Staff Product Manager - Data Platforms

In a nutshell

At Sainsbury’s we believe that the customer should be at the heart of everything we do, which is why we have put them at the centre of our vision of being there for their customers whenever, wherever and however they want and of serving more of our customers more of the time. Within Sainsbury’s Tech we are one organisation, driving brilliant experiences across all our brands, operating in agile teams and working seamlessly together to make the most of the exceptional knowledge, insight and talent that we have across the division. 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.

In your role as a Staff Product Manager in Data Platforms, you’ll own the vision for some of our most complex and valuable platform capabilities. This is an individual contributor role, not a line management position, with deep focus on our Data Foundations and Core Data Platforms. You will work across wider product teams, engineering, and architecture to shape the platforms that enable teams to move faster, build consistently and deliver more value at scale.

This is about building platforms not just for today, but for the future. As Sainsbury’s increasingly looks to AI and emerging technologies to unlock value, you will help ensure our data foundations are strong, scalable and ready to support what comes next. You’ll also support, coach and mentor other product managers ultimately helping to raise product practice across the wider team.

This is a highly technical product role for someone who enjoys solving complex platform problems and turning them into clear, valuable outcomes for the business.

What you need to do

As a Staff Product Manager you will:

• Deliver products with the biggest budgets that bring significant value back to the business, aligned to corporate strategic pillars.
• Be accountable for developing the vision, strategy, roadmap and backlog for your product - owning customer and business value and making effective prioritisation choices.
• Champion your products, shaping the right material for different audiences across development teams, stakeholders, partners and external parties.
• Build highly collaborative relationships with engineering and architecture to navigate significant integration complexity and decision-making as you develop your product(s). Influence others with varying priorities to drive alignment and pace.
• Apply insight, data, research, technical product knowledge, to ensure your team are focused on making the biggest difference for customers and the business.
• Manage levels of risk to minimise vulnerabilities and prioritising development by working with complex and sensitive information.
• Champion and prioritise tech standards alongside product features in your and your team’s roadmaps explaining the merits to stakeholders.
• Advocate for agile software development practices with business stakeholders ensuring a good understanding of iterative value delivery. 
• Monitor relevant industry trends, keeping your knowledge up to date with the latest developments and innovations pertinent to your product. Build confidence as the subject matter expert for your product, helping to guide future investment.
• Work collaboratively with engineering teams to evaluate potential partner relationships, identify necessary third-party technology and support vendor selection.
• Own your products through the lifecycle, supporting communication and resolution of live product incidents and effectively prioritising, coordinating and communicating the resolution of production issues.
• Support, coach and mentor other product managers, helping to raise product practice across the team and wider community.
• Help shape platforms not just for today, but for the future, ensuring our data foundations are strong enough to support an increasingly AI-enabled Sainsbury’s.
• Maintain a good level of awareness, interest and understanding of the existing and stacks/interfaces for your product and how to develop these so they work seamlessly for customers and colleagues 

What you need to know

• Master level of product management process.
• Proven track record of leading delivery of highly complex technology led change in cross-functional environments; you have shipped products at scale that customers and colleagues love.
• Strong communication and influencing skills, particularly at senior levels
• Working knowledge of technology relevant to FMCG
• Deep appreciation of the role of data as a strategic asset and the importance of building strong platform foundations.

What you need to show

• High levels of technical curiosity and comfort being in the thick of technically complex discussions to be able to guide and prioritise next steps using product principles. 
• Ability to switch between strategic visioning and getting into the detail, being the authority in all aspects of your product
• Strong leadership and influencing skills, adapting your decision making to different levels of ambiguity and urgency; developing an authentic and consistent leadership style based on a robust knowledge of yourself, influencing without authority
• Creating a positive and consistent impact with internal and external audiences; excellent stakeholder management skills, ensuring senior stakeholder advocacy for your product at the highest levels of the organisation.
• Ability to translate business goals, technology strategy and market knowledge into a product roadmap that prioritises delivery of value and enables future business agility 
• Excellent communication skills able to articulate complex ideas in an accessible and engaging way.
• Comfortable with significant ambiguity and able to guide definition, prioritisation and scope with cross-functional teams to drive business outcomes through exploration.
• Comfortable in a fast-paced environment where you will set and be held accountable to ambitious goals.
• Consistently engaging and motivating people with a variety of perspectives around the roadmap for your product, including challenging conversations and constructive debate.
• Anticipating risks and opportunities, responding to escalations at pace and coaching others to find solutions based on your expertise 
• Strong team contribution, with a willingness to support across the broader product community and role model good product and agile practice.
• Confidence operating in a technical platform environment, with a strong focus on Data Foundations, Core Data Platforms and future-facing capabilities including AI.

What decisions I can make

• All decisions related to delivering the roadmap for your products.
• Prioritisation across your product area with multi-million-pound capital budget.
• Decisions on the evolution of the product direction, standards, dependencies and trade-offs within the platform space, working closely with your Engineering counterparts.

Support we will provide

• Access to personal development tools including industry leader Bitesize talks, online self-development tools, and internal mentoring/coaching
• Internal product expertise and co-learning opportunities within a highly collaborative environment
• Opportunities to attend external events 
• Product Technical Competency Framework
• Technical development can be provided where needed, including access to relevant learning resources, technical coaching and opportunities to deepen your understanding of data platforms and emerging technologies.

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