Principal Product Manager

Role title: Principal Product Manager 

Function: Digital Technology & Data 

Reports to: Director of Products & Platforms – Food & Membership

Number of reports: 0 current direct reports

Work level: WL4

Please note - this role vacancy is for The Unified Commerce Platform Team (UCP) - our Principal Product Managers however can be deployed across the Co-op.

Role Summary

A recognised leader in product craft and collaboration, you are accountable for the success and development of a your value stream. You set the vision, direction, and outcomes at a strategic level, translating organisational strategy and goals and into ambitious but achievable measures. Maximises long-term organisational value by shaping direction and priorities in partnership with senior business stakeholders, prioritising valuable work, making-offs across value, cost, risk, architecture, and delivery feasibility while raising the bar for product practice across the wider team.

Key Responsibilities

Accountability 

• Contributes significantly to medium-term strategic planning for the function, ensuring alignment of activity within their own team. 
• Plans and co-ordinates work within a team, ensuring the right capabilities are in place to deliver effectively now and in the future, and responding to change that impacts on their area of responsibility. 
• Manages team delivery in accordance with agreed budgets. 

Impact 

• Acts as a voice for their wider team, advising senior leaders to ensure challenges, learnings and opportunities experienced across the business inform strategic decision-making. 
• Empowers and enables their immediate team to deliver the short-term plan within clear decision-making parameters, providing resources and guidance to support them. 
• As an individual contributor, provides thought leadership to help shape the function's response to challenges, and approach to delivery of the medium-term plan. 
• Creates a Co-op culture of inclusivity which allows colleagues to be themselves always, where everyone can reach their potential. 

Co-operation 

• Collaborates with peers to deliver great work that enables the function to succeed. 
• Co-operates with other teams and SMEs to get to the best outcome for the Co-op in their work.

Knowledge, Skills, Experience

• Autonomous worker – Operates with a high degree of autonomy and strategic independence, taking accountability for outcomes across a complex domain. Proactively identifies opportunities for improvement at an organisational level, setting direction without needing guidance. 
• Adaptability – Leads through ambiguity and change with confidence, helping others navigate shifting priorities. Holds the long-term vision steady while remaining responsive to emerging challenges across multiple teams and stakeholders. 
• Strategic vision and thinking – Shapes and contributes to organisational and value stream strategy, not just translates it. Connects market trends, customer insight and business goals into a coherent and compelling product strategy that influences beyond their own domain. 
• Analytical skills – Sets the standard for evidence-based thinking. Synthesises complex, ambiguous data into clear strategic narratives that drive senior decision making and organisational alignment. 
• Technical knowledge – Engages credibly with engineering leadership on architecture, technical constraints and emerging technologies. Brings informed perspective on build vs buy vs partner decisions and the strategic implications of technical choices. 
• Agile and lean practices – Models and evolves agile and lean practices across teams, adapting approaches to context. Contributes to how the organisation develops and matures its ways of working. 
• Business and commercial acumen – Deeply understands commercial drivers and financial levers, factoring cost, revenue, risk and organisational priorities into strategic product decisions with confidence. 
• Influencing and stakeholder leadership – Builds trust and alignment with senior leaders and executives, navigating complex organisational dynamics to drive decisions and create the conditions for teams to succeed.
• Coaching and developing others – Actively grows capability in those around them, providing mentorship, stretch opportunities and honest feedback that raises the standard of product practice across the function. 
• Curiosity and continuous learning – Brings genuine intellectual curiosity to their work, constantly seeking new perspectives, challenging assumptions and evolving their thinking. Models a love of learning that inspires the same in others and keeps the team ahead of change.

We know that some candidates are less likely to apply for a role if they don't meet all the criteria in the job description. At Co-op, where committed to building a diverse and inclusive working environment, so if you’d like to apply for this role but your experience doesn't quite meet every point, we'd still encourage you to apply. You may be just the right candidate for the job or other roles we have available.