The role

The Financial Times is one of the world’s leading business news organisations, recognised internationally for its authority, integrity and accuracy. The FT has a record paying readership of one million, three-quarters of which are digital subscriptions. It is part of Nikkei Inc., which provides a broad range of information, news and services for the global business community. This is an exciting opportunity for a Senior Product Manager to join as part of the Product & Technology organisation within the Financial Times.

Position summary

An exciting opportunity is available for a Senior Product Manager to help accelerate our growth across the FT Specialist portfolio.
A high-level product vision exists but your job will be to further define and execute on this vision, strategy, and roadmap for the next 1 to 3 years. The role will be based either in our Sofia office, where the product development team will be based, and may require occasional travel to the London office.
The role requires experience leading distributed teams in new product development from inception through to post-launch optimisation. You are a highly skilled communicator with proven ability to influence both multi-functional team members and stakeholders at a senior level.

In this role you will

• Work closely with senior stakeholders to set business goals and success metrics
• Collaborate with multiple product teams to rapidly test hypotheses for reaching new customers
• Use insights from analytics, user research and the competitor landscape to inform decisions
• Create revenue opportunities by testing a range of acquisition based initiatives
• Maintain keen awareness of local digital trends and their potential for commercial application and improved user journeys
• Understand the priorities of other product managers, making connections in the relationships between streams of work; spotting opportunities to better align for bigger greater impact.

What are the requirements we are looking for this role:

You’re used to balancing the needs of the business against the needs of the customer. You care about the bottom line but you also care about maintaining a great user experience – and you know how to deliver on both. You know when to employ different approaches to product management, and can balance lean-style MVP experimental work with focused iteration.
You’ll provide support to your teams by setting clear objectives and key results, frequently monitoring progress, learning and adjusting course when needed.
Candidates must be able to demonstrate an understanding of digital and market trends and their significance to FT Products.

The ideal candidate profile is:

Essential

• A proven track record in data-informed product management role
• You’re at home setting hypotheses, testing riskiest assumptions and breaking down complex problems into small steps
• Knowledge of the entire product lifecycle from insights/analysis, roadmap development, launch tactics, post launch iteration
• Highly developed influencing and negotiation skills
• You understand what it takes to get teams performing well, and at pace
• Great communication skills – able to clearly write and present documents targeted at various audiences
• Proactive, outcome-driven, with a can-do attitude
• Intellectually curious, with an ability to quickly spot opportunities and see them through to their natural conclusion
• The ability to work independently, but with regular support and collaboration with their manager
• The ability to balance workloads and priorities against incoming requests that may arise within Product & technology department
• Experience in working closely with commercial (B2B, B2C Marketing, Advertising) and Editorial teams to balance their needs against user needs.
• A proven ability to quickly get up and running in a domain and identify trends and opportunities in complex organisations.

Desirable

• Experience of line managing or coaching junior product managers for success
• Experience of working within high-growth digital businesses, ideally in media/publishing/startup culture
• You’ll cope well with ambiguity in a rapidly changing business environment
• Experience producing strong business justifications.

We can't wait to meet you!