Product Owner

Product Owner

Hybrid - Reading

We are looking for a Product Owner to join the team at Citation. As a Product Owner in our Verification team, you’ll be owning and shaping the product backlog while collaborating closely with stakeholders, third-party integration partners, Engineering, UX and wider Product colleagues to heavily influence our roadmap and deliver impactful solutions.

The role

• Be curious and willing to learn, building a deep understanding of our clients’ everchanging expectations and the evolving legislative landscape.
• Work with your Product Leader to define clear goals and outcomes for the initiatives you own, aligned to the wider product strategy and priorities.
• Partner with key stakeholders – including clients, internal business teams, external third-party integration partners and development teams – to ensure problems, goals and objectives are clearly understood and shared.
• Use customer and operational feedback, along with data, to generate ideas and proposals for improving our Verification products and workflows.
• Understand, map and continuously refine customer journeys, acting as the primary point of contact between stakeholders and delivery teams.
• Define product solutions in collaboration with business, engineering and technical architecture stakeholders, ensuring they are feasible, valuable and usable.
• Create and maintain a clear, structured product backlog with an agreed MVP and subsequent iterations, explicitly considering associated risks and trade-offs.
• Manage and prioritise the product and sprint backlogs based on product strategy, business objectives and validated learnings, as set with your Product Leader.
• Articulate clear briefs and functional documentation and communicate requirements effectively to development and UX teams.
• Oversee development sprint cycles, tracking progress and removing blockers to keep delivery on course.
• Lead core agile ceremonies, including Sprint Planning, Reviews and Retrospectives, with guidance and support from our Agile Community.
• Gain alignment and approval from senior stakeholders on recommendations and rollout plans, constructively addressing any uncertainty or concerns.
• Take accountability for defining, tracking and reporting on product KPIs, using insights to inform future prioritisation and iteration.
• Ensure your products are fit for purpose, resilient and able to operate 24/7 at scale for a global customer base.
• Act as the Subject Matter Expert and evangelist for your product area within the business, championing its vision, roadmap and impact.

What we are looking for

• Minimum of 2 years’ experience working as part of a Scrum team in a technology focused organisation.
• Practical experience with Agile frameworks (e.g. Scrum, Kanban) and an understanding of Waterfall methodologies.
• Good grasp of UX/UI principles and a desire to build simple, intuitive user experiences.
• Strong client focus, with a passion for solving real customer and operational problems.
• Able to prioritise effectively, make trade-off decisions and take end-to-end ownership.
• Experience in requirements definition and writing high-quality user stories.
• Confident stakeholder management skills, with the ability to build trusted relationships across disciplines.
• Positive, collaborative attitude, a true team player.

Preferred experience

• Strong understanding of the Identity document validation technology sector or relevant use case (background screening (DTRW, Digital ID for DBS, AML/KYC, ACSP, Digital ID in conveyancing, Right to Rent).
• Knowledge of identity frameworks & legislation such as UK Digital Identity & Attributes Trust Framework (DIATF) & GPG 45 guidance,
• PSPO (Level 1) or equivalent Product Owner certification.
• Strong analytical skills (e.g. SQL, BI tools) and experience using data to drive product decisions.

About Us

Our Verification business is made up of TrustID and uCheck, market leaders within the screening & digital identity industries, both fast paced, and constantly evolving, with a clear focus on innovation and service excellence.

Working alongside colleagues across the Verification, you’ll play a key part in delivering value for our clients, while contributing to our ongoing growth as an organisation and staying closely connected to the wider Citation Group and its exciting plans for the future.

At Citation, we offer something unique for both our colleagues and clients – an opportunity to grow, thrive, and succeed like nowhere else. As we celebrate 30 years of excellence, our focus remains on growth, investment, and service quality.

We’re one of the UK’s biggest providers of Health & Safety, HR, Employment Law, and ISO services. But what really sets us apart is our people. At Citation, we bring our personalities to work, not just our expertise.

With year-on-year double-digit growth, this is your chance to join a fast-moving business that values vision, determination, agility, and a knack for building great relationships.

We’ve built our success without cutting costs or creating bureaucracy. Instead, we prioritise actions over politics, empowerment over micro-management, and innovation over hierarchy. We are leaders who love what we do – and we want you to share in that passion.

This is a truly exciting time to become part of Citation. With over 110,000 clients who love and rely on us across the group – and 15 business acquisitions in just three years – our ambition for growth has no limits.