Senior Product Manager - Web Team

About the Borough

Joining us, you get to work for not just one high performing London Borough, but two.

Kingston and Sutton councils have a number of shared services serving both authorities, with some teams and roles more focussed on one council than the other, but the majority are shared across both, meaning you get multiple opportunities to learn from a wider pool of activities and two different political bodies.

We work flexibly in both Kingston and Sutton offices, and support working at home or flexible working patterns that enable you to tailor your working and personal life. We provide the equipment and tools to enable you to work flexibly, and in return ask you to use that flexibility to be creative and ambitious in the services we deliver.

There are some really exciting things happening in both boroughs. In Sutton, we are developing the London Cancer Hub, a world leading cancer research and treatment hub that will bring together professionals from across different sectors to identify and test new treatments and therapies. Over in Kingston, we are undertaking the largest housing regeneration programme ever delivered in the borough, building new energy efficient housing that will transform some of our oldest Council owned housing. Both boroughs have publicly committed to doing what they can to tackle the climate emergency and are investing in new technologies and societal change that will help bring carbon emissions down and improve our climate impact.

You should choose Kingston and Sutton if you are looking for an opportunity that will challenge you to deliver more, support you to achieve personal ambitions, and expect you to put borough residents at the heart of what you do.

Kingston is a beautiful Royal borough with a historic setting on the banks of the Thames with excellent schools and a bustling retail centre, all surrounded by open green spaces such as Richmond Park and Bushy Park, former recreation grounds for Tudor Kings and Queens. The Council is controlled by a Liberal Democrat Administration and has a council plan “Greener, Fairer, Safer, Together”, that sets out a vision to be a vibrant, diverse and inclusive borough where residents are active, empowered, engaged and able to remain independent and resilient. The Council engages with residents through a number of forums and events through the year, and like Sutton plays a leading role in developing the South West Region of London.

Sutton is a well connected attractive part of London that has a reputation for excellent schools, green and leafy open spaces, and a history that drives a thriving heritage and culture offer through our museums and libraries. The Council is controlled by a long established Liberal Democrat Administration and has high ambitions set out in its corporate plan “Ambitious for Sutton”, that will ensure Sutton remains a great place to live, work and raise a family. The Council plays a leading role in a number of local partnerships and places great emphasis on engaging effectively with its residents, listening to local voices and making their message heard across London Government.

About the Service and Team

Our mantra here in Digital is people first, technology second. When building good services we start with user needs and design council services to meet them. To do this, we work in multi-disciplinary teams to gather insights, identify pain points and design and deliver solutions.  We use data and research insights to know if our solutions are working and continually improve them.

The Web Team has just completed two website migrations to LocalGov Drupal, and we are now looking to build on that. We have a lot of exciting projects in the pipeline including the use of AI on the websites, using our tech to promote council services to drive revenue and also improving how we manage content across our websites. This role will not only be leading the website strategies and projects, but will be supporting and empowering a team to lead best digital practices across two councils.

About the Role and Our Ideal Candidate

The Senior Product Manager for the Web Team works as part of the Digital service to set the strategic direction of travel for each council’s website.  In this role you will:

• Own responsibility for the councils’ corporate websites by setting the vision and roadmap, measuring performance, identifying opportunities for change and creating a culture of continuous improvement.
• Lead the continuous improvement of our websites and digital services by setting change initiatives and coordinating the work to achieve your objectives.
• Oversee our Web Team’s internal service desk by prioritising your team’s work and supporting colleagues to uphold our web standards.
• Support and coach the team to apply Product ways of working, learn new skills and continually improve.

About you

Our ideal candidate is an experienced Product Manager skilled at developing compelling strategies across diverse business areas. You have a proven track record of collaborating with content, user, and service designers to improve user journeys through design-led approaches. Additionally, you leverage data and strong analytical skills to drive website performance.

As a leader, you champion user-centric thinking, comfortably challenge established practices, and maintain a broad corporate perspective. Your agile mindset enables you to influence stakeholders, build strong organisational relationships, and navigate complex environments with ease.

Beyond technical expertise, you foster a supportive, inclusive environment by coaching and mentoring team members in their daily work and career growth. You also align with Kingston’s commitment to diversity, community cohesion, and social inclusion, ensuring these values are reflected in our digital services.

Our Offer to You

As an organisation that values and nurtures talent, we’re committed to helping you fulfil your potential and will offer you a supportive, friendly and collaborative environment to grow and develop your career and skills. We’re constantly striving to improve our ways of working so putting your ideas across however big or small; will be fully encouraged and supported by your colleagues and our dynamic and experienced management team.

Employees have access to a wide range of benefits to enable staff to achieve a work life balance, some of which include:

• A generous annual leave entitlement of 25-32 days, plus bank holidays (pro-rata if part-time working hours apply) depending on service and grade.
• Enhanced Maternity, Paternity, shared parental, adoption and dependents leave
• Three volunteering days per year in Kingston
• Hybrid working (dependent on the role)
• Flexible and agile working arrangements using Google Chromebooks
• Learning and development portal offering a range of courses
• Discounts on a range of local shops, restaurants, gyms and leisure centres
• Interest free season ticket loans
• Local Government Pension Scheme
• Bicycle loan facilities and cycle to work scheme
• Electric vehicle leasing scheme
• Confidential health & wellbeing and counselling support

Application Process

Apply online outlining what skills, abilities and experience you can bring which makes you an ideal candidate for this role. Please refer to the requirements outlined in the job profile when completing your application and check your CV details have been uploaded correctly in the relevant sections.

We understand and recognise the benefits of using Artificial Intelligence (AI) in the workplace