Senior Product Manager - Arbor MIS

At Arbor, we’re on a mission to transform the way schools work for the better. 

We believe in a future of working in schools where being challenged doesn’t mean being overworked. A future where data steers progress, without overwhelming staff. And where everyone working in a school is reminded of what inspired them to get into education in the first place, every day. 

Our School Management Tools are already making a difference in over 10,000 schools. Giving time and power back to staff; turning data into clear, actionable insights; and supporting happier workdays for over 350,000 hardworking people. 

At the heart of our brand is a recognition that the challenges schools face today aren’t just about efficiency, outputs and productivity - but about creating happier working lives for the people who drive education every day: the staff. We want to make schools more joyful places to work, as well as learn.

Arbor MIS helps over 10,000 schools across the UK to manage everything from attendance and assessment, to clubs and trips and timetabling. It plays a fundamental role in supporting our mission of transforming the way that schools work, by taking away traditional school admin work and giving staff back the time to focus on what matters most, their students.

We are looking for an analytical, empathetic and highly collaborative Senior Product Manager to join our Arbor MIS product team. The remit and focus of the role is to own the discovery and delivery of the strategic and continuous improvement roadmap for one of our newly expanding School MIS teams. You’ll be understanding real-world school problems and be responsible for the full product lifecycle, from concept to launch, and beyond. We’ll expect you to also build a deep understanding of user needs and the market landscape, which will underpin your strategy and decision making.

In our experience, no two Product people are the same. We aim to complement each other’s strengths and weaknesses, to help each other learn and grow, and to succeed together. We want to hire people who aren’t exactly like us. And we want to shape our roles to match the people who want to work here. So don’t worry if you don’t exactly fit our description – if you’re excited about this role, we want to meet you!

Core responsibilities

• Own and maintain a strategic product roadmap aligned with company goals, while staying informed and challenging the strategic direction.
• Define problems and hypotheses based on customer needs and feedback, ensuring alignment with the product strategy.
• Collaborate with Engineering and Product Design during discovery to identify assumptions, risks, and testing strategies.
• In collaboration with Product Design, conduct thorough user research and user-test prototypes and designs, to validate potential solutions and de-risk delivery.
• Plan and coordinate the delivery of product development in partnership with the Engineering Manager, through iterative sprint cycles and regular team ceremonies
• Use data-driven iteration and testing to measure impact and inform adjustments.
• Maintain contextual awareness of the business, education sector, and user needs, and effectively communicate this to the team.
• Foster collaboration, communication, and a culture of shared learning within the team and across departments.
• Champion a user-centric approach using feedback, metrics, and research to inform product decisions.
• Document all work stages and contribute to team knowledge and setting up other teams (including Sales and Customer Teams) for success.
• Proactively communicate with stakeholders on milestones, progress, and changes.
• Work with our go to market committee and other departments to successfully launch new products. 
• Continuously seek improvement opportunities and share learnings.

We’re looking for a clear communicator who can take complex requirements and turn them into a prioritised roadmap and backlog for their engineering team. Beyond that, we’d love to see:

• Proven experience working in a senior product role, with cross-functional teams, including engineering, design, and marketing.
• Experience working on complex requirements across multiple domains, and/or a proven track record working with data products where details matter!
• Demonstrable track record of taking new products from concept to launch, in collaboration with go-to-market teams.
• Comfortable working with remote teams. 
• Passion for building user-centric products that make a difference.
• Experience in the education sector is advantageous.
• Someone who thrives in a fast paced environment with multiple internal stakeholders and high levels of collaboration.

The chance to work alongside a team of hard-working, passionate people in a role where you’ll see the impact of your work everyday. We also offer:

• A dedicated wellbeing team who champion initiatives such as mindfulness, lunch n learns, manager training, mental health first aid training and much more!
• 32 days holiday (plus Bank Holidays). This is made up of 25 days annual leave plus 7 extra company wide days given over Easter, Summer & Christmas
• Life Assurance paid out at 3x annual salary
• Comprehensive wellness benefit provided by AIG Smart Health, which provides a 24/7 virtual GP service, Mental health support, Counselling, and personalised Health Checks 
• Private Dental Insurance with Bupa 
• Salary sacrifice Pension provided by Scottish Widows
• Enhanced maternity and adoption leave (20 weeks full pay) and paternity (6 weeks full pay) pay
• 5 free return to work maternity coaching sessions, helping you adapt to this new exciting time of life!
• Access to services such as Calm and Bippit (financial wellbeing coaching) 
• All of our roles champion flexible working and we are happy to discuss what this means to you!
• Social committees that plan team, office and company wide events to bring people together and celebrate success
• Dedicated professional development training budget (CPD courses, upskilling resources, professional memberships etc)
• Volunteer with a charity of your choice for a day each year

1. Phone screen
2. 1st stage
3. 2nd stage

We are committed to a fair and comfortable recruitment process, so if you require any reasonable adjustments during your application or interview process, please reach out to a member of the team at [email protected].

Our commitment is also backed by our partnership with Neurodiversity Consultancy, Lexxic who provide us with training, support and advice. 

Our goal is for Arbor to be a workplace which represents, celebrates and supports people from all backgrounds, and which gives them the tools they need to thrive - whatever their ambitions may be so we support and promote diversity and equality, and actively  encourage applications from people of all backgrounds. 

Know someone else who would be good for this role? You can refer a friend, family member or colleague, if they are offered a role with Arbor, we will say thank you with a voucher valued up to £200! Simply email: [email protected] 

Please note: We are unable to provide visa sponsorship at this time.