Location: Cardiff or Edinburgh (hybrid)

Role:

The Senior Product Owner plays a key role in supporting the development enhancement and successful delivery of English Online products and integrations. Reporting to the Head of Product the role leads assigned product workstreams ensuring that development activity aligns with user needs commercial priorities and the wider English Online strategy.

This role sits within the English Online product team and will be based either in Cardiff or Edinburgh reporting to the Head of Product. English Online operates in a fast-paced digital learning environment with continuous improvement user-centred design and effective cross-functional collaboration being essential to the success of the product.

Company:

The British Council builds connections understanding and trust between people in the UK and other countries through arts and culture education and the English language. We work in two ways directly with individuals to transform their lives and with governments and partners to make a bigger difference for the longer term creating benefit for millions of people all over the world. We help young people to gain the skills confidence and connections they are looking for to realise their potential and to participate in strong and inclusive communities. We support them to learn English to get a high-quality education and to gain internationally recognised qualifications. Our work in arts and culture stimulates creative expression and exchange and nurtures creative enterprise. We connect the best of the UK with the world and the best of the world with the UK. These connections lead to an understanding of each others strengths and of the challenges and values that we share. This builds trust between people in the UK and other nations which endures even when official relations may be strained. We work on the ground in more than 100 countries and connect close to 1 billion people globally.

Responsibilities:

Lead product discovery and delivery for defined English Online initiatives and specific product areas including

integrations with EnglishScore and other assessment platforms.

Support the Head of Product in shaping delivery approaches for AI integration projects (AiBC) and content redesign work defining feature success metrics and conducting post-release evaluations.

Contributes to the articulation and refinement of product direction for assigned workstreams ensuring alignment with English Online strategy.

Translate product vision into clear actionable requirements and user stories for development teams.

Maintain backlogs for assigned workstreams ensuring they are prioritised using data user insights and business value.

Ensure user research and analytics inform product decisions using evidence to refine requirements and improve product outcomes.

Collaborate closely with engineering UX content data and QA teams to ensure solutions meet user expectations and quality standards user-centred design principles inform prototypes interfaces and learning experiences and deliver product enhancements and integrations.

Work alongside stakeholders across Marketing Operations EnglishScore and AI development partners to ensure smooth delivery.

Works collaboratively with technical teams to resolve issues clarify requirements and manage dependencies across workstreams.

Contribute to improving and maintaining Agile ceremonies and product across the team supporting consistency in sprint planning review and retrospectives.

Support smooth release planning and post-release evaluation contributing to a culture of continuous improvement.

Supports the development of product documentation roadmaps and release notes to ensure clarity and transparency.

Supports timely completion of required testing activities including usability testing QA cycles and accessibility checks.

Requirements:

Track of experience as a Product Owner / Product Manager in a digital environment.

Understanding of product lifecycle management release processes and evaluation.

Demonstrable experience delivering digital product features or integrations using Agile methodologies.

Understanding of UX principles and user-centred design processes.

Experience developing user stories prioritisation and acceptance criteria definition and maintaining a structured product backlog.

Experience working collaboratively with technical teams and translating business needs into technical requirements.

Strong communication skills able to explain product decisions to diverse audiences.

Translating complex user and business needs into clear product requirements.

Understanding of user-centred design testing approaches and iterative development.

Ability to communicate product concepts visually and verbally.

Experience using product analytics or user behaviour data to inform decisions.

Ability to manage competing priorities and deliver against deadlines.

Commitment to continuous learning and adapting to new tools technologies and product practices.

Bonus Skills:

Experience working in EdTech digital learning or digital assessment environments.

Experience with AI-driven product features or emerging technologies.

Familiarity with integrations between learning platforms CRMs or assessment systems.

Experience with UX research tools prototyping platforms or design systems.

Knowledge of API documentation integration patterns or technical constraints.

Essential:

• Fluency in English.
• Unlimited right to work in the UK without requiring sponsorship.
• Flexibility to work in a hybrid capacity in one of our offices either in Cardiff or Edinburgh 2-3 days per week.

British Council Values:

British council values and behaviours are applicable across our organisation in all roles and at all levels. They are important because they say what we stand for at the British Council and help us to deliver our strategy. We use them to guide our decision making as well as guiding how we treat one another and the people we work with. These will be assessed in the selection process. Our values are: Open and Committed; Expert and Inclusive; Optimistic and Bold. The behaviours for each values pair can be found on our Intranet SharePoint site for internal staff and at our Careers portal for external applicants.