Design System Product Owner

Barclays; Manchester; Hybrid; GBP 90,000 - 120,000; Full time

Job summary

Barclays is seeking a Design System Product Owner to shape the Blueprint design system across the bank, defining vision, roadmap and prioritising work for teams delivering accessible, scalable digital experiences. You will balance demand, drive adoption, and collaborate with design, engineering and platform specialists to ensure value-driven outcomes.

You will translate demand into backlog items and influence investment decisions while staying closely connected to teams and customers served by

Qualifications

• Proven experience defining product strategy, roadmaps and priorities for complex digital products.
• Strong stakeholder management and influencing skills across a diverse organisation.
• Experience using data, customer insight and business outcomes to inform product decisions.

Responsibilities

• Provide SME to support collaboration between the product owner and the technical teams.
• Develop and implement the product strategy and vision defined in the roadmap and communicate to stakeholders and the development team.
• Collaborate with internal stakeholders to gather and prioritise product requirements and features based on value and feasibility.
• Develop and implement assessments to ensure continuous testing and improvement of product quality and performance.
• Monitor product performance to identify opportunities for optimisation that meet standards.

Skills

Product strategy

Roadmap planning

Stakeholder management

Data-informed decisions

Job description

Join Barclays as a Design System Product Owner and play a pivotal role in shaping the Blueprint design system that powers customer and colleague experiences across the bank. This is an opportunity to own the vision, strategy and prioritisation of a strategic product used by teams across Barclays to deliver consistent, accessible and scalable digital experiences. You will define the roadmap, influence investment decisions and balance demand across multiple tribes, ensuring work is driven by value, evidence and consumer needs. Working alongside design, engineering and platform specialists, you will champion a product mindset, drive adoption at scale and help shape the future of Blueprint while remaining closely connected to the teams and customers it serves.

To be successful in this role, you will need the following:

• Proven experience defining product strategy, roadmaps and priorities for complex digital products.
• Strong stakeholder management and influencing skills across a diverse organisation.
• Experience using data, customer insight and business outcomes to inform product decisions.
• Deep understanding of enterprise design systems, accessibility standards and design-to-code workflows.
• Ability to translate demand into clear, actionable backlog items that deliver measurable value.

Some other highly valued skills may include:

• Experience operating and evolving design systems as products within large organisations.
• Expertise in governance models, contribution frameworks and operating principles at scale.
• Knowledge of product analytics, adoption measurement and value realisation techniques.
• Experience leading strategic initiatives that drive organisational change and product adoption.
• Understanding of release, versioning and change management practices across web and native platforms.

You may be assessed on the key critical skills relevant for success in role, such as risk and controls, change and transformation, business acumen, strategic thinking and digital and technology, as well as job-specific technical skills.

The successful candidate can be based in Manchester (Piccadilly Place), Knutsford (Radbroke Hall), or Northampton (Pavilion Drive).

Purpose of the role

To collaborate with product owners and other technical teams involved in the product development process and utilise their knowledge of the bank’s technologies to enact the vision defined in the product roadmap.

Accountabilities

• Provision of subject matter expertise to support the collaboration between the product owner and the technical side of product development.
• Support the development and implementation of the product strategy and vision defined in the product roadmap and communicate them with the relevant stakeholders and the development team.
• Collaboration with internal stakeholders to gather and prioritise product requirements and features based on business value and feasibility that are well defined, measurable and secure.
• Development and implementation of assessments to ensure continuous testing and improvement of product quality and performance.
• Monitoring of product performance to identify opportunities for optimisation that meets the banks performance standards.
• Stay abreast of the latest industry technology trends and technologies, to evaluate and adopt new approaches to improve product development and delivery.

Assistant Vice President Expectations

• To advise and influence decision making, contribute to policy development and take responsibility for operational effectiveness. Collaborate closely with other functions/business divisions.
• Lead a team performing complex tasks, using well developed professional knowledge and skills to deliver on work that impacts the whole business function. Set objectives and coach employees in pursuit of those objectives, appraisal of performance relative to objectives and determination of reward outcomes.
• If the position has leadership responsibilities, People Leaders are expected to demonstrate a clear set of leadership behaviours to create an environment for colleagues to thrive and deliver to a consistently excellent standard. The four LEAD behaviours are: L – Listen and be authentic, E – Energise and inspire, A – Align across the enterprise, D – Develop others.
• OR for an individual contributor, they will lead collaborative assignments and guide team members through structured assignments, identify the need for the inclusion of other areas of specialisation to complete assignments. They will identify new directions for assignments and/or projects, identifying a combination of cross functional methodologies or practices to meet required outcomes.
• Consult on complex issues; providing advice to People Leaders to support the resolution of escalated issues.
• Identify ways to mitigate risk and developing new policies/procedures in support of the control and governance agenda.
• Take ownership for managing risk and strengthening controls in relation to the work done.
• Perform work that is closely related to that of other areas, which requires understanding of how areas coordinate and contribute to the achievement of the objectives of the organisation sub-function.
• Collaborate with other areas of work, for business aligned support areas to keep up to speed with business activity and the business strategy.
• Engage in complex analysis of data from multiple sources of information, internal and external sources such as procedures and practises (in other areas, teams, companies, etc.) to solve problems creatively and effectively.
• Communicate complex information. 'Complex' information could include sensitive information or information that is difficult to communicate because of its content or its audience.
• Influence or convince stakeholders to achieve outcomes.

All colleagues will be expected to demonstrate the Barclays Values of Respect, Integrity, Service, Excellence and Stewardship – our moral compass, helping us do what we believe is right. They will also be expected to demonstrate the Barclays Mindset – to Empower, Challenge and Drive – the operating manual for how we behave.