Senior Innovation Product Manager - GCHQ

Flexible Working: We support full-time, part-time, compressed, and flexible hours, with hybrid working available dependent on business need (generally a 60% office 40% 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

As a Senior Innovation Product Manager, you will be deployed into core mission areas to support the digital transformation of department services.

You’ll be a leader in a new multi-disciplinary team, collaborating with a range of departments to understand user needs and create products and services that deliver value. You’ll champion these products across the wider business, overseeing quality and coming up with new ideas to ensure services are designed with organisational priorities in mind.

As a Senior Innovation Product Manager, you’ll create new products and services to deliver measurable impact and customer satfisfaction. You’ll use your product management skills to incubate these products until they can be owned by the business, working closely with stakeholders to provide leadership, direction, and support for your creations. You’ll set the standard for what good work looks like, sharing digital and innovative ways of working with the team and across the DDaT (Digital, Data and Technology progression capability framework) skills community.

You’ll frame problems and set priorities for your delivery teams, growing them through recruitment and upskilling. This role is hands-on, with plenty of opportunity to develop yourself and others, alongside managing projects and travelling in the UK to support the mission.

Current opportunities are based in Cheltenham, but future roles will be available at GCHQ in London and Manchester.

About You

You’ll have a broad product management portfolio, showing a variety of techniques at different phases of the service life cycle. You’ll also have experience leading a product team, implementing new ways of working, redesigning processes, and collaborating with senior leaders and technical specialists alike. You’ll know how to coach teams in Agile and Lean practices, identify and deal with potential risks and bring a DDaT perspective to the team.

A long-term thinker, you’ll take strategic ownership of projects, centering client needs and solving their problems within organisational constraints.

Training and Development

When you join us, you’ll have an induction into the organisation, which will help you get to grips with how we operate and give you a rounded understanding of your role. You’ll have access to training opportunities within the DDaT and innovation framework, plus leadership and development programmes.

We’re committed to developing our staff and recognise this will look different for everyone. We have an exceptional skills community, dedicated to supporting you. There’ll be lots of tailored training, coaching, and mentoring, alongside opportunities to pursue career pathways and attend conferences. Whatever your professional goals, we’ll work with you to build the skills you need to excel at your role and throughout your career.

Rewards and Benefits

You’ll receive a starting salary of £62,592, you’ll also have the opportunity to qualify for a one-off recruitment bonus dependent on skills and experience. Other benefits include:

• 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/diversity-inclusion.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:

• Experience in product management for (multiple) digital services.
• Knowledge of the product management and related DDaT Framework disciplines.
• Experience of leading multi-disciplinary DDaT.

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, 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.