Product Owner

Kinetic

Product Owner managing product delivery and customer discovery for software solutions in higher education and events. Collaborating across functions and driving strategic product vision in a hybrid work environment.

Posted 5/17/2026full-timeMilton Keynes • 🇬🇧 United KingdomMid-LevelSeniorWebsite

Tech Stack

Tools & technologies

DelphiGo

About the role

Key responsibilities & impact

Visit customers on site (3 to 4 times a year for your product area) and run co-design sessions to validate priorities
Build direct relationships with key customers
Use AI tools to synthesise support ticket data, usage patterns, and competitive intelligence into clear product direction
Run hypothesis-driven discovery before committing engineering effort to major initiatives
Define adoption metrics and track whether shipped features are actually delivering value
Own and maintain a prioritised product backlog based on business value, customer impact, and strategic alignment
Write user stories with clear acceptance criteria, using AI to draft and improve quality, and work with engineers through refinement and estimation
Run 2-week sprint cycles, protect committed work from scope creep, and drive delivery predictability
Triage and prioritise bugs alongside feature work
Manage cross-product dependencies, especially across the Delphi estate where shared databases and code libraries mean a change in one product can affect others
Participate in product governance, including the fortnightly Product Review Board
Forecast delivery 6 to 12 weeks ahead and track accuracy over time
Submit weekly delivery reports covering progress, risks, and RAG status
Put together go-to-market packs for launches: customer communications, positioning, internal briefings, and support docs
Brief customer services, support, and sales ahead of launches and significant updates
Represent your product area in cross-functional discussions and present to leadership
Make sure other departments deliver on their part of a launch

Requirements

What you’ll need

3+ years of experience as a Product Owner, Product Manager, or in a combined role within a SaaS or software product company.
Backlog ownership in an agile delivery team, whether Scrum, Kanban, or something similar.
Customer discovery. You have actually spoken to customers. Interviews, site visits, usability testing, co-design sessions. Not just gathering requirements from internal teams.
Prioritisation under pressure. You can hold the tension between fixing bugs and building features, between what a stakeholder wants and what the strategy needs, between short-term revenue and long-term platform health.
Clear communication. You can explain product decisions and trade-offs to both technical and non-technical audiences.
Saying no. You have done it, with evidence, and the relationship survived. This matters here because multiple departments will compete for your time and attention.
Comfortable with legacy systems. Not everything is greenfield. You need to be willing to invest in stability and quality on mature platforms. Our Delphi products still underpin a significant share of our revenue.
Technically literate. You do not need to write code, but you need to understand how software gets built, what technical debt actually means, and how to have useful conversations with engineers about what is feasible.
Process discipline. You are comfortable setting up and following structured ways of working: estimation, refinement, sprint cadence, release cycles. You will be building some of these processes here, not just following ones that already exist.
AI mindset. You already use AI tools in your product work. Whether that is drafting stories, pulling together research, analysing competitors, or synthesising customer feedback, you see AI as something you use every day, not something you are curious about trying. We are an AI-first business and this is a baseline expectation.
Nice to Have Experience in higher education, student accommodation, conferencing and events, or hospitality technology.
Experience managing third-party development or outsourced delivery.
Multi-product portfolio management. Product Owners here typically look after 2 to 5 products.
Go-to-market experience: customer communications, launch planning, positioning, support enablement.
Product analytics and adoption measurement. Knowing whether something worked, not just whether it shipped.
Jira proficiency.
Experience working within formal governance frameworks like Product Review Boards or architecture review.
Experience with delivery forecasting and predictability metrics.

Benefits

Comp & perks

25 days holiday (plus bank holidays) - with extra days the longer you’re with us
Two paid wellbeing days each year, with a budget to enjoy some time out with someone important to you
Enhanced pension contributions to support your future
Two paid days a year to give back through volunteering, charity work, or sustainability projects with our Green Team
Salary sacrifice schemes for electric vehicles and cycle-to-work
24/7 access to our Employee Assistance Programme for confidential advice and support
A full annual health check to keep you at your best
A flexible benefits platform - from life assurance and learning opportunities to retail discounts and cinema tickets
A genuine people-first culture where your growth and wellbeing come first
Performance-related bonus scheme to reward your contribution
Regular socials - from team get-togethers to all-company celebrations, with each department owning a budget for their events
The opportunity to attend group conferences, away days and learning forums both in the UK and abroad - network with other talent
We’ve created a welcoming office environment, with well-stocked kitchens offering free breakfast, fresh fruit, hot and cold drinks, and a range of tuck shop goodies to keep you fuelled throughout the day.

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Hard Skills & Tools

backlog ownershipcustomer discoveryproduct analyticsadoption measurementdelivery forecastingagile methodologieshypothesis-driven discoveryuser story writingsprint managementcross-product dependencies

Soft Skills

clear communicationprioritisation under pressurerelationship managementprocess disciplinetechnical literacyAI mindsetstakeholder managementpresentation skillscollaborationproblem-solving