Digital Product Manager

Contract:

Initial 3 months, strong potential to extend Rate: £500-525 per day, Inside IR35

Location:

Hybrid - 1 day per week onsite near Malmesbury, typically Thursday Start:
October Working pattern:
Predominantly remote

The Role We are looking for an experienced Digital Product Manager to join a major digital transformation programme and take ownership of a package of improvements across website Search & Discovery. This is a highly delivery-focused role. Initial discovery, proof-of-concept and UX/design work has already taken place, so we need someone who can get up to speed quickly, understand the work completed to date and translate this into detailed tickets and requirements for development.

The immediate priority is supporting the transition from the existing website search experience towards a new, more natural-language-driven approach using Elasticsearch and vector-based search. You will work closely with digital, UX, content, analytics and engineering teams, alongside an external digital delivery partner, to move the product from POC and design into delivery. The wider organisation is going through significant change, so this would suit a pragmatic and commercially minded Product Manager who is comfortable operating within a complex environment, working with constrained resources and focusing on what can realistically be delivered.

Key Responsibilities Take ownership of the delivery of Search & Discovery improvements across a large consumer-facing website. Quickly understand the existing Search & Discovery POC, technical architecture, UX designs and current search functionality. Support the transition from existing search functionality towards vector-based and natural-language search. Translate UX designs, technical requirements and user needs into clear development tickets, user stories and detailed acceptance criteria.

Work closely with frontend and backend engineers to ensure technical decisions support the required user experience. Partner closely with UX/UI designers, including working confidently with designs and interactions within Figma. Interrogate proposed use cases to ensure features solve genuine user problems and deliver value. Balance user experience requirements against technical constraints and make pragmatic product decisions. Prioritise immediate deliverables while contributing to the wider Search & Discovery roadmap.

Help shape the evolution of search components and APIs as part of the longer-term move towards a headless web architecture. Represent the user throughout the development process while being comfortable discussing technical requirements directly with engineering teams. Work within an established Agile delivery environment and monthly release cycle. Embed quickly within the existing team and build confidence with product, UX and technology colleagues.

You will ideally have:
Strong experience as a Digital Product Manager / Web Product Manager within complex digital environments. Significant experience delivering customer-facing website features and digital experiences. Experience working on website search, Search & Discovery, onsite search or similar functionality. A good understanding of modern search technology. Exposure to Elasticsearch, vector search, semantic search or natural-language search would be highly advantageous. Strong experience working directly with frontend and backend engineering teams.

Excellent user story writing skills with the ability to produce detailed acceptance criteria and delivery-ready tickets. Strong understanding of UX and interaction design, with experience collaborating closely with designers. Confidence working with Figma and translating designs into development requirements. Strong Agile product delivery experience, ideally within structured release cycles. Experience taking ownership of product prioritisation and roadmaps. The ability to understand technical constraints and their impact on the customer experience.

A pragmatic, delivery-focused approach and the maturity to operate effectively within a changing organisation. The ability to hit the ground running, work with limited resources and focus on the most valuable immediate deliverables.

Desirable Experience Any experience across the following would be particularly useful:
Elasticsearch Vector-based or semantic search Natural-language search Search & Discovery / onsite search Search relevance and optimisation API-driven digital products Headless web architectures Large-scale website…