Technical Product Owner - 7530

Cambridge University Press & Assessment; Cambridge; Hybrid; GBP 51,000 - 68,000; Full time

Job summary

Cambridge University Press & Assessment is seeking a Technical Product Owner for Workday People Systems. You will be embedded in the HR Solutions delivery team, bridging the technical and business worlds to turn complex People and Culture needs into deliverable improvements with Workday at the core.

You will own the product backlog, drive the roadmap, collaborate with Workday engineers and stakeholders, and ensure clear epics and user stories with acceptance criteria.

Qualifications

• Experience in software product development and delivery.
• Understanding of Human Capital Management (HCM)/ HR technologies core concepts.
• Experience owning and prioritising product backlogs, eliciting requirements, defining epics and user stories and managing product roadmaps.
• Strong stakeholder management skills and experience building effective relationships.
• Knowledge of product and development management tools such as Jira and Miro.
• Ability to analyse complex information and data, map data flows, and draw well-reasoned conclusions.
• Excellent written, verbal and presentation skills, including the ability to communicate technical information to non-technical audiences and senior leaders.
• Ability to build understanding of unfamiliar systems and processes quickly, using structured questioning and analysis.
• Ability to build shared understanding of priorities and outcomes across a technical delivery team.
• Curiosity, sound judgement and the confidence to challenge priorities constructively.

Responsibilities

• Guide the Workday product backlog and roadmap.
• Collaborate with HR stakeholders and engineers.
• Translate business requests into prioritized requirements.
• Create clear epics and user stories with acceptance criteria.
• Manage dependencies and risk to delivery.
• Participate in Agile ceremonies and sprint planning.
• Ensure alignment with broader architecture and future innovations.
• Keep knowledge shared across the team.

Skills

Product ownership

Agile methodologies

Stakeholder mgmt

Jira

Miro

Data analysis

Communication

Workday knowledge

Backlog prioritization

Requirements gathering

Tools

Jira

Miro

Job description

Job Title: Technical Product Owner – Workday People Systems

Salary: £50,900 - £68,000

Location: Cambridge/Hybrid with 40–60% of time in office

Contract: Permanent

Hours: Full-time 35 hours per week

Are you an experienced product owner who can connect People and Culture priorities with high-quality technical delivery?

We are Cambridge University Press & Assessment, a world-leading academic publisher and assessment organisation and a proud part of the University of Cambridge.

This is an opportunity to transform our People Systems, with Workday at the core alongside PageUp and VNDLY. You will help turn complex business needs into valuable, deliverable improvements and support the growth of Workday adoption across the organisation.

About The Role

As Technical Product Owner, you will be embedded in the HR Solutions delivery team and bridge the technical and business worlds. Working closely with People and Culture stakeholders, engineers, the Technical Solution Owner and external partners, you will have a holistic view across all business requests, operational activities, technical debt and innovation opportunities to inform prioritisation decisions and build a robust development roadmap.

The role requires confidence working with complex data, understanding dependencies and constructively challenging requests where required. You will translate business needs into clear, prioritised requirements, working with Workday engineers and the Technical Solution Owner to assess options, understand dependencies and agree deliverable outcomes. Hands-on configuration and detailed solution design sit with the specialist delivery team.

Additional responsibilities and accountabilities include:

• Work with the team of Workday engineers to focus team effort on the product vision, provide the forward view of the development roadmap and inspire them to complete sprint goals.
• Own and manage the product development roadmap, understanding and managing dependencies, and raise any risks to delivery.
• Engage with the business product owner to understand scope, and value of new business requests, highlight trade off decisions and agree priority.
• Build strong relationships with business stakeholders, translating business needs into requirements that technical teams can interpret and deliver.
• Create clear epics and user stories, ensuring stories have clear acceptance criteria and definitions of done, are reviewed, refined and ready for delivery.
• Own and manage the product backlog in Jira, prioritising based on the agreed roadmap, ensuring sufficient capacity for annual operational activities (benefits selection, bonus and pay review) is accounted for.
• Lead story refinement and sprint planning, participate in Agile ceremonies and support continuous improvement in delivery practices.
• Work with the Technical Solution Owner to understand the broader architecture and solution design, incorporating future product innovations into the roadmap.
• Stay current with product, technology and business process changes, sharing knowledge across the wider team.

This position has been classified as a hybrid role, requiring the selected candidate to typically spend 40–60% of their time collaborating and connecting face-to-face at their dedicated location. Aside from our hybrid principles, other flexible working requests will be considered from the first day of employment, including other work arrangements should you require adjustments due to a disability or long-term health condition.

About You

You will bring strong technical product ownership experience, together with the communication, judgement and delivery focus needed to work across business and technical teams. You will be comfortable explaining technical topics clearly and constructively saying no when required.

To be successful, you will need:

• A deep understanding of software product development and delivery.
• An understanding of Human Capital Management (HCM)/ HR technologies core concepts and components.
• Practical experience of using Agile and Scrum methodologies in product development.
• Experience owning and prioritising product backlogs, eliciting requirements, defining epics and user stories and managing product roadmaps.
• Strong stakeholder management skills and experience building effective relationships.
• Knowledge of product and development management tools such as Jira and Miro.
• The ability to analyse complex information and data, map data flows, and draw well‑reasoned conclusions.
• Excellent written, verbal and presentation skills, including the ability to communicate technical information to non-technical audiences and senior leaders.
• Ability to build understanding of unfamiliar systems and processes quickly, using structured questioning and analysis.
• Ability to build shared understanding of priorities and outcomes across a technical delivery team.
• Curiosity, sound judgement and the confidence to challenge priorities constructively.

Your application will be even stronger if you can also demonstrate the following desirable criteria:

• Experience of product ownership of Workday.
• Experience coaching colleagues or customers in Agile ways of working.

Rewards And Benefits

We will support you to be at your best in work and to live well outside of it. In addition to competitive salaries, we offer a world‑class, flexible rewards package, featuring family-friendly and planet-friendly benefits including:

• 28 days annual leave plus bank holidays
• Private medical and Permanent Health Insurance
• Discretionary annual bonus
• Group personal pension scheme
• Life assurance up to 4 x annual salary
• Green travel schemes

Ready to pursue your potential?

We aim to support candidates by making our interview process clear and transparent. The closing date for all applications will be 11th November. We will review applications on an ongoing basis, and shortlisted candidates can expect interviews to take place shortly after it closes.

If you are shortlisted and progressed through the stages, you can expect:

• A 15-minute screening call with the Hiring Manager.
• First stage virtual interview via MS Teams. You will be provided with a brief to complete a role related task which will need to be returned by email in advance of your interview.
• Final stage interview: in‑person at our offices in Cambridge.

If you require any reasonable adjustments during the recruitment process due to a disability or a long‑term health condition, there will be an opportunity for you to inform us via the online application form. We will do our best to accommodate your needs.

Please note that successful applicants will be subject to satisfactory background checks including DBS due to working in a regulated industry.

We are committed to an equitable recruitment process. As such, applications must be submitted via our official online application procedure.

Why join us

Joining us is your opportunity to pursue potential. You will belong to a collaborative team that is exploring new and better ways to serve students, teachers and researchers across the globe – for the benefit of individuals, society and the world. Sharing our mission will inspire your own growth, development and progress, in an environment which embraces difference, change and aspiration.

Cambridge University Press & Assessment is committed to being a place where anyone can enjoy a successful career, where it is safe to speak up, and where we learn continuously to improve together. We welcome applications from all candidates, regardless of demographic characteristics (age, disability, educational attainment, ethnicity, gender, marital status, neurodiversity, religion, sex, gender identity and sexual identity), cultural, or social class/background.

We believe better outcomes come through diversity of thought, background and approach. We welcome applications from people from all backgrounds and communities, actively seeking to employ people from a wide range of different communities.