Assistant Director - Product
8 days ago
Newcastle upon Tyne
Build digital products that help protect species, habitats and bring people closer to nature. We’re hiring an Assistant Director to set product strategy, lead delivery at scale, and grow a modern product practice. Your work will power member and supporter experiences, enable staff and volunteers across reserves, and turn insight into conservation outcomes. You’ll own the roadmap, enable cross-functional squads, and ship measurable impact. What you’ll do • Define the digital product strategy and multi-year roadmaps aligned to organisational priorities and enterprise architecture., • Plan and run end-to-end solution delivery; champion performance, availability and resilience through SLAs/SLOs., • Prioritise for value, align initiatives to goals, and oversee commercials, licensing and vendor performance with Procurement., • Use data, customer insight and emerging tech to spot opportunities; run an incubator/PoC pipeline to test and learn., • Define and refine requirements; maintain a transparent backlog that bakes in accessibility (WCAG) and SEO best practice., • From discovery to optimisation; stand up agile squads for rapid iteration and release., • Integrate analytics, NPS, usability testing and VoC into product decisions., • Lift velocity, quality and DevOps maturity; embed robust, repeatable delivery practices., • Build senior relationships; frame investment choices, risk trade-offs and strategic pivots., • Champion test strategies, automation and CI/CD to ship reliably. What you’ll bring • Depth across the full product lifecycle and product–market fit assessment., • Strong Agile & Lean foundations; proven in scaled environments., • Data-driven approach using KPIs/OKRs, analytics and performance metrics., • Knowledge of IT governance and compliance (ITIL, COBIT, GDPR) with cybersecurity in mind., • Senior-level stakeholder management and board-ready communication., • Commercial acumen: P&L responsibility, ROI measurement, business cases., • Track record of shipping large-scale digital products with measurable impact and adoption/retention goals., • Certifications: CSPO/PSPO, CPM, APMPO, Lean/Lean Six Sigma, CAP; agile delivery credentials., • Emerging tech: AI/ML, big data, cloud-native, IoT, Web3, advanced UX., • Sector: mission-led or regulated services; strong accessibility (WCAG) and inclusive design practice., • Remote/distributed leadership and product community visibility (talks, writing, forums).