DV-Cleared Product Manager | MVP & Backlog Lead

Kainos; City of Edinburgh; On-site; GBP 60,000 - 90,000; Full time

Job summary

Kainos is seeking a Product Consultant in Edinburgh to own backlog maturity, drive MVP thinking, and communicate value to stakeholders. You will lead agile ceremonies, plan workshops with diverse teams, and contribute to product capability while coaching a small team of staff.

The role emphasises stakeholder engagement, client-facing delivery, and maintaining alignment with project goals and schedules. A DV clearance and defence experience are valued.

Qualifications

• Experience in bespoke software delivery within an agile team for external customers.
• Defence sector experience and DV clearance are required.
• Experience across the software development lifecycle from analysis to launch.
• Strong ability to facilitate workshops and drive consensus.
• Skilled in modelling current and future business processes for buy-in.
• Solid stakeholder management and ability to challenge decisions when needed.
• Breaks down work into deliverable pieces and manages team backlog quality.
• Elicits functional, technical and non-functional requirements into clear user stories.
• Uses backlog prioritisation to manage dependencies and MVP delivery.
• Keeps commercial constraints in view and adheres to deadlines.
• Excellent user-story writing and cross-team communication.
• Builds trusted relationships inside and outside the delivery team.
• Experience in client/supplier settings and contributing to bids/sales.
• Mentors colleagues in Agile and develops junior staff.
• Able to explain technical jargon to non-technical teams.

Responsibilities

• Owns team backlog maturity and features from inception to delivery.
• Drives MVP thinking and communicates value to stakeholders.
• Leads Agile ceremonies and organises workshops with diverse stakeholders.
• Participates in the Product capability and supports delivery initiatives.
• Manages and develops a small team, focusing on performance coaching.
• Collaborates with client teams and internal delivery to ensure alignment.

Skills

Client-facing experience

Defence sector experience

DV clearance

SDLC lifecycle experience

Workshop facilitation

As-is/To-be modelling

Stakeholder management

Backlog decomposition

Requirements elicitation

Backlog prioritisation

MVP scope management

Commercial constraint handling

User story writing

Relationship building

Sales activity involvement

Agile coaching

People development

Translating jargon for non-technical

Job description

Kainos is seeking a Product Consultant in Edinburgh to own backlog maturity, drive MVP thinking, and communicate value to stakeholders. You will lead agile ceremonies, plan workshops with diverse teams, and contribute to product capability while coaching a small team of staff.

The role emphasises stakeholder engagement, client-facing delivery, and maintaining alignment with project goals and schedules. A DV clearance and defence experience are valued.