Product Manager

Oak National Academy Limited; United Kingdom; Remote; GBP 60,000 - 83,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

4.5-day week

11% employer pension

Fully remote

25 days annual leave

Twice-yearly in-person offsites

Flexible, autonomous working

Job summary

Oak National Academy Limited is seeking an experienced Product Manager to own delivery in cross-functional squads, shaping roadmaps and driving launches for UK teachers and pupils. This hands-on role focuses on identifying user needs, prioritising work, and delivering high-impact digital products that support learning outcomes.

You will work closely with engineers, designers and curriculum specialists, influencing strategy and OKRs while managing pace and ensuring alignment with Oak’s mission.

Qualifications

• Demonstrated success in defining initiatives, building features and launching impactful education technology products.
• Experience owning delivery within cross-functional squads, managing priorities, pace and output without formal line management authority over squad members.
• Experience working with technical engineering teams.
• Ability to work effectively in a matrix environment, building trust and relationships to get things done through people you don’t directly manage.
• Technical background with understanding and/or hands-on experience in software development and web technologies.
• Understanding of web accessibility requirements.
• Comfort working in lean and agile environments, using iterative delivery to test, learn and improve.
• Track record of finding simple, effective solutions to complex problems.
• Experience using user research and data to inform product decisions.

Responsibilities

• Own delivery within cross-functional squads: set priorities, manage pace, and keep output on track against OKRs and release schedules.
• Identify and deliver user-focused products that grow usage and improve user experience based on user understanding.
• Drive product and feature launches with school support, senior team, and other product/education teammates.
• Translate product strategy and OKRs into detailed roadmaps and prototypes.
• Manage digital spending by scoping and prioritising development work.
• Identify and fill product gaps, generating ideas to improve experiences for teachers and pupils.
• Use insights, data and hypotheses to test assumptions and iterate.
• Act as a product champion, guiding development through data and hypotheses.
• Contribute to Oak’s wider goals and values as part of the team.
• Work in cross-functional squads and deputise for senior product leadership as required.

Skills

Product management

Cross-functional leadership

Agile methodologies

User research

Data-driven decisions

Lean delivery

Stakeholder management

Problem solving

Tools

Web technologies

Job description

Product Manager

Remote (UK-based) | Full-time, Fixed-Term to 31 March 2027 | Salary: £71,043 + benefits including 4.5-day week and 11% employer pension

Do your best work, for the right reasons.

We’re looking for an experienced Product Manager on a fixed-term basis to help us build beautifully simple, high-impact digital products that support teachers and improve outcomes for pupils across the UK.

Oak is a fully remote, mission-driven organisation offering high levels of flexibility, autonomy, and purpose. We’re a national not-for-profit working in partnership with teachers to create the highest-quality, sequenced curriculum and lesson resources for pupils across all subjects and age groups.

Our culture has been independently recognised through:

• Flexa verified(93% overall score, including 95% for working hours and 97% for role modelling)
• Escape the City's Top 1% Employers– based on anonymous colleague reviews of culture, development, and impact
• Investors in People Gold -through external accreditation and colleague feedback

About the Role

You'll join our cross-functional team to build and improve the digital products and platforms that support teachers, pupils and Oak’s internal teams. This may include the public-facing experiences used in schools every day, as well as the internal tools and workflows we use to create, manage and publish high-quality curriculum content.

Working closely with software engineers, designers, researchers and curriculum specialists, you’ll make sure our products meet real user needs and deliver meaningful impact.

This is a hands-on role focused on owning delivery within cross-functional squads: setting priorities, managing pace and keeping work on track against our OKRs and release schedules. You'll help shape Oak's product strategy and turn it into clear roadmaps, initiatives and prototypes, then drive launches alongside our school support, education and senior teams. You'll get things done through influence rather than line management, and contribute to Oak’s wider goals and values.

What you'll be doing:

• Own delivery within cross-functional squads: set priorities, manage the pace of work, and keep squad output on track against OKRs and release schedules.
• Identify, champion and deliver user-focused products that grow usage and improve user experience based on a deep understanding of Oak's users using lean and agile methodologies.
• Drive product and feature launches by working with the school support team, senior team, and other product and education team members.
• Support the development of Oak's product strategy and OKRs, and translate this into detailed roadmaps, initiatives and prototypes.
• Manage digital spending by scoping and prioritising development work.
• Identify and fill product gaps, generating new ideas that improve the experience for teachers, pupils and Oak's internal teams.
• Use user insight, data and clear hypotheses to test assumptions, inform product decisions and iterate based on what you learn.
• Act as a product champion, using data and clear hypotheses to guide product development, test assumptions and iterate based on what you learn.
• As a member of the Oak Team, you will contribute to the wider success and culture of the organisation.
• Work in cross-functional and product-oriented squads with colleagues from across the organisation, as required.
• Deputise for the Head of Product (Schools and Teachers) or Principal Product Manager and take on other general responsibilities as required.

What we're looking for

• Demonstrated success in defining initiatives, building features and launching impactful education technology products.
• Experience working with technical engineering teams.
• Experience owning delivery within cross-functional squads, managing priorities, pace and output without formal line management authority over squad members.
• A track record of working effectively in a matrix environment, building the trust and relationships needed to get things done through people you don't directly manage.
• Technical background with understanding and/or hands-on experience in software development and web technologies.
• Specific understanding of web accessibility requirements.
• Confident working in lean and agile environments, using iterative delivery to test, learn and improve.
• A track record of finding simple, effective solutions to complex problems.
• Experience using user research and data to inform product decisions.

The successful candidate will have a desire to contribute across all areas to ensure Oak's success. You will be comfortable moving quickly and with agility, and be confident working with a range of digital systems (including proprietary ones, as required). You will continually look for ways that the team can keep getting better. You will be excellent at working as part of a remote team, building relationships and managing your time effectively.

Our Benefits

• 25 days annual leave, plus one extra day for each year of service (up to 28)
• Additional Oak closure days over Christmas/New Year
• 11% employer pension contribution (with no minimum employee contribution)
• A 36-hour working week, with half-days on Fridays or every other Friday off
• Fully remote working - we’ll support your home set-up and offer coworking options if preferred
• Twice-yearly in-person offsites to collaborate, connect, and have fun
• A culture that genuinely supports flexibility, autonomy, and trust

Inclusion and Belonging

We believe diverse teams build better products. We warmly welcome applicants from all backgrounds, particularly those who are underrepresented in the tech and education sectors.

If you're from an underrepresented group, there's a good chance you're discounting yourself before you've even started. That's more common than you'd think, and it means we may miss out on brilliant people. If you're excited by this role but don't meet every requirement, please apply anyway.

We use the Applied platform to help reduce bias in our hiring process. Answers are anonymised and reviewed by a panel of humans.

Key Info

• Location: Remote, but you must be based in the UK with the legal right to work here
• Sponsorship: Unfortunately, we’re unable to offer visa sponsorship at this time
• Closing date: We’ll be reviewing applications as they come in and may close the role early

We are an equal opportunity employer.

We are committed to a policy of Equal Employment Opportunity and are determined to ensure that no applicant or employee receives less favourable treatment on the grounds of age, disability, gender reassignment, marriage and civil partnership, pregnancy and maternity, race, religion or belief, sex, or sexual orientation, or is disadvantaged by conditions or requirements which cannot be shown to be justifiable.