Head of Product (Hiring Immediately)

The Mission: Club Arran delivers complex digital services across UK Central Government. Our multidisciplinary teams bring together Product, Delivery, UCD, Architecture and Engineering to solve problems and deliver sustainable outcomes.

We are now building on that foundation to become an AI integration consultancy for government: helping clients take AI and emerging technologies beyond experimentation and into real services, safely and sustainably.

We are looking for a Head of Product to champion user-centred design and product strategy, ensuring that as we integrate advanced technologies, we never lose sight of the user's needs.

Reporting to the Club Executive and sitting on the Club Leadership Team, you will be accountable for product and UCD excellence across Arran's portfolio and act as the Head of Profession for our Product and UCD capabilities.

In this role, you will split your focus between high-impact client engagements, acting as an executive advisor and strategic lead on flagship accounts, and practice leadership, capability development, and driving commercial growth across the club.

You will create the conditions in which multidisciplinary teams can build impactful government services: aligning stakeholders around a clear vision, navigating GDS Service Assessments, discovering true user needs, and ensuring our solutions deliver tangible value to citizens and civil servants alike

Your priority will be leading our Product, BA and UCD disciplines on an evolving AI journey, driving practical upskilling, leveraging AI to unlock efficiencies, and empowering teams to confidently articulate AI opportunities to clients, while assuring deliverable quality, maximising project outcomes and learning, navigating government service assessments, and coaching teams.

Key Responsibilities

Portfolio product leadership & quality assurance: Own the product strategy and user-centred design quality across Arran’s portfolio. Act as a strategic advisor to senior civil servants and the senior escalation point for product vision, quality, and GDS Service Assessment risks. Establish outcome frameworks (KPIs/OKRs) and roadmapping standards across the full product lifecycle from Discovery through to live service operationalisation.

GDS & Service Standard excellence: Champion the GOV.UK Service Standard and UCD best practice across the club. Set the benchmark for Discovery, Alpha, Beta, and Live phases, assuring high-confidence outcomes in rigorous government Service Assessments.

Product management for AI & emerging tech: Lead the product vision for AI-enabled government services. Ensure AI integrations solve real, validated user problems rather than being technology-led, addressing ethical considerations, accessibility, and safe service design.

Problem-focused leadership & integrity: Provide the critical counterweight across Arran's leadership team and senior stakeholders, possessing the standing and conviction to challenge groupthink and tie technical ambition back to validated user needs, ethics, and measurable public value. Obsess over unpicking complex problems rather than jumping to prespecified solutions. Be ready to pivot strategy or halt unviable initiatives when user research, data, or operational realities dictate.

Product & UCD profession leadership: Act as Head of Profession for Product Management, Business Analysis, and UCD. Recruit, manage, and inspire practitioners. Define professional standards, conduct SFIA reviews, manage career and pay progression, and foster a culture of continuous learning and innovation. Support and actively participate in our Community of Practice, collaborating with other Heads of Product to develop and support career pathways, training, and learning opportunities.

Client leadership & consulting: Act as a trusted strategic advisor to senior government stakeholders. Advise senior civil servants on digital strategy, organisational reform, and policy delivery, cutting through ambiguity, defining product visions, and transitioning from traditional IT mindsets to agile, user-centric product management. Influence both explicit and implicit stakeholder needs.

Multidisciplinary team leadership: Partner closely with the Head of Delivery and Head of Engineering to balance user needs, technical feasibility, and delivery constraints. Create multidisciplinary teams focused on outcomes, collaboration, and continuous improvement while maintaining sustainable delivery, accountability, and product quality.

Growth, propositions & bids: Play a pivotal role in winning new business, shaping and pitching product and UCD approaches, estimating team sizes and makeups, and writing compelling technical and commercial responses for strategically important public sector bids.

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