 salary, hybrid working, and sector-leading training with extensive

Qualifications

• GCSEs grade 9-4 including English and Maths or equivalent.
• A Levels or alternative recognised qualification at C grade or above.

Responsibilities

• Learn and apply product ownership practices on live projects.
• Collaborate with engineering, design, data and domain experts.
• Contribute to defining user problems and success metrics.
• Assist in backlog refinement and drafting clear requirements.
• Produce lightweight product documentation and release notes.

Skills

Product discovery

Backlog refinement

Stakeholder requirements

Education

GCSEs incl English & Maths

A Levels / equivalent

Job description

Location: Crawley, United Kingdom

Thales is a global technology leader with more than 83,000 employees on five continents. With over 7,500 people in the UK, operating across defence, space, aerospace, and digital security, we help build a future we can all trust. Thales supports the security and stability of our nation by providing extraordinary technology to our customers, as well as delivering social value to the UK with our products and services.

2027 Digital Product Owner Apprentice - Level 4 Digital Product Manager Apprenticeship

Start Date: Monday 6 September 2027

Salary: £24,000 per annum

Location: Crawley

Employee Type: Permanent

Working Schedule: Monday – Friday, 37 hours a week (8 hours Monday – Thursday, 5 hours Friday)

Turn your curiosity into a career. If you’re passionate about delivering digital solutions, eager to learn, and looking for an apprenticeship that blends academic study with hands‑on experience, we’d love to hear from you…

Benefits of the programme:

• Earn a salary while studying for your apprenticeship
• Gain hands‑on experience in a real working environment
• Receive job‑specific training and development
• Achieve a recognised qualification
• Secure a permanent role from the start of your apprenticeship
• Tuition fees for the approved training providers are fully covered

About the Role:

As a Digital Product Owner Apprentice, you will develop the product knowledge, practical skills and professional behaviours needed to define, prioritise and deliver valuable products and improvements.

Working as part of our product and delivery community, you will contribute to live projects by collaborating with engineering, design, data, systems and domain specialists to turn user and business needs into clear outcomes, well‑prioritised work and measurable delivery.

What You Will Learn

Your responsibilities may include:

• Working with experienced product owners, AIDMs and teams on live initiatives to learn effective product practices
• Shadowing Product Owners and AIDMs to understand customer and stakeholder needs, translating them into clear product goals and requirements
• Contributing to product discovery, including defining user problems, assumptions and success metrics
• Supporting backlog refinement by collecting input, flagging risks, and proposing reworded requirements for clarity
• Supporting validation through demos, feedback loops and continuous improvement of product outcomes
• Conducting straight forward stakeholder and user research (e.g., interviews, surveys, feedback review) and summarising findings
• Supporting product discovery activities by helping write drafts of problem statements, hypotheses and success measures
• Producing lightweight documentation (e.g., user story notes, FAQs, release notes drafts, decision records)
• Supporting change management activities such as training materials, rollout checklists and escalation paths

Apprenticeship Programme

This is a 24-month programme aligned to the Level 4 Digital Product Manager Apprenticeship standard. Delivered in partnership with a digital specialist provider, the programme is delivered via a virtual model including:

• Live virtual lectures
• Online learning resources
• Self‑directed learning activities

The programme will conclude with an End Point Assessment, followed by roll‑off into your permanent role within the Thales UK business.

Entry Requirements:

To apply, you will need:

• 5 GCSEs grade 9-4 (A-C) including English and Maths (or equivalent)
• A Levels (Grade C or above), Highers, T Level (Merit or above), BTEC Diploma (Merit or above)

Benefits

• Competitive salary of £24,000 per annum
• Performance‑related pay uplifts
• Holiday entitlement of 201 hours a year (plus a company day and bank holidays)
• Contributory Company Pension
• Health Care Cash Plan
• Hybrid/flexible working options
• Employee assistance programme
• Learning and development support
• Employee discounts and wellbeing initiatives
• Life Cover
• 80 Hours Volunteering per year (first two years)

Closing date: Our applications will close at 11.59pm on Wednesday 17 February 2027, this is the only time we will be accepting applications this year. Please note, we will be in contact by the end of February 2027 with details of next steps.

PLEASE NOTE, assessment centres for shortlisted candidates will be held between February - May 2027. Induction week for all Graduate and Apprentices will take place from Monday 6 September - Friday 10 September 2027.

PLEASE NOTE THAT ROLES MAY CLOSE EARLIER THAN THE ADVERTISED DEADLINE IF WE RECEIVE A HIGH NUMER OF APPLICATIONS. WE ENCOURAGE YOU TO APPLY AS SOON AS POSSIBLE TO AVOID MISSING OUT ON THIS OPPORTUNITY.

Because of the work we do at Thales, all roles are subject to security requirements.

To be considered for this position, you must have the permanent right to work in the UK and be able to successfully complete and maintain UK Government security checks, including Baseline Personnel Security Standard (BPSS) screening and Security Clearance (SC), which is a government background check, before starting employment.

To be eligible for SC clearance, you will typically need to have lived in the UK continuously for the last five years. As part of the vetting process, you will be asked to provide evidence of your identity, right to work in the UK, any time spent overseas during the last five years, and your employment and/or education history.

For further details of the evidence required to apply for security clearance please follow this link – https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/united-kingdom-security-vetting-clearance-levels/national-security-vetting-clearance-levels

Thales is an equal opportunities employer and diversity, and inclusion are integral to the success of Thales.

At Thales, we ensure equal opportunities, pay and working conditions for all. The benefits we offer include private medical insurance, buying or selling annual leave, cycle to work schemes, employee discounts, paid volunteering day, stocks and shares, annual bonus and much more depending on the role. Read more about our benefits here.

We are committed to creating a workplace where everyone feels valued for who they are and the unique strengths they bring. Discover more about our programmes, employee networks, wellbeing policies, and inclusive features here.

If this role isn’t quite right for you, we encourage you to join our talent community where your details will be shared with our recruitment teams for other potential opportunities. Join the Talent Community here.

Join Thales in the UK – Innovate with us and shape the future!