Head of Product, Elections Digital

Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities; Manchester; On-site; GBP 150,000 - 200,000; Full time

Job summary

A UK government department is seeking a Head of Product to lead the Elections Digital Division in Manchester. You will be responsible for developing and executing product strategies for electoral services, including the flagship Register to Vote service. Candidates should possess strong product management experience, proven leadership skills, and the ability to drive user-centered product initiatives. This role comes with a competitive salary and contributes towards a pension scheme.

Benefits

Civil Service pension scheme

Flexible working options

Career development pathways

Qualifications

• Strong experience in shipping digital products.
• Leadership experience in product design and lifecycle.
• Ability to manage senior stakeholder relationships.

Responsibilities

• Develop product vision and strategy.
• Lead teams to assess new user needs.
• Manage product portfolio and ensure reliability.

Skills

Product management experience

Agile delivery

Interpersonal skills

Team leadership

Job description

The Elections Directorate is responsible for a challenging and dynamic policy landscape, always in the public eye, covering electoral policy and law. This includes how elections are run, who can participate and how elections and campaigning are regulated. This is an exciting Head of Product role, joining the leadership team of the Elections Digital Division. This is a team of enthusiastic and highly skilled digital specialists, geographically dispersed across the UK. Our multidisciplinary in‑house digital team is the driving force behind the development and delivery of excellent elections services for users, as well as the day‑to‑day operational running of those services. We are looking to build our in‑house development capability in the coming years. The division has a portfolio of seven products and services, including the flagship Register to vote service. Over recent years, we’ve rapidly expanded our portfolio; electors can now apply online for postal votes, proxy votes and photo identification. As well as continuing to develop our existing products and services to better meet user needs, the Digital Division has a big part to play in delivering government manifesto commitments and other ministerial priorities. Lowering the voting age to 16 requires changes to all our elector‑facing services, making them the first interaction that many young people will have with the gov.uk estate. We are also seeking to improve registration by using data and links between government services to increase the number of people correctly registered to vote. We are looking for a Head of Product to join the team and be accountable for developing, shaping, prioritising and executing the vision, product strategies and roadmaps of the products with the Digital Electoral Services portfolio. The Head of Product is a leadership role in the digital team in the Elections Directorate. You will have direct responsibility for a team of product specialists, as well as a wider leadership role within the Division and Directorate.

Responsibilities

• Be a visible leader in the Elections Directorate advocating for the importance of designing user‑centred products and continually improving them to meet user needs, and represent your products and team across the wider Directorate and Department.
• Own and be responsible for developing and articulating a clear vision, product strategy, achievable goals and measurable objectives for your products.
• In partnership with the Head of Delivery, own and maintain a portfolio‑level roadmap and manage the prioritisation of product development in the portfolio, ensuring a balance of support work so that the products remain reliable, robust and secure, whilst also continuously improving.
• Lead teams in assessing new information about the needs of potential users of the solution, and make decisions about which to meet.
• Support the product community within the Division, helping members feel involved and supported in their profession, help them to identify improvements in their ways of working and use their insights to influence strategy and policy.
• Lead and develop the product team to ensure that we have the right capacity and capability to deliver. The post‑holder will be expected to be an excellent people manager who can develop and empower a high‑performing team.
• Play a leadership role in the Elections Digital Team and the wider Elections Directorate, contributing to ongoing work on the overall digital team structure and roles, strategic planning and scenario planning, support models, options exploration, governance and continuous improvement of products, services and practices.

Qualifications

• Strong product management experience with a track‑record of shipping and evolving great digital products by working with multiple teams in an agile delivery setting.
• Experience of leading the process of designing and improving a portfolio of products throughout their entire life‑cycle, including understanding user needs, user story writing, MVP definition, development of measurable objectives and backlog prioritisation.
• Experience in growing and mentoring a high‑performing product team, identifying talent and potential, and developing and coaching individuals in a team.
• Strong interpersonal skills, used to managing senior stakeholders, building effective relationships and working closely with policy stakeholders to product thinking at the very earliest stages of policy and design thinking.
• Experience of successfully developing and delivering product and portfolio visions, strategies and roadmaps in complex, large, uncertain, and highly visible problem spaces.
• A thorough understanding of a variety of disciplines involved in digital delivery, including engineering, service design, performance analysis and user research developed through working in multi‑disciplinary teams.
• Experience in leading teams through ambiguity, uncertainty, challenge, or change; setting expectations to meet evolving needs, and excellent people management and team leadership skills.
• An understanding of new and emerging digital technologies and the opportunities they provide to improve the delivery of public services in the UK.
• Technical: Technical questions will be based around the essential skills and criteria as listed in the job description.
• Candidates will be asked to prepare a 5‑minute presentation.
• Candidates will be asked to prepare a 5‑minute presentation, further details will be provided on invitation to interview.

Alongside your salary of £66,620, Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government contributes £19,299 towards you being a member of the Civil Service Defined Benefit Pension scheme. Find out what benefits a Civil Service Pension provides. At MHCLG we offer many benefits that range from tailored career pathways and flexible working to MyLifestyle Childcare Voucher and Cycle to Work Schemes. For more information, please click here.

Stage 2: Interview
Behaviours: "Communicating and influencing", "Leadership", "Working together".
Experience: Experience questions will be based around the essential skills and criteria as listed in the job description.
Ability:

Candidates will be asked to prepare a 5‑minute presentation.
Technical questions will be based around the essential skills and criteria as listed in the job description.
Candidates will be asked to prepare a 5‑minute presentation, further details will be provided on invitation to interview.

Sift and Interview Dates: Sifting is envisaged to take place the week commencing 8th December 2025. Interviews are envisaged to take place the weeks commencing 5th January 2026 and 12th January 2026, and are currently being held remotely via video call. This could be subject to change.

How We Recruit: Find out everything you need to know before applying here. Applying, Sifting, Interview, Interview Results & Feedback, Reserve List, Near Miss, Civil Service Grades, We are a DCS, RIS & GPTWV employer, Reasonable Adjustments, Security Clearance Requirements, Civil Service Nationality Requirements, Right to Work, Artificial Intelligence, Civil Service Code and Recruitment Principles, CV Declaration, Sponsorships, Salary and Grade, Existing Civil Servants, Conflict of Interest, Location and Flexible Working, Fixed Term Contracts, Internal Fraud Database – Internal Fraud Register, Appeals and Complaints, Conflict of Interest Security Clearance Requirements National Office: BPSS, SC London Office: BPSS & SC, Feedback will only be provided if you attend an interview or assessment.

People working with government assets must complete baseline personnel security standard checks. Security Successful candidates must undergo a criminal record check. Successful candidates must meet the security requirements before they can be appointed. The level of security needed is security check (opens in a new window). See our vetting charter (opens in a new window). People working with government assets must complete baseline personnel security standard checks (opens in new window).

Nationality requirements: This job is broadly open to the following groups: UK nationals; nationals of the Republic of Ireland; nationals of Commonwealth countries who have the right to work in the UK; nationals of the EU, Switzerland, Norway, Iceland or Liechtenstein and family members of those nationalities with settled or pre‑settled status under the European Union Settlement Scheme (EUSS; opens in a new window); nationals of the EU, Switzerland, Norway, Iceland or Liechtenstein and family members who have made a valid application for settled or pre‑settled status under the EUSS; individuals with limited leave to remain or indefinite leave to remain who were eligible to apply for EUSS on or before 31 December 2020; Turkish nationals and certain family members of Turkish nationals who have accrued the right to work in the Civil Service. Further information on nationality requirements (opens in a new window). Working for the Civil Service: The Civil Service Code (opens in a new window) sets out the standards of behaviour expected of civil servants. We recruit by merit on the basis of fair and open competition, as outlined in the Civil Service Commission's recruitment principles (opens in a new window). The Civil Service embraces diversity and promotes equal opportunities. As such, we run a Disability Confident Scheme (DCS) for candidates with disabilities who meet the minimum selection criteria. The Civil Service also offers a Redeployment Interview Scheme to civil servants who are at risk of redundancy, and who meet the minimum requirements for the advertised vacancy.

Internal Fraud Database – Internal Fraud Register.