Product Manager, Decision Optimisation - AI for Defence

Whitespace; Belfast City District; Hybrid; GBP 54,000 - 90,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Pension

Private medical insurance

Salary sacrifice EV scheme

Death in service

25 days annual leave

Remote across GB or hybrid from NI (B"

Job summary

Whitespace is building an AI product for Defence, Government and Regulated Industries, with a Decision Optimisation product line. You will own the roadmap, scale the MVP, and determine what belongs in the portfolio boundary, translating complex regulatory constraints into the Collective platform.

You will work with senior public sector decision-makers and C‑Suite, balancing investment decisions, and driving ROI and adoption across a growing use-case pipeline.

Qualifications

• Experience shipping complex, data-heavy B2B or B2G products into live production.
• Experience taking an early-stage product past MVP: sequencing a pipeline of candidate use cases and deciding what generalises.
• AI fluency across agentic systems, natural language interfaces and knowledge graphs; realistic about non-deterministic behaviour and trust built into it.
• Ability to translate engineering and user needs into requirements that hold up under scrutiny.
• Ability to articulate vision and strategy across the organisation, and to engage with senior defence and government stakeholders.
• Eligibility to obtain UK Security Clearance (SC), or active SC.

Responsibilities

• Own the roadmap for Decision Optimisation, sequencing the use case pipeline against demand and platform readiness.
• Define MVP-to-scale strategy: determine what generalises vs bespoke solutions.
• Define the product boundary within the portfolio and maintain discipline across it.
• Translate Balance of Investment concepts into Collective definitions: decision context, scoring, constraints and objectives.
• Foster trust properties: transparent recommendations with traceable evidence and auditable records.
• Drive business outcomes: ROI, OKRs and adoption as part of product leadership with design and engineering.
• Collaborate with senior public sector stakeholders and internal C‑Suite, and travel to customer sites as required.

Skills

Product management

Public sector / regulated industry

Strategy & roadmapping

Stakeholder engagement

Security clearance eligibility

Job description

Whitespace is building an AI product for Defence, Government and Regulated Industries, with a Decision Optimisation product line. You will own the roadmap, scale the MVP, and determine what belongs in the portfolio boundary, translating complex regulatory constraints into the Collective platform.

You will work with senior public sector decision-makers and C‑Suite, balancing investment decisions, and driving ROI and adoption across a growing use-case pipeline.