Product Owner

Mail Metrics; Leicester; Hybrid; GBP 60,000 - 90,000; Full time

Job summary

Mail Metrics is seeking a delivery-focused Product Owner to maximise value from the delivery team. You will translate roadmap outcomes into clear backlog items, guide acceptance criteria and collaborate with Engineering, Quality, Architecture and Product Management to maintain momentum.

You will own day-to-day backlog decisions, ensure readiness criteria, and communicate complex API and data-flow considerations to customers and stakeholders at an appropriate level of technical detail.

Qualifications

• Experience owning and prioritising a software delivery backlog with cross-functional teams.
• Proven ability to translate roadmap outcomes into actionable backlog items and acceptance criteria.
• Experience using AI-assisted tools to improve user stories and product documentation.
• Participation in sprint planning, backlog refinement, reviews and retrospectives to drive decisions.

Responsibilities

• Own and maintain the delivery backlog for the assigned product area, ensuring it is transparent and current.
• Translate roadmap outcomes into clear delivery goals and testable increments.
• Order backlog items within guardrails, balancing value, needs, risk and capacity.
• Create and refine backlog items, scope detail and acceptance criteria with Engineering and QA.
• Make timely day-to-day backlog decisions within delegated authority.
• Explain product capabilities, APIs, integration approaches and data flows to stakeholders.
• Work with Engineering to understand constraints and patterns to support decisions while leaving design to specialists.
• Define and enforce Definition of Ready and Definition of Done for the area.

Skills

Product ownership

Backlog management

Agile delivery

APIs

Data flows

Stakeholder facilitation

REST APIs

Tools

Azure DevOps

Jira

Job description

Are you ready to make a real impact? We’re looking for a Product Owner who can bridge the gap between customer needs and technical delivery, keeping teams focused on delivering meaningful value.

Main Purpose of the Role:

The Product Owner maximises the value realised from a delivery team by translating agreed product outcomes and roadmap priorities into clear delivery goals, testable increments and an ordered, delivery-ready backlog.

A delivery-focused Product Owner, the role has sufficient technical depth to confidently discuss APIs, integrations, data flows and implementation considerations with customers, stakeholders and engineering teams. The role acts as an effective bridge between customer needs and engineering implementation without owning solution architecture or technical design decisions.

The role owns day-to-day backlog, scope-detail, sequencing and acceptance decisions within agreed product and investment guardrails. It works closely with Product Management, Engineering, Quality, Architecture and operational stakeholders to maintain delivery momentum while protecting the intended customer, operational and business outcomes.

Key deliverables are a transparent and current backlog, timely product decisions, clear acceptance expectations, and evidence that released capabilities achieve their intended outcomes.

Lo cation:

UK-based hybrid role, with locations in Huddersfield and Leicester. The role offers flexibility to work remotely, with opportunities for office-based collaboration. You’ll work closely with colleagues across the UK, Ireland and Poland, with occasional travel to customer or partner sites and business events as required.

Role Description:

• Own and maintain the delivery backlog for the assigned product area, ensuring it is transparent, ordered, current and aligned to agreed product outcomes.
• Translate agreed roadmap outcomes into clear delivery goals and valuable, testable increments.
• Order backlog items within agreed roadmap guardrails, balancing customer value, business needs, operational risk, dependencies, technical sustainability and delivery capacity.
• Create and refine backlog items, scope detail and acceptance criteria in collaboration with Engineering, Quality, Architecture and relevant subject-matter experts.
• Make timely day-to-day decisions on backlog order, delivery scope, sequencing and acceptance within delegated authority.
• Clarify requirements and provide delivery teams with the product context and decisions needed to maintain momentum.
• Explain product capabilities, APIs, integration approaches, data flows and implementation considerations to customers, stakeholders and delivery teams at an appropriate level of technical detail.
• Work with Engineering and Architecture to understand technical constraints and integration patterns sufficiently to support effective product decisions, backlog prioritisation and stakeholder discussions, while leaving technical design authority with the appropriate technical roles.
• Create, maintain and enforce the Definition of Ready for the assigned product area, ensuring backlog items meet agreed readiness standards before commitment and that the assigned Product Manager or Senior Product Manager confirms alignment to intended outcomes.
• Create, maintain and enforce the product elements of the Definition of Done, including agreed business acceptance criteria, and accept or reject completed functionality in collaboration with Engineering, Quality and specialist assurance roles where required.
• Provide product input to release readiness, operational readiness and migration planning, including clear scope, sequencing and acceptance expectations.
• Contribute delivery and operational insight to customer discovery, product decisions and roadmap refinement.
• Validate delivered capability with the assigned Product Manager or Senior Product Manager, using customer evidence, product performance, delivery learning and operational insight to identify further iteration or corrective action.
• Identify and manage delivery-level product risks, assumptions, dependencies and decisions, escalating material product or portfolio impacts.
• Coordinate delivery across multiple squads where work spans team boundaries, maintaining an integrated view of scope, sequencing and dependencies and supporting Engineering and Delivery leads to surface, manage and escape blockers.
• Manage incoming requests through the agreed prioritisation and intake process, protecting committed priorities while ensuring material new evidence is considered.
• Maintain clear traceability from agreed need and intended outcome through to delivered capability.
• Contribute to effective Product ways of working, including standards for backlog quality, refinement, decision-making and acceptance.
• Actively participate in and provide Product leadership across sprint planning, backlog refinement, reviews and retrospectives, clarifying priorities, making timely product decisions, reviewing delivered value and incorporating learning into the backlog.

Required Qualification/Experience/Skills:

• Experience owning and prioritising a software delivery backlog and working continuously with a cross-functional delivery team.
• Demonstrable experience creating and refining backlog items, scope detail and clear acceptance criteria.
• Practical experience using AI-assisted tools to improve the speed and quality of user stories, product requirements documents, acceptance criteria and other product documentation, with appropriate review, validation and accountability for the final output.
• Experience actively participating in sprint planning, backlog refinement, reviews and retrospectives, and using those ceremonies to support clear decisions and continuous improvement.
• Experience establishing and applying Definitions of Ready and Done with cross-functional delivery teams.
• Experience coordinating delivery across multiple squads, including dependencies, sequencing and blockers, in environments without dedicated project-management support.
• Experience working closely with Engineering and Quality teams in an agile delivery environment.
• Ability to translate customer, business, operational and technical needs into actionable delivery requirements.
• Ability to understand and explain APIs, integrations, data flows and technical concepts to both technical and non-technical audiences.
• Sufficient technical depth to discuss routine implementation options, integration approaches and technical trade-offs with customers, stakeholders and engineering teams, while recognising when specialist Engineering or Architecture input is required.
• Sound judgement and confidence making day-to-day prioritisation, scope and acceptance decisions within agreed guardrails.
• Strong stakeholder communication and facilitation skills across different disciplines and levels of technical knowledge.
• Strong analytical and problem-solving skills, including identifying dependencies, assumptions, risks and trade-offs.
• Evidence of using customer, business, operational or product data to make and explain delivery-priority decisions.
• Ability to balance immediate delivery needs with longer-term product outcomes, technical sustainability and operational risk.
• Organised and detail-oriented approach, with the ability to manage competing demands while maintaining focus on outcomes.
• Collaborative and pragmatic working style, with a willingness to challenge constructively and adapt based on evidence.
• Commitment to inclusive working practices and clear, respectful communication.
• Experience in regulated, compliance-sensitive or operationally complex environments.
• Experience with customer communications, workflow, data, reporting or integration-led products.
• Experience supporting platform migration, legacy modernisation or major product transformation.
• Working knowledge of REST APIs, web services, authentication concepts, data flows, integration patterns, non-functional requirements and software quality practices.
• Experience supporting customer integration discussions, API adoption, technical onboarding or solution implementation activities.
• Experience using product and delivery tools such as Azure DevOps, Jira or equivalent.

Relevant Product Ownership qualification or equivalent

Experience as a Product Owner within an Agile environment, delivering products and enhancements through effective backlog management and stakeholder engagement.