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Cambridge University Press & Assessment
Agile Product Owner - 7414
Cambridge Hybrid 2-5 yrs exp Education 11,922 employees£38k – £50k / year
Agile Product OwnershipBacklog ManagementUser Story CreationStakeholder ManagementProduct Roadmap Definition
Requirements
Candidates must have experience working in agile teams with strong skills in backlog management and stakeholder alignment. Experience with digital products or business-critical systems is essential, while Agile Scrum certification and EdTech experience are desirable.
Job Description
Job Title: Agile Product Owner – IELTS
Salary: £38,300 - £49,775 per annum
Location: Cambridge, UK – Hybrid
Contract: Permanent
Hours: Full Time - 35 hours per week
Do you thrive on turning complex business challenges into digital solutions that deliver real value for customers and users?
We are Cambridge University Press & Assessment, a world-leading academic publisher and assessment organisation and a proud part of the University of Cambridge.
We're looking for an Agile Product Owner to join our IELTS Product team and play a key role in shaping and delivering digital capabilities that support one of the world's most trusted English language assessments. This is an exciting opportunity to work across global teams, influence product strategy, and help drive innovation that improves experiences for test takers, operational teams and partners worldwide.
About The Role
As an Agile Product Owner, you will own and manage the development of digital services and capabilities within IELTS, guiding initiatives from early requirements through to successful adoption by users. You will work closely with Product, Delivery and Technology teams to ensure that development efforts align with business priorities, deliver measurable value, and contribute to the long-term product vision.
You will act as the voice of the customer and the business within agile development teams, ensuring that user needs are understood, priorities are clear, and delivery outcomes support the wider IELTS strategy
Additional responsibilities and accountabilities include:
About You
To be successful in this role, you'll bring experience working within product delivery environments, with the ability to translate business and user needs into actionable requirements that enable development teams to deliver value.
You will have experience managing competing stakeholder priorities, refining backlogs and working collaboratively across cross-functional teams to deliver successful outcomes. You will be comfortable engaging with both technical and non-technical colleagues and have a strong understanding of customer-focused product development.
Essential Requirements
We are a Disability Confident (DC) employer that is committed to equality and inclusion ensuring our recruitment process is accessible to all. The DC scheme's Offer of an Interview commitment applies to applicants who opt in, and disclose a disability or a long-term health condition, and who best meet the minimum criteria for the role. In instances where interviewing all qualifying candidates is not practicable and/or appropriate, we prioritise those who best meet the minimum criteria, as we would for applicants who do not have a disability or long-term health condition.
Cambridge University Press & Assessment is an approved UK employer for the sponsorship of eligible roles and applicants under the Skilled Worker visa route. Please refer to the gov.uk website for guidance to understand your own eligibility based on the role you are applying for.
Rewards And Benefits
We will support you to be at your best in work and to live well outside of it. In addition to competitive salaries, we offer a world-class, flexible rewards package, featuring family-friendly and planet-friendly benefits including:
We aim to support candidates by making our interview process clear and transparent. The closing date for all applications will be 6th September. We will review applications on an ongoing basis, and shortlisted candidates can expect interviews to take place from week commencing 28th September.
If you are shortlisted and progressed through the stages, you can expect:
Please note that successful applicants will be subject to satisfactory background checks including DBS due to working in a regulated industry.
We are committed to an equitable recruitment process. As such, applications must be submitted via our official online application procedure. Please refrain from sending your CV directly to our recruiters. If you experience technical difficulties or require additional support with submitting your online application, contact the Recruiter.
Why join us
Joining us is your opportunity to pursue potential. You will belong to a collaborative team that is exploring new and better ways to serve students, teachers and researchers across the globe – for the benefit of individuals, society and the world. Sharing our mission will inspire your own growth, development and progress, in an environment which embraces difference, change and aspiration.
Cambridge University Press & Assessment is committed to being a place where anyone can enjoy a successful career, where it is safe to speak up, and where we learn continuously to improve together. We welcome applications from all candidates, regardless of demographic characteristics (age, disability, educational attainment, ethnicity, gender, marital status, neurodiversity, religion, sex, gender identity and sexual identity), cultural, or social class/background.
We believe better outcomes come through diversity of thought, background and approach. We welcome applications from people from all backgrounds and communities, actively seeking to employ people from a wide range of different communities.
Salary: £38,300 - £49,775 per annum
Location: Cambridge, UK – Hybrid
Contract: Permanent
Hours: Full Time - 35 hours per week
Do you thrive on turning complex business challenges into digital solutions that deliver real value for customers and users?
We are Cambridge University Press & Assessment, a world-leading academic publisher and assessment organisation and a proud part of the University of Cambridge.
We're looking for an Agile Product Owner to join our IELTS Product team and play a key role in shaping and delivering digital capabilities that support one of the world's most trusted English language assessments. This is an exciting opportunity to work across global teams, influence product strategy, and help drive innovation that improves experiences for test takers, operational teams and partners worldwide.
About The Role
As an Agile Product Owner, you will own and manage the development of digital services and capabilities within IELTS, guiding initiatives from early requirements through to successful adoption by users. You will work closely with Product, Delivery and Technology teams to ensure that development efforts align with business priorities, deliver measurable value, and contribute to the long-term product vision.
You will act as the voice of the customer and the business within agile development teams, ensuring that user needs are understood, priorities are clear, and delivery outcomes support the wider IELTS strategy
Additional responsibilities and accountabilities include:
- Defining, maintaining and communicating product roadmaps and priorities for your service area.
- Working collaboratively across the IELTS partnership and with technology providers to shape future capabilities and deliver agreed development plans.
- Managing and prioritising team backlogs to maximise value delivered and achieve agreed objectives.
- Writing and refining user stories, epics and acceptance criteria, ensuring requirements are clearly defined and aligned to customer needs.
- Leading stakeholder engagement activities to build alignment, secure buy-in and communicate progress.
- Monitoring product performance, gathering customer feedback and using insights to inform future development priorities.
- Collaborating with architects, developers, designers and testers to deliver high-quality solutions.
- Supporting business readiness, training and change adoption activities to ensure successful implementation of new capabilities.
- Leading teams as the Product Owner, providing clarity on priorities, purpose and measures of success.
About You
To be successful in this role, you'll bring experience working within product delivery environments, with the ability to translate business and user needs into actionable requirements that enable development teams to deliver value.
You will have experience managing competing stakeholder priorities, refining backlogs and working collaboratively across cross-functional teams to deliver successful outcomes. You will be comfortable engaging with both technical and non-technical colleagues and have a strong understanding of customer-focused product development.
Essential Requirements
- Experience working in agile teams, including backlog management, user story creation and requirements refinement.
- Strong stakeholder management skills, with experience aligning competing priorities across multiple groups.
- Experience working with digital products, platforms or business-critical systems.
- Excellent communication and collaboration skills.
- Strong problem-solving abilities and a delivery-focused mindset.
- Ability to thrive in a fast-changing environment while maintaining focus on strategic objectives.
- Experience as a Product Owner within Agile/Scrum teams.
- Experience in assessment, education technology or digital product development.
- Agile Scrum certification.
- Experience working with SaaS solutions and third-party technology providers.
- Knowledge of data analytics and evidence-based product decision making.
- Experience working across global teams and cultures.
We are a Disability Confident (DC) employer that is committed to equality and inclusion ensuring our recruitment process is accessible to all. The DC scheme's Offer of an Interview commitment applies to applicants who opt in, and disclose a disability or a long-term health condition, and who best meet the minimum criteria for the role. In instances where interviewing all qualifying candidates is not practicable and/or appropriate, we prioritise those who best meet the minimum criteria, as we would for applicants who do not have a disability or long-term health condition.
Cambridge University Press & Assessment is an approved UK employer for the sponsorship of eligible roles and applicants under the Skilled Worker visa route. Please refer to the gov.uk website for guidance to understand your own eligibility based on the role you are applying for.
Rewards And Benefits
We will support you to be at your best in work and to live well outside of it. In addition to competitive salaries, we offer a world-class, flexible rewards package, featuring family-friendly and planet-friendly benefits including:
- 28 days annual leave plus bank holidays
- Private medical and Permanent Health Insurance
- Discretionary annual bonus
- Group personal pension scheme
- Life assurance up to 4 x annual salary
- Green travel schemes
We aim to support candidates by making our interview process clear and transparent. The closing date for all applications will be 6th September. We will review applications on an ongoing basis, and shortlisted candidates can expect interviews to take place from week commencing 28th September.
If you are shortlisted and progressed through the stages, you can expect:
- One stage virtual interview via MS Teams. You will be provided with a brief to complete a role related task which will need to be returned by email in advance of your interview.
Please note that successful applicants will be subject to satisfactory background checks including DBS due to working in a regulated industry.
We are committed to an equitable recruitment process. As such, applications must be submitted via our official online application procedure. Please refrain from sending your CV directly to our recruiters. If you experience technical difficulties or require additional support with submitting your online application, contact the Recruiter.
Why join us
Joining us is your opportunity to pursue potential. You will belong to a collaborative team that is exploring new and better ways to serve students, teachers and researchers across the globe – for the benefit of individuals, society and the world. Sharing our mission will inspire your own growth, development and progress, in an environment which embraces difference, change and aspiration.
Cambridge University Press & Assessment is committed to being a place where anyone can enjoy a successful career, where it is safe to speak up, and where we learn continuously to improve together. We welcome applications from all candidates, regardless of demographic characteristics (age, disability, educational attainment, ethnicity, gender, marital status, neurodiversity, religion, sex, gender identity and sexual identity), cultural, or social class/background.
We believe better outcomes come through diversity of thought, background and approach. We welcome applications from people from all backgrounds and communities, actively seeking to employ people from a wide range of different communities.
Skills
Agile Product OwnershipBacklog ManagementUser Story CreationStakeholder ManagementProduct Roadmap DefinitionRequirements RefinementDigital Product DevelopmentSaaS SolutionsData AnalyticsCross-functional CollaborationProblem SolvingChange Adoption
About Cambridge University Press & Assessment
We are Cambridge University Press & Assessment. We are a world-leading academic publisher and assessment organisation, and part of the University of Cambridge. We’re driven by a simple mission – to contribute to society through the pursuit of education, learning, and research at the highest international levels of excellence. Our team is one connected, global community, pursuing potential and moving forward, together. We will keep exploring, collaborating, and innovating to find bold new ways to spread knowledge, spark enquiry, and aid understanding.
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