Job summary

This role sits within the Biometrics Integration Product Family, delivering critical services that underpin the UK Home Office’s Visa, Immigration and Border Systems. These high‑volume, mission‑critical services process hundreds of thousands of transactions each day and form part of the UK’s national infrastructure.

The role focuses primarily on backend product delivery, working with APIs and microservices to enable secure, resilient and scalable integration across the wider Home Office ecosystem. The Senior Product Manager is responsible for setting product vision, prioritising work, and ensuring high‑quality outcomes that balance operational needs with longer‑term strategic objectives.

This is a complex and demanding role, requiring delivery of high‑priority work to tight timescales, navigating technical and organisational complexity, and managing competing requirements while maintaining a clear end‑to‑end view.

The role includes leading and supporting multidisciplinary teams, creating the conditions for strong delivery and continuous improvement. Working within a matrix environment, the post holder will collaborate closely with engineering, architecture, security, operations, policy, and commercial teams, as well as external partners. Strong influencing skills, clear communication, and the ability to align stakeholders around shared outcomes are essential.

Job description

As a Senior Product Manager, you’ll use your understanding of user needs and business goals to frame problems, set priorities, and guide delivery teams.

You’ll own the product vision and quality, sometimes working alongside a Lead Product Manager or programme director.

You’ll identify opportunities to improve outcomes, enhance benefits, and drive continuous improvement.

You’ll have final responsibility for product quality and release readiness, managing either a complex product or multiple related products.

Additionally, you may line manage, coach, and mentor Associate and Product Managers, and support recruitment activities.

Your leadership will help shape product strategy and ensure delivery aligns with business objectives.

Person specification
Main Responsibilities

• Define and evolve the product vision, engaging teams and stakeholders throughout its development.
• Lead the creation of roadmaps, release plans, and lifecycle strategies from inception to retirement, contributing to departmental planning.
• Manage the full product lifecycle, including discovery, alpha, beta, and live phases, ensuring successful service assessments.
• Represent user needs throughout delivery, championing user-centred design and decision-making.
• Prioritise development work by maintaining a balanced product backlog that reflects both immediate needs and long-term business value.
• Provide final sign-off on completed functionality before deployment to production environments.
• Use product data and user feedback to drive continuous improvement, generating ideas for new functionality and promoting evidence-based design.
• Ensure product quality meets standards such as the Government Digital Service Standard, Technology Code of Practice, TDA standards, and accessibility legislation, while advocating these across the department and wider government.

Essential Skills

• Investigating patterns and trends identify and resolve problems.
• Working in the delivery of technology-based projects.
• Budgeting and financial control skills as well as commercial awareness.
• Communicating using a variety of methods (written reports, verbal feedback, presentations etc.), applying the appropriate method to each scenario/audience, which at this level, will usually be large groups.
• Leading in promoting the needs of the team, and of the product; understanding how these may vary between the different phases of a product lifecycle.