Advanced Specialist - Product Management

Role: Advanced Specialist, Product Management

Division: Assessment & Qualifications Delivery

Location: London, Manchester or Rotherham - Hybrid

This role aligns with positions typically advertised in the external market as Senior Product Owner, Digital Product Owner or Technical Product Owner.

About Pearson

At Pearson we ‘add life to a lifetime of learning’ so everyone can realise the life they imagine. We do this by creating vibrant and enriching learning experiences designed for real-life impact. Pearson was founded in 1844 and has been built on our ability to grow with and adapt to a constantly evolving market. Our employees are dedicated to creating high-quality, digital-first, accessible and sustainable resources for lifelong learning.

About UK Assessment & Qualifications

We are the UK's largest awarding body and we are regulated by Ofqual (England), CCEA Accreditation (Northern Ireland) and Qualifications Wales (Wales). We offer academic and vocational qualifications that are globally recognised and benchmarked, with educational excellence rooted in names like Edexcel and BTEC. In 2025, we issued 6.5 million grades to candidates worldwide.

About the job

The Product Owner role operates at IC25 level as an Advanced Specialist in Product Management, owning complex initiatives and high-impact product workstreams. The role focuses on translating external client, customer, operational and business needs into clear product direction, detailed requirements and a prioritised backlog across assessment products and services, with a strong emphasis on customer value, quality, adoption and predictable delivery.

Working across multidisciplinary teams including Engineers, Service Owners, Business Analysts, Testers, UX Designers, Scrum Masters and the PMO, the Product Owner shapes product priorities and converts user and business needs into clear, executable product requirements. The role independently manages priorities, scope and product decisions, proactively resolves requirement gaps and cross-functional obstacles, and works closely with stakeholders throughout the delivery lifecycle.

The Product Owner is accountable for backlog quality, product requirement accuracy, acceptance of delivered outcomes and ensuring products and services create measurable customer and business value, without holding people-management responsibilities.

About you

You can demonstrate successful ownership and delivery of complex, business-critical digital products or platform capabilities in a Product Owner, Product Manager or equivalent role. You are comfortable working hands-on with delivery teams, developing detailed requirements, user stories and acceptance criteria, and making clear decisions on product priorities, scope and trade-offs.
You bring strong customer focus, analytical judgement and a practical approach to agile product delivery. You are confident engaging with technical leads, architects and business partners, using customer insight and delivery evidence to shape product decisions. You maintain high standards of documentation, identify issues early and share product management best practice with colleagues.

Key Responsibilities

• Own and prioritise product backlogs, ensuring work is aligned with agreed product outcomes, customer needs and delivery commitments.
• Translate customer, operational and business needs into clear product requirements, epics, features, user stories and acceptance criteria.
• Author and maintain accurate, complete and detailed market and product requirement documents, product proposals and supporting decision records.
• Define and communicate product goals, priorities and roadmap intent, including scope, sequencing, dependencies and trade-offs.
• Work with UX and customer-facing teams to understand user journeys, validate needs early and incorporate feedback into product decisions.
• Collaborate with Engineers, Architects, Service Owners, Business Analysts, Testers, Scrum Masters and operational stakeholders throughout discovery, refinement, build, testing, release and post-launch review.
• Lead backlog refinement and provide timely clarification and decisions to maintain delivery flow and minimise avoidable rework.
• Review completed work against agreed acceptance criteria and support product acceptance, release readiness and launch decisions.
• Use customer insight, operational evidence, product data and stakeholder feedback to assess adoption, value and opportunities for improvement.
• Proactively identify and resolve product issues, requirement gaps, risks and cross-team dependencies, escalating where necessary.
• Maintain traceability from customer and business needs through requirements, delivery and acceptance for high-value releases.
• Champion accessible, secure, sustainable and high-quality product outcomes in line with Pearson standards and relevant regulatory obligations.
• Share product management practices, support junior colleagues and contribute to continuous improvement in team workflows and ways of working.

Key Skills & Experience

• Professional experience as a Product Owner, Product Manager or equivalent within digital product or software delivery.
• Strong experience owning and prioritising a complex product backlog across competing customer, business and technical needs.
• Strong experience producing detailed product requirements, user stories and acceptance criteria with a high degree of accuracy and completeness.
• Evidence of delivering complex features or projects successfully, with minimal avoidable rework caused by missed or unclear requirements.
• Strong applied understanding of agile product development, Scrum and the Software Development Lifecycle.
• Experience working effectively with engineering, architecture, UX, testing, service, operations and business stakeholders.
• Strong analytical, problem-solving, communication, facilitation and stakeholder engagement skills.
• Demonstrable experience working directly with external clients, building trusted relationships, managing expectations and translating client needs into clear product requirements and priorities.
• Experience using data, research and customer feedback to inform priorities and assess product adoption and value.
• Strong experience using Jira or equivalent product and agile delivery tooling.

Desirable Skills, Qualifications & Experience

• Experience in assessment, education technology, public-sector services or another regulated digital environment.
• Experience with large-scale assessment technology products, platforms or services used by customers, operational teams and external partners.
• Recognised Product Owner or product management certification, such as Scrum.org PSPO or equivalent.
• Experience working across scaled agile planning, multiple delivery teams or external suppliers.
• Working knowledge of accessibility, information security, non-functional requirements, service transition and cloud-based platforms.

Key Performance Indicators

• Accuracy and completeness of market and product requirement documents.
• Successful delivery of features or projects without avoidable rework.
• Measurable improvement in backlog quality and team workflows arising from the Product Owner's input.
• Timely identification and resolution of product issues, requirement gaps and dependencies.
• Achievement of agreed adoption, usage or customer-value measures for launched features.
• Product decisions that demonstrably support customer value and maintain domain best practice.
• Effective mentoring and knowledge-sharing contributions to junior or less-experienced colleagues.

Behavioural Expectations

• Customer Centricity: ensure requirements reflect genuine user needs, seek early feedback and use evidence to refine product decisions.
• Raise the Performance Bar: champion high standards in product documentation, proposals, decisions and acceptance.
• Exceptional Collaboration for Value: support peers, build cross-functional alignment and resolve blocks that affect product outcomes.
• Our Leaders Inspire: share best practice, encourage curiosity and help colleagues strengthen their product management capability.

Job Location and Hours

The role is based in the United Kingdom and operates under Pearson’s hybrid working model. Occasional out-of-hours support may be required during business-critical delivery periods.