Product Owner

Product Owner
Contract: £500/day Inside IR35 via Morson | 6-month contract (likely extension) | Approx. 1 day per month in London office

Role Overview

We are seeking an experienced Product Owner to lead the enhancement and ongoing development of our internal project and portfolio management (PPM) tool. This role is ideal for someone with a strong background in project management, hands-on experience with PPM/tool development, and the ability to manage small to medium business change initiatives end-to-end.

You will work closely with a champion user group to shape the product roadmap, define and refine requirements, coordinate with an external development partner, conduct UAT, and secure leadership approvals. The role blends product ownership, project management, business analysis, and supplier management, and requires excellent communication, analytical, and stakeholder engagement skills.

Key Responsibilities

1. Partner with the stakeholder to identify opportunities for system and process improvement.
2. Own and prioritise the product backlog using Jira, ensuring clear requirements and acceptance criteria.
3. Collaborate across business teams to gather feedback, understand pain points, define needs, and design future-state processes.
4. Lead workshops, design sessions, and review meetings to ensure requirements are fully validated before development begins.
5. Maintain up-to-date documentation including process maps, governance artefacts, risk/issue logs, and user guides.
6. Work closely with reporting analysts to ensure system changes are aligned with the reporting suite.
7. Develop test scripts, organise UAT cycles, and manage testing outcomes with champion users.
8. Support project managers and team members in embedding new features, processes, and ways of working.
9. Manage relationships with external suppliers, ensuring high-quality delivery and adherence to timelines.
10. Monitor industry trends and best practices in PPM tooling, project delivery, and continuous improvement.

Requirements

1. Bachelor’s degree in business administration, project management, or a related field (Master’s preferred).
2. Demonstrable experience delivering business change projects, with a strong grounding in classic project management disciplines.
3. Hands-on experience working on or owning PPM tool development/enhancements (e.g., workflow design, configuration, iterative improvements).
4. Strong analytical mindset with the ability to break down complex problems and identify improvement opportunities.
5. Excellent communication and stakeholder-management skills, able to influence and collaborate at all organisational levels.
6. Confident facilitator, capable of running workshops and driving decision-making.
7. Proficiency with Power BI.
8. Highly organised, detail-oriented, and able to manage multiple small-scale change projects simultaneously.
9. Knowledge of Lean Six Sigma or similar continuous improvement methodologies (advantageous).
10. PMP or other recognised project management certification