Product Owner

RM Technology; Abingdon; Hybrid; GBP 60,000 - 80,000; Full time

Job summary

A leading company in education technology is seeking a Senior Product Owner to lead teams in developing their Digital Assessment Platform. This role involves prioritizing product backlogs, managing agile processes, and collaborating with stakeholders to ensure the product meets market demands. The ideal candidate will have a strong background in product management, agile methodologies, and technical understanding, along with excellent stakeholder management skills. Flexible working options and competitive benefits are offered.

Benefits

Private Medical Healthcare

Life Assurance

Group Personal Pension Plan

Performance-related Bonuses

Voluntary Benefits

Qualifications

• Extensive hands-on experience in product development.
• Mastery of agile methodologies and product strategy.
• Experience in both Waterfall and Agile/Scrum environments.

Responsibilities

• Define and prioritize product backlog items based on strategy.
• Facilitate sprint planning and retrospective meetings.
• Collaborate with stakeholders to gather and refine requirements.

Skills

Product Management

Stakeholder Management

Agile Methodologies

Market Research

Technical Understanding

Tools

Jira

Azure DevOps

Job description

Overview

Would you like to help enrich the lives of learners around the world?

At RM, we’ve been pioneers of education technology since 1973. We provide technology and resources to the education sector, supporting over 10 million students worldwide. We work with over 28,000 schools, nurseries, and education trusts in 115 countries to deliver customer-centric solutions that improve education outcomes.

What we do helps learners at all stages of their lives, from preschool to higher education and professional qualification; we partner with schools, examination boards, central governments, and other professional institutions to enrich the lives of learners.

RM Group operates through three businesses: Technology (Managed Services, Software, and Infrastructure for Schools), Assessment (Software and Services), and TTS (Educational Resources).

Within the assessment market, we are experts in providing solutions for online exam testing, marking, and the management and analysis of educational data. We work with government ministries, exam boards, and professional awarding bodies for high-stakes assessments such as GCSEs, A-Levels, and professional qualifications. Each year, our software is used globally to conduct hundreds of thousands of on-screen tests and to mark millions of paper-based scripts. For over a decade, we have partnered with the world’s leading awarding bodies to deliver intuitive, secure, and reliable e-marking solutions.

Visit our website to find out more: www.rm.com/assessment

Reporting Line

Reporting to the Head of Product Management, you will lead several teams of developers based in the UK and India, providing leadership to develop our Digital Assessment Platform to meet RM Assessment’s business growth targets.

Responsibilities

You will work with high-performing teams of motivated individuals with a range of specialist skills and domain knowledge.

As the Product Owner, you will ensure the team has the processes, skills, capacity, resources, and motivation to deliver quality work within challenging timescales.

You will manage the team daily, providing support, coaching, and guidance to maximize individual potential, and work alongside senior department members to grow and shape our development function.

1. Define and prioritize the product backlog items based on overall strategy and business objectives, ensuring clear communication of requirements to the development team.
2. Define Acceptance Criteria for backlog items, ensuring items are delivered accordingly.
3. Facilitate sprint planning, review, and retrospective meetings to ensure alignment with the product roadmap and continuous process improvement.
4. Collaborate with stakeholders to gather and refine requirements, ensuring the product meets customer needs and market demands.
5. Oversee development stages, acting as a liaison between the development team and stakeholders to ensure features are delivered as specified.
6. Implement risk management strategies to identify potential issues, mitigate risks, and ensure market success.
7. Champion the adoption of new technologies or processes within the product lifecycle and across the Product Teams (onshore and offshore) to improve efficiency and outcomes.

Experience

We seek superb Senior Product Owners with extensive hands-on experience in product development, mastery of agile methodologies, and skills in steering product strategy, roadmap planning, and execution.

You Will Have

• Product Management or Business Analysis experience in product ownership or management, and related fields.
• Understanding of market research, customer needs, and competitive analysis.
• Experience working in Waterfall and Agile/Scrum environments.
• Stakeholder management skills, collaborating with business leaders, development teams, and customers.
• Ability to balance business needs with technical feasibility.
• Technical understanding of technology and software development processes, familiarity with APIs, cloud solutions, and system architecture.
• Experience defining and prioritizing product backlogs and managing roadmaps.
• Proficiency with tools like Jira and Azure DevOps.

What’s in it for you?

At RM, we offer flexible working options through My Work Blend @RM, allowing hybrid work arrangements including home, office, customer sites, and on the move. Discuss your preferences with your potential line manager during recruitment.

Our benefits include a competitive salary, private medical healthcare, life assurance, a Group Personal Pension Plan with higher contributions, performance-related bonuses, and voluntary benefits such as additional leave, dental plans, health assessments, and cycle schemes. You can also earn bonuses for referrals.

We are committed to diversity and inclusion, creating a welcoming environment where everyone can bring their whole selves to work. For support during the application or interview process, contact us at [e-mail].

Note: We are unable to offer visa sponsorship for this role.