Interim Senior Product Manager

Go Fractional; Greater London; Hybrid; GBP 90,000 - 120,000; Full time

Job summary

Financial Times is seeking an experienced Senior Product Manager for the Privacy team. You will shape the product strategy and roadmap, partnering with Engineering, Design, Research, Legal, Compliance and Data Governance to deliver clear, trustworthy privacy experiences across customer journeys.

You will balance customer trust with regulatory responsibilities, build measurable outcomes, and lead complex cross-functional programs that embed privacy thinking into product development.

Qualifications

• Strong customer focus and ability to identify underlying customer problems.
• Excellent judgement balancing customer, business, technical and regulatory considerations.
• Strong analytical skills using data, research and experimentation.
• Ability to turn complex problems into clear priorities and actions.

Responsibilities

• Define and communicate a clear product vision, strategy and roadmap for Privacy.
• Lead cross-functional teams to turn complex needs into simple, trustworthy experiences.
• Embed privacy thinking early in product and technology development.
• Develop measures of success using data and customer research to improve trust and engagement.
• Collaborate with Legal, Compliance and Data Governance to translate requirements into product solutions.
• Provide senior product leadership and influence without formal authority.
• Drive long-term capabilities for Privacy & Trust across the FT.
• Partner with Research, Design and Data teams to understand customer perceptions of privacy, consent and data use.

Skills

Cross-functional leadership

Privacy experience

Data governance

Regulatory awareness

Job description

Who you are

• We are looking for an experienced Product Manager who is comfortable working in complex, technically challenging and highly cross-functional environments
• Significant experience managing digital products or platforms
• A strong track record of defining product strategy and turning it into measurable outcomes
• Experience leading complex initiatives across multiple teams and stakeholder groups
• A strong customer focus and an ability to identify the underlying customer problem rather than simply respond to requirements
• Excellent judgement when balancing customer, business, technical and regulatory considerations
• Strong analytical skills and experience using data, customer research and experimentation to inform decisions
• The ability to turn complex or ambiguous problems into clear priorities and actions
• Strong written and verbal communication skills, including experience communicating with senior stakeholders
• Experience working closely with engineers, designers, researchers, analysts and other specialist disciplines
• An understanding of how product decisions contribute to both customer value and sustainable business outcomes
• A collaborative leadership style and the ability to influence without direct authority
• You do not need to be a privacy lawyer or regulatory expert
• We are interested in experienced Product Managers who can learn a complex domain quickly and work effectively with specialist colleagues
• Most importantly, you will care deeply about creating products that customers can trust

Desirable

• Privacy, consent or customer preferences
• Customer identity or first-party data
• Personalisation or data-driven customer experiences
• Data governance
• Trust and safety
• Regulatory or highly regulated product environments
• Large-scale digital platforms or shared product capabilities

What the job involves

• Privacy is an increasingly important part of the customer experience
• Customers should be able to understand how their information is used, make meaningful choices and feel confident that the FT acts responsibly with their data. Our ambition is to make privacy a reason for customers to trust the FT
• As Senior Product Manager for the Privacy team, you will lead the product strategy and roadmap for this area
• You will work across Product, Engineering, Design, Research, Data, Legal, Compliance, Marketing and commercial teams to turn complex customer, regulatory, technical and business needs into simple, trustworthy product experiences
• It is a product leadership role focused on how the FT can create clearer, simpler and transparent experiences, while ensuring that privacy and responsible data use are embedded into the way we build products
• You will help us work towards an ambition of being one of the most trusted digital organisations in how we handle customer data and privacy choices
• Customer trust: Identifying opportunities to strengthen trust through clear, transparent and respectful privacy experiences
• Customer choice: Making it easier for customers to understand and manage how their data is used
• Privacy experience: Creating simpler and more consistent experiences across customer journeys
• Responsible data use: Helping ensure that product teams use customer data in ways that are responsible, understandable and aligned with customer expectations
• Privacy by design: Working with teams across the FT to embed privacy thinking earlier in product and technology development
• Measurement and insight: Developing a better understanding of how customers interact with privacy choices and how those experiences affect trust and engagement
• Experimentation: Using customer research and responsible experimentation to improve how privacy choices are communicated and experienced
• Regulatory change: Working with Legal, Compliance and Data Governance colleagues to ensure that evolving requirements are translated into scalable and customer-friendly product solutions
• Product foundations: Helping improve the systems, processes and ownership models that support privacy experiences across the FT, powering more personalised journeys
• Set the product direction
• Define and communicate a clear product vision, strategy and roadmap for the Privacy team
• Identify the most important customer and business problems to solve and translate them into measurable outcomes
• Balance customer trust, regulatory responsibilities, product experience, technical sustainability and business needs when setting priorities
• Look beyond individual requirements or projects to build capabilities that can support the FT over the long term
• Champion the customer
• Make the customer perspective central to privacy product decisions
• Work with Research, Design and Data teams to understand how customers perceive privacy, data use and consent
• Identify areas where experiences may be confusing, inconsistent or unnecessarily difficult
• Advocate for simple language, meaningful choices and experiences that help customers feel informed and in control
• Lead complex cross-functional work
• Lead initiatives involving multiple product and technology teams and a wide range of business stakeholders
• Work closely with Engineering and Architecture colleagues to understand technical opportunities, constraints and dependencies
• Partner with Legal, Compliance and Data Governance teams to translate specialist requirements into effective customer and product solutions
• Build strong relationships across the FT and create alignment where different teams have competing needs or priorities
• Use evidence to make decisions
• Define meaningful measures of success and use data and customer research to understand product performance
• Develop hypotheses and experiments that help improve customer understanding and trust
• Use external trends, industry developments and emerging best practice to inform product direction
• Ensure decisions are based on evidence while recognising the importance of judgement in areas involving trust and customer expectations
• Deliver outcomes
• Take opportunities from problem definition and discovery through delivery, measurement and iteration
• Give cross-functional teams clear objectives and priorities
• Identify risks, dependencies and trade-offs early and help teams make good decisions
• Communicate strategy, progress, outcomes and decisions clearly to stakeholders at all levels of the organisation
• Provide senior product leadership
• Bring clarity and structure to complex and ambiguous problems
• Influence teams and senior stakeholders without relying on formal authority
• Contribute to the wider Product community and help raise the quality of product thinking and practice
• Support and mentor other Product Managers where appropriate
• Success in this role means helping the FT make privacy and responsible data use a stronger part of our customer proposition

You will help us:

• Create simpler and more understandable privacy experiences
• Give customers greater clarity and control over their choices
• Build stronger understanding of how privacy experiences affect customer trust
• Establish clearer product principles for the responsible use of customer data
• Embed privacy thinking more consistently into product development
• Improve the foundations that allow teams to deliver trustworthy experiences efficiently
• Build stronger alignment between customer needs, regulatory responsibilities and business priorities
• Develop a clear long-term product direction for Privacy & Trust