Product and Delivery Manager, Centre Collective Intelligence

Product and Delivery Manager, Centre for Collective Intelligence

We are hiring a Product and Delivery Manager, Centre for Collective Intelligence

We are Nesta, the UK's innovation agency for social good. We design, test and scale solutions to society's biggest problems. Our three missions are to give every child a fair start, help people live healthy lives, and create a sustainable future where the economy works for both people and the planet.

For over 20 years, we have worked to support, encourage and inspire innovation. We work in three roles: as an innovation partner working with frontline organisations to design and test new solutions, as a venture builder supporting new and early‑stage businesses, and as a system shaper creating the conditions for innovation.

Harnessing the rigour of science and the creativity of design, we work relentlessly to change millions of lives for the better. Find out more at  .

You'll join the Centre for Collective Intelligence, which is currently incubated within Nesta and planning to transition into an independent organisation over the next few years. We design digital tools and pioneer new ways to engage the public at scale to address society’s most pressing challenges, and help public and voluntary sector institutions build trust and collaboration with citizens.

Zeitgeist, our flagship digital deliberation product, is at the heart of this work: a tool that helps us run large-scale, high‑quality public and stakeholder deliberation online.

We're looking for a Product and Delivery Manager to take ownership of Zeitgeist and to lead the delivery of new digital products and tools that put participation and deliberation at the heart of public decision‑making.

You’ll split your time across three connected areas of work:

• Zeitgeist product management (c. 40%) - owning the roadmap and backlog for our flagship deliberation product, leading the multidisciplinary product team (two developers plus freelancers as needed), and balancing new feature development and maintenance against commercial project priorities. You’ll also ensure the timely build of client projects that use Zeitgeist.
• Delivery of new digital products and project (c. 40%) - managing user‑research, prototyping, build, testing, delivery and scaling of new digital products and projects that rely on these new tools for public engagement and participation.
• Business development (c. 20%) - supporting business and client development, with lead responsibility for securing philanthropic or grant funding to resource the development of Zeitgeist and new digital tools that enable us to deliver our vision.

• owning and prioritising the Zeitgeist product backlog, and setting a roadmap that balances new feature development, maintenance and technical health against commercial and client priorities
• leading and coordinating a multidisciplinary product team, including two developers and freelancers as needed, running the agile rhythms and rituals that keep the team focused and delivering
• managing the delivery of client projects built on Zeitgeist, ensuring they're delivered on time, on budget and to a high standard
• managing the end‑to‑end lifecycle - prototyping, build, testing, delivery and rollout/scaling - of new digital products and projects with digital at their core, including tools for public participation in decision‑making and policy
• translating user and stakeholder needs into a realistic roadmap, quarterly priorities and fortnightly sprints that match team capacity
• applying agile product management practices throughout, and supporting the product team to maintain strong agile ways of working
• contributing to product and project strategy, helping shape directions and vision
• carrying out user‑research and user‑testing
• serving as the team's data protection and security lead, ensuring our products and ways of working meet data protection and information security standard
• reporting on product and project progress, risks, budget and priorities to clients, Directors and other internal stakeholders
• quality‑assuring team outputs and managing sign‑off with Directors and clients
• supporting…