Product Owner - GCHQ

Flexible Working: We support full-time, part-time, and flexible hours, with hybrid working available dependent on business need (generally a 70% office 30% home-working split)

About Us

At GCHQ, we unlock the complex world of data and communications to keep the UK and its citizens safe, both in the real world and online. Working closely with our British Intelligence partners in MI5 and MI6, we protect the UK from threats including serious organised crime, terrorism, and cyber-attacks. A role in GCHQ means you’ll have varied and fascinating work in a supportive and encouraging environment that puts the emphasis on teamwork.

The Role

Bring to life unique products and help us build a culture where innovation and experimentation can thrive, when you join us as a Product Owner.

Managing tasks and team members, you’ll be responsible for maximizing the value of product and product services created by our Capability Centres. Your focus will be managing and prioritising the product backlog, capturing user requirements, making changes to existing products, and creating new ones.

Ensuring the customers’ needs are represented at every stage, you’ll articulate product vision, goals, and outcomes; support the development team; and participate in daily scrum meetings, planning, reviews, and retrospectives. You’ll write user stories and contribute to the development of the product management methodology, whilst conducting research to shape how our shared IT service enables the mission.

As a Product Owner you will focus on creating professional and comprehensive digital experiences that engage users across all touchpoints: cloud, mobile, apps and core business systems. You’ll be a pathfinder for future product owners and managers, innovating within a small, tight-knit team to translate business requirements into actionable outcomes for customers and stakeholders.

About You

You don’t need to have any specific qualifications to be considered for this role. You do have to have worked in either a Product Owner or Product Manager role or in an Agile organisation. You’ll need a working knowledge of Product management process, Agile ways of working, and Service Design.

It would be beneficial to have experience in, or an understanding of user-centred design, technology, and data perspectives, with an appreciation for the complexities of digital and data contexts. You’ll be able to apply a range of product management principles and approaches, defining the minimum viable product (MVP), maintaining a product or process through its full cycle and forecasting. Managing a team through these processes, you’ll be able to implement best practice and overcome challenges to deliver a successful product.

Though it isn’t essential, a working knowledge of community collaboration and how to facilitate decisions and risks would be helpful. Crucially, you’ll be comfortable working with others in a fast-paced, evolving environment, engaging an Agile mindset to build and improve our culture, monitor change, and ensure your team know what they’re working towards.

Training and Development

When you join us, you’ll have a three-day induction to help you understand our ways of working. You’ll also be assigned a mentor and a buddy to help you settle in and discover your professional development goals.

There is plenty of scope for progression in this role, as you’ll be joining a new area to help shape our methodology and culture. The natural evolution of this role leads to Product Manager, then Product Lead. There are also opportunities to specialise in Agile and Lean practices along the way.

We’re committed to developing our staff, but we know this will look different for everyone. That’s why there’ll be training, coaching, and mentoring opportunities, as we help you to excel in your role, and throughout your career.

Rewards and Benefits

You’ll receive a starting salary of £48,104, plus other benefits including:

• 25 days Annual Leave automatically rising to 30 days after 5 years' service, and an additional 10.5 days public and privilege holidays
• Opportunities to be recognised through our employee performance scheme
• Interest-free season ticket loan (parking and travel)
• Excellent pension scheme
• Cycle to work scheme
• Facilities such as a gym and restaurant, and on-site coffee bars (at some locations)
• Paid parental and adoption leave

Equal Opportunities

At GCHQ diversity and inclusion are critical to our mission. To protect the UK, we need a truly diverse workforce that reflects the society we serve. This includes diversity in every sense of the word: those with different backgrounds, ages, ethnicities, gender identities, sexual orientations, ways of thinking and those with disabilities or neurodivergent conditions. We therefore welcome and encourage applications from everyone, including those from groups that are under-represented in our workforce such as women, those from an ethnic minority background, people with disabilities and those from low socio-economic backgrounds.

Find out more about our culture, working environment and diversity on our website:

https://www.gchq-careers.co.uk/life-at-gchq.html

We’re Disability Confident

GCHQ are proud to have achieved Leader status within the DWP’s Disability Confident scheme. This is aimed at encouraging employers to think differently about disability and take action to improve how they recruit, retain, and develop disabled people. Being Disability Confident, we aim to offer a person-to-person interview to any candidate who self-identifies as disabled and meets the essential criteria for the role. This is our ‘Offer of Interview’ (OOI). To secure an interview for this vacancy, the essential criteria (in order of application process) are:

• Demonstrate working knowledge or experience of Product Management, Product Design or Project Management
• Evidence of strong prioritisation, attention to detail and communication skills
• Evidence of working in Agile teams or environments
• Evidence of developing the Product Owner role or Product Management as a function

What to Expect

Our recruitment process is fair, transparent, and based on merit. Here is a brief overview of each stage, in order:

• Paper sift – you are advised to make full use of the word allowance for each question
• Interview
• Drugs Test
• Vetting Interview

Please note, you must successfully pass each stage of the process to progress to the next. Your application may take around 6 - 9 months to process including vetting, so we advise you continue any current employment until you have received your final job offer.

Before You Apply

To work at GCHQ, you need to be a British citizen or hold dual British nationality. You can read our full eligibility criteria here.

This role requires the highest security clearance, known as Developed Vetting (DV). It’s something everyone in the UK Intelligence Community undertakes. You can find out more about the vetting process here.

Please note we have a strict drugs policy, so once you start your application, you can’t take any recreational drugs and you’ll need to declare your previous drug usage at the relevant stage.

The role is based in Cheltenham or London, so you’ll need to live within a commutable distance. Please consider any financial implications and practicalities before submitting an application, as we do not offer relocation costs.

Please note, you should only launch your application from within the UK. If you are based overseas, you should wait until you visit the UK to launch an application. Applying from outside the UK will impact on our ability to progress your application. You should not discuss your application, other than with your partner or a close family member.

Right to Withdraw Statement:

Please be aware that we reserve the right to bring forward the closing date for this role from the original closing date once a certain number of applications have been received. Please be mindful of this and submit your application at your earliest convenience to avoid disappointment.

When you are ready to apply for the role, return to the previous page, and click the submit button at the bottom of the page to start your application. You'll be able to select the role you want to apply for in the application form.