Senior Product Manager

Job summary

Ofgem is working at the forefront of the fight to combat inefficiency and complexity in emerging energy markets, shaping the digital systems that will underpin the future of regulation. We’re looking for a Senior Product Manager to join us and lead the development of innovative digital products that will support the regulation of heat networks across Great Britain.

Ofgem is Great Britain’s independent energy regulator. We’re at the forefront of change across the energy sector, driving toward Net Zero whilst protecting energy consumers, especially vulnerable people.

We’re offering a permanent role with the chance to play a central part in delivering a brand-new regulatory regime for heat networks. This is a unique opportunity to shape digital products that will enable effective regulation in a growing and evolving sector. You’ll operate across policy, technology and delivery, ensuring systems are designed to meet complex regulatory and user needs.

Working within a fast-moving and collaborative environment, you’ll help drive the development of a digital platform that enables Ofgem and regulated parties to interact seamlessly. You’ll contribute to the transition from policy design to operational delivery, ensuring that products are resilient, scalable and aligned with future regulatory requirements.

This role offers the chance to influence how digital services are designed and delivered in a highly complex landscape, working across a broad network of stakeholders. You’ll play a key role in shaping product strategy and delivery, ensuring that solutions remain effective as the market evolves and regulatory responsibilities expand.

We’re looking for someone with strong experience in product management within Agile environments, with the ability to translate complex business needs into effective digital solutions. You’ll bring proven leadership capability, strong stakeholder management skills and the ability to drive delivery at pace while balancing competing priorities.

In return, you’ll join a friendly, dynamic and collaborative team working on a high-profile programme of national importance. You’ll have the opportunity to influence major regulatory systems, working with a wide range of stakeholders across government, industry and technology to deliver impactful outcomes.

We have a critical purpose to advance heat network regulation. Join us in enabling a robust, digital-first product suite that supports consumers and drives the transition to Net Zero.

Read on and find out more.

Job description

Key Responsibilities

• Support the Lead Product Manager with the product strategy and long term vision, balancing new feature delivery with the ongoing optimisation of live service.
• Manage and prioritise the product backlogs, ensuring CI initiatives, defect resolution, and technical debt are effectively integrated alongside new development.
• Key liaison between the business and IT teams
• Change request management and cost/benefit analysis to ensure value for money
• Contribution to requirements gathering, including review and sign-off
• UAT planning, managing and tracking
• Ad hoc internal user assitance and troubleshooting, including acting as an escalation point for live operational incidents and service desk queries.
• Optimise the value of development work undertaken and ensure all colleagues have sufficient understanding of product backlog items
• Establish and maintain strong stakeholder relationships both internally and externally, communicating the vision and roadmap regularly
• Support the design, maintenance and embedding of Ways of Working
• Proactively monitor live service metrics, analyse user feedback, and assess operational data to identify opportunities for iterative enhancements.
• Undertake PDL responsibilities and line management of Product/Solution Owners, acting as an escalation point and providing technical guidance (if applicable)
• Share knowledge and good practice
• Support the Principal Product/Solution Owner

Key Outputs and Deliverables

• High quality products which are fit for purpose and highly resilient in a live operational environment.
• Provision of assurance that products deliver functional, legislative and security needs
• Tracked and recorded user needs and functionality requirements, incorporating post-launch user feedback.
• Prioritised product backlogs that clearly articulate both new build epics and CI interations.
• Clear testing plans and fully documented testing scenarios
• Progress reports for senior management, including live service health indicators and the impact of recent CI releases.
• Takes ownership for own and team members’ professional development by:
• Providing ongoing coaching and identification of development opportunities in regular performance conversations.
• Supporting team member’s performance evaluation through honest, fair, high quality 360-degree feedback to PDLs.

Professional Development Lead (PDL) (if Applicable)

For those with the additional responsibility of Professional Development Lead, the remit will include but not be limited to:

• • Mentors and coaches’ staff on personal and professional development in line with the professional standards and behavioural framework for their profession
  • Undertakes their PDL responsibilities in line with Ofgem’s Diversity and Inclusion commitments, championing inclusivity in their approach.
  • Collates 360-degree feedback from staff’s colleagues in a thorough and timely manner holding colleagues to account for providing high quality feedback.
  • Assesses feedback against the behavioural framework and recommends overall performance rating to the Head of Profession based on sound, constructive and inclusive evidence.
  • Delivers high impact and empathetic performance conversations with staff for effective performance management including poor performers.
  • Acts as first point of contact in the event of deployment disputes prior to escalation to the Head of Profession.
  • Advises staff on deployment opportunities as needed.
  • Supporting deployment choices, as part of flexible resourcing.
  • Performance management and assessment.

Person specification

Essential Criteria

• Experience working in Agile delivery environments, with a strong understanding of the software development lifecycle, including CI phases and the active management of live digital services (Lead Criteria).
• Ability to translate business needs into effective system solutions, demonstrated through process mapping skills and ensuring systems are fit for purpose (Lead Criteria).
• Proven stakeholder management skills, including engaging and influencing senior stakeholders and balancing competing or conflicting priorities.
• Strong organisational and delivery capabilities, with experience planning, prioritising and scheduling complex work, alongside effective problem solving and delivery focus.
• Experience planning, executing and managing User Acceptance Testing (UAT) to ensure solutions meet business and user requirements.
• Demonstrated leadership and collaboration skills, including leading multi disciplinary teams, formal or informal management of others, and working collaboratively with diverse colleagues, informed by the use of operational data, analytics and user feedback to drive continuous improvement.

Behaviours

We'll assess you against these behaviours during the selection process:

• Making Effective Decisions
• Communicating and Influencing
• Delivering at Pace

Technical skills

We'll assess you against these technical skills during the selection process:

• You will be asked to prepare a presentation at interview. Full details of the presentation topic will be included in your invitation to interview.

Benefits

Alongside your salary of £49,452, OFGEM contributes £14,326 towards you being a member of the Civil Service Defined Benefit Pension scheme. Find out what benefits a Civil Service Pension provides.Ofgem can offer you a comprehensive and competitive benefits package which includes; 30 days annual leave after 2 years; Excellent training and development opportunities; The opportunity to join the generous Civil Service pension which also includes a valuable range of benefits; hybrid working (currently 1 day a week in the office but this is kept under review), flexible working hours and family friendly policies. Plus lots of other benefits including clean and bright offices based centrally, engaged networks and teams and an opportunity to contribute to our ambitious and important targets of establishing a Net Zero energy system by 2050. This exciting blend of professional challenge and personal reward identifies career opportunities at Ofgem as something to get excited about.

Things you need to know

Artificial intelligence

Artificial intelligence can be a useful tool to support your application, however, all examples and statements provided must be truthful, factually accurate and taken directly from your own experience. Where plagiarism has been identified (presenting the ideas and experiences of others, or generated by artificial intelligence, as your own) applications may be withdrawn and internal candidates may be subject to disciplinary action. Please see our candidate guidance (opens in a new window) for more information on appropriate and inappropriate use.

Selection process details

This vacancy is using Success Profiles (opens in a new window), and will assess your Behaviours, Experience and Technical skills.

When you press the ‘Apply now’ button, you will be asked to complete personal details (not seen by the sift panel), and upload a copy of your CV anonymising all details where necessary.

You will then be asked to provide a 1250 word ‘personal statement’ evidencing how you meet the essential skills and capabilities listed in the role profile. Please ensure you demonstrate clearly, within your supporting statement, how you meet each of the criteria listed in the role profile.

The personal information we have collected from you will be shared with Cifas who will use it to prevent fraud, other unlawful or dishonest conduct, malpractice, and other seriously improper conduct. If any of these are detected, you could be refused certain services or employment. Your personal information will also be used to verify your identity. Further details of how your information will be used by us and Cifas, and your data protection rights, can be found by [https://www.cifas.org.uk/fpn].

At Ofgem, we expect our staff to carry out their roles with honesty, fairness and openness. They should follow the Civil Service code and be free from any influence or bias. We are committed to making sure interests are recognised, declared and managed appropriately so that we can fulfil our duties as an energy regulator. Our Conflicts of Interest policy outlines the types of interests Ofgem staff must declare before onboarding, and the rules they must follow throughout employment so that we can clearly demonstrate that our decisions are not influenced by private interests.

Feedback will only be provided if you attend an interview or assessment.

Security

Successful candidates must undergo a criminal record check.People working with government assets must complete baseline personnel security standard (opens in new window) checks.

Nationality requirements

This job is broadly open to the following groups:

• UK nationals
• nationals of the Republic of Ireland
• nationals of Commonwealth countries who have the right to work in the UK
• nationals of the EU, Switzerland, Norway, Iceland or Liechtenstein and family members of those nationalities with settled or pre-settled status under the European Union Settlement Scheme (EUSS) (opens in a new window)
• nationals of the EU, Switzerland, Norway, Iceland or Liechtenstein and family members of those nationalities who have made a valid application for settled or pre-settled status under the European Union Settlement Scheme (EUSS)
• individuals with limited leave to remain or indefinite leave to remain who were eligible to apply for EUSS on or before 31 December 2020
• Turkish nationals, and certain family members of Turkish nationals, who have accrued the right to work in the Civil Service

Further information on nationality requirements (opens in a new window)

Working for the Civil Service

The Civil Service Code (opens in a new window) sets out the standards of behaviour expected of civil servants.

We recruit by merit on the basis of fair and open competition, as outlined in the Civil Service Commission's recruitment principles (opens in a new window).The Civil Service embraces diversity and promotes equal opportunities. As such, we run a Disability Confident Scheme (DCS) for candidates with disabilities who meet the minimum selection criteria.The Civil Service also offers a Redeployment Interview Scheme to civil servants who are at risk of redundancy, and who meet the minimum requirements for the advertised vacancy.

Diversity and Inclusion

The Civil Service is committed to attract, retain and invest in talent wherever it is found. To learn more please see theCivil Service People Plan (opens in a new window) and the Civil Service Diversity and Inclusion Strategy (opens in a new window).

Apply and further information

This vacancy is part of the Great Place to Work for Veterans (opens in a new window) initiative.The Civil Service welcomes applications from people who have recently left prison or have an unspent conviction. Read more about prison leaver recruitment (opens in new window).Once this job has closed, the job advert will no longer be available. You may want to save a copy for your records.

Contact point for applicants

Job contact :

• Name : Lewis Buckley
• Email : recruitment@ofgem.gov.uk

Recruitment team

• Email : recruitment@ofgem.gov.uk

Further information

Appointment to the Civil Service is governed by the Civil Service Commission’s Recruitment Principles. You have the right to complain if you feel there has been a breach of these Recruitment Principles.

In the first instance, you should raise the matter directly via recruitment@ofgem.gov.uk. If you are not satisfied with the response, you may bring your complaint to the Commission. For further information on bringing a complaint to the Civil Service Commission, please visit their website.

Attachments

Senior Product Manager, Role Profile Opens in new window (pdf, 202kB)Senior Product Manager, Candidate Pack Opens in new window (pdf, 1332kB)Terms and Conditions April 2025 Opens in new window (pdf, 366kB)