Product Manager - Platform Technology
Employment Type: Contract Inside IR35
Duration: 10 Months
Umbrella Rate: 550/day
Location: Exeter (Hybrid, 3 days onsite per week)
Clearance Level: Eligible for SC
Opportunity Overview
We are working with a leading UK organisation to find an experienced Product Manager for a key role within their Platform Technology function. Our client is undergoing a significant technology modernisation programme and needs a skilled product professional to help shape and improve the internal platforms their developers, scientists and service teams depend on every day.
This is a rare opportunity to practise real product management in a complex, data-intensive environment - working at the heart of a mission-driven organisation where the work genuinely matters.
About the Role
The Platform Technology team is responsible for shared, cross-cutting capabilities including developer tools, APIs, data pipelines and infrastructure services. The incoming Product Manager will be responsible for making these platforms reliable, discoverable and enabling - reducing delivery friction, improving user experience, and helping downstream teams ship faster and more safely.
Job Function
Support the development of a business case to invest in service enhancements and engagements with third-party suppliers.
Own the roadmap and backlog for one or more shared technology platforms and deliver to the agreed product vision.
Work with engineers, architects and delivery teams to deliver incremental improvements that make platforms easier to use and maintain.
Understand internal users, from developers to operations staff, and translate their needs into clear priorities.
Investigate and develop measurable service outcomes (adoption, usability, performance) and use data to track progress.
Balance short-term reliability with long-term sustainability and compliance.
Facilitate collaboration across technical and non-technical stakeholders; communicate trade-offs transparently.
Champion product-led, user-informed, iterative ways of working in a complex, legacy/brownfield environment.
Requirements
Proven experience managing developer infrastructure products and associated cloud technologies (e.g. AWS, Azure, shared services).
Experience successfully managing commercial and bought-in services.
Ability to apply and adapt Agile and Lean practices in an engineering-focused team.
Strong understanding of user-centred product development - even when the 'users' are other engineers.
Skilled at prioritising by outcome using approaches such as impact vs. effort or cost-of-delay.
Confident working with cross-disciplinary teams and senior technical stakeholders.
Comfortable operating in environments with legacy systems, competing priorities and incomplete information.
Excellent communicator - able to translate complex technical issues into clear decisions and trade-offs.
Why This Role?
Our client operates at significant scale, managing vast volumes of data in support of critical national and scientific services. The technology estate is complex and established - this isn't a greenfield startup - but that's exactly what makes it interesting. You'll be joining at a moment of genuine appetite for change, working alongside engineers and scientists who are deeply invested in what they build.
If you're looking for a role where platform product management actually means something, this is it.