Senior Product Manager - Financial Services

Please note - This is a 12 month FTC position

In a nutshell

In Sainsbury’s Tech, we power the UK’s number 1 multi-channel, multi-brand retailer. Our product teams are made up of inspired and multidiscipline individuals who are empowered to solve hard problems in ways our customers love and serve the needs of our business. Argos has an ambition to be a market-leading digital retailer with a selection of the most competitive ways to pay in the market giving our customers true affordability that’s relevant and right for them.

This senior product role is within the Sainsbury’s Pay & Fraud product team and is responsible for Sainsbury’s Financial Service (FS) Retail Experiences and Capabilities. 

These specifically will be focused on: 

• Designing and building data capabilities for Retail x Insurance partnerships that create market-leading results and offers for customers 
• Designing and building Retail x Banking propositions to help Sainsbury’s customers with savings, loans and wider financial products 

The Senior Product Manager is relentlessly focused on understanding, anticipating and exceeding customer needs for specific products and broader projects that align to long-term business strategy. They champion the long-term vision for their products in line with our over-arching business goals and works horizontally across the immediate team and the broader product and tech function to coordinate and prioritise the diverse requirements of their product that may fall into other delivery areas.

The role holder understands the differing requirements of the customer, business and Engineering/Architecture and uses this knowledge to ultimately drive the delivery. This includes engaging in technical discussions and deciphering business value and spotting opportunities. They use product metrics to prioritise their specific product roadmap effectively and seeks out the data and insight that enables them to make informed decisions.

To enable success, the role holder needs to consider the market context and is able to clearly articulate the business benefit of potential and current products, while tracking both effort and value delivery, to identify opportunities for cost reduction and quality improvement. 

What I need to do

• Supporting the strategy, develop specific roadmaps and backlogs for products, building in complete end to end customer experiences that deliver on core priorities.
• Own the customer and business value for specific products, including securing support through the appropriate process and relevant technology teams.
• Accountable for end-to-end delivery in product management for specific products, ensuring activity is prioritised in line with the agreed product goals and metrics. 
• Maintain a realistic 90-day roadmap, as well as a prioritised, estimated FY backlog and regularly communicating progress, proactively managing risks/issues to remove blockers. 
• Lead the collaboration within both the core family team, other product teams and 3rd parties to launch new product features, maximising re-use across the division/business/brands
• Evaluate potential partner relationships; helping to identify necessary and/or desirable third-party technology to evaluate and select vendors 
• Support communication and resolution of live product incidents and effectively prioritise, coordinate and communicate the resolution of production issues

How I will succeed

• Translating business and technology strategy, combined with market knowledge into a product roadmap that prioritises delivery of value and enables future business agility
• Determine the right level and choice of material to communicate the experience, benefits and long-term vision for the product across a variety of audiences including development teams, stakeholders at all levels, partners and external parties
• Contributing to effective prioritisation choices to deliver the maximum value and return on capital.
• Build highly collaborative relationships with engineering, working together to solve problems for our customers and the business
• Creating a positive impact with internal and external audiences, ensuring senior stakeholder advocacy for the product
• Maintain a good level of awareness, interest and understanding of the existing and stacks/interfaces for products and how to develop these so they work seamlessly for customers and colleagues 
• Apply data and research through sharing insight to ensure the team are focused on making the biggest difference for customers and the business
• Develop a culture of learning, empowerment, experimentation and collaboration
• Own key performance indicators to measure success for the role’s contribution
• Contribute to the Product Community of practice

What I need to know

• Strong payments knowledge (ideally from the FS Retail sector, but not mandatory)
• Knowledge and understanding of a retail business and the technology landscape, and how to maximise the value that products can and will add
• Understanding of Agile delivery and modern engineering team practices
• Knowledge of technical product development principles and methodologies

What I need to show

• Judgement to make sometimes difficult and complex decisions at pace, including comfortable dealing with ambiguous situations and help drive toward clarity
• Delivery of technology led change in cross-functional environments
• Focus on delivering customer value and business outcomes at pace, continuously optimising activity and ways of working to ensure that we are set up to deliver customer value 
• Passion for seeking value and helping motivate and support technology teams
• Strong communication and influencing skills, particularly at senior levels
• Creative problem solving, enthusiasm for delivering change through people and technology
• Anticipating risks and opportunities, responding to escalations at pace and supporting to find solutions
• A high level of team contribution, seek opportunities to provide input and support across the team and outside core areas of focus, role model effective collaboration
• Embrace shared responsibility and role model effective collaboration
• Influencing iterative decision making, including managing ambiguity 

Resources available to me

• Line manager, peers and wider team
• Product competency framework and community of practice
• Learning and development opportunities
• Specific budget for products (budget ownership sits with PPM Line Manager)

What decisions I can make

• All decisions related to delivering the roadmap for your products
• Product Manager resourcing across your product 
• Prioritisation and value return across your product area with multi million pound capital budget

We are committed to making Tech a place where people love to work where diverse and engaged team make a purposeful contribution. Sainsbury’s is committed to being the most inclusive retailer, and flexible working including job sharing is welcomed wherever possible. In Tech we welcome such conversations and are proud to champion a diverse and inclusive culture.