Chief Product Officer — Managed-Services Unit

The mandate

An institutionally backed managed-services unit has a broad portfolio but no consistent product accountability. Services, platforms, bespoke customer work and inherited offers compete for investment through different leaders. The investment committee has withheld expansion until product-line consolidation can show a coherent customer and economic logic.

The Chief Product Officer will steward approximately £2,050 million in annual recurring revenue and lead around 550 employees and material partners. The remit includes portfolio strategy, product management, market insight, roadmap, packaging, lifecycle, adoption, product operations, commercial design and talent. The Group Chief Executive or appointed executive committee sponsor will hold the reporting relationship for this portfolio.

The portfolio must be understood through customer jobs and outcomes. Managed services often blend standard capability, operations and custom commitments, making product boundaries unclear. The CPO will map where customers perceive repeatable value, where variation is essential and where bespoke work has been mislabeled as product.

Every product needs an accountable owner with authority over roadmap, economics and lifecycle. Revenue, adoption, service cost, cloud and supplier consumption, reliability, support, retention and expansion should reconcile. A profitable-looking offer may rely on unpriced delivery effort, while a shared capability may create value across several customer contracts.

Consolidation choices will include invest, combine, standardise, maintain, partner and exit. Each choice requires customer consequence, migration effort, capacity, cash and a dated decision gate. Internal attachment or historic revenue cannot justify indefinite continuation when lifecycle value is weak.

Customer adoption matters more than release volume. Usage, realised outcomes, renewal and expansion should connect to roadmap decisions. The CPO will ensure customer-success and service evidence reaches product governance, while stopping local escalation from creating a hidden backlog outside the portfolio plan.

Packaging and pricing should reflect the service and risk model. Entitlements, response levels, integrations and operating obligations need clear boundaries. Commercial teams require enough flexibility to win priority customers without recreating uncontrolled variants. Exceptions need economics, owner and expiry.

Roadmap capacity will be allocated across new value, reliability, compliance, migration and technical health. Product and engineering leaders must present joint trade-offs. Material commitments should show what is displaced and how confidence changes as evidence develops.

Migration is part of the product experience. Contracts, data, interfaces, workflows, service levels and customer communication require explicit gates. An end-of-life notice does not prove successful transition. Parallel running needs priced duration and a path to retirement.

The product organisation will be built around outcomes rather than internal towers. The CPO will assess leaders, establish decision rights with engineering and operations, and build succession. One portfolio review will join customer, product, delivery, cash and talent facts.

Why this seat is open

This urgent new role consolidates accountability that has previously been distributed. Interim governance protects current customers, but the board intends to progress from qualified shortlist to offer within six to eight weeks. The external search remains confidential until organisation choices are agreed.

What you will own

• Define coherent product boundaries around repeatable customer value.
• Steward approximately £2,050 million in annual recurring revenue.
• Assign owners with authority over roadmap, economics and lifecycle.
• Make invest, consolidate, partner and retirement decisions.
• Lead approximately 550 employees and material partners.
• Connect adoption and service evidence to roadmap allocation.
• Govern packaging, pricing and customer variation.
• Build product leadership, migration discipline and succession.

The first 12 months

The first 90 days should reconstruct the portfolio, meet the 30 stakeholders closest to accountability gaps and assess leaders. Stabilise priority customer or reliability risks. Agree portfolio, investment, exception and retirement gates with the board.

Months four to nine should activate consolidation choices, stop low-value roadmap work and begin controlled migrations. Install common product economics, fill leadership gaps and clarify interfaces with engineering, commercial and operations.

By year end, portfolio coherence, product economics and customer adoption should support renewed investment confidence. Delivery must stay within 10% of approval, with three forecasts aligning products, recurring revenue, cash, customers and people. Critical migration issues require verified closure before irreversible retirement.

What the board will measure

• Portfolio choices supported by customer and lifecycle economics.
• Product owners exercising end-to-end authority over outcomes.
• Adoption, retention and expansion linked to roadmap investment.
• Customer variants reduced or explicitly priced and governed.
• Retention above 90% for pivotal product talent and ready cover for 70% of direct reports.
• Migrations completed with service continuity and actual legacy exit.

The person

You are a Chief Product Officer, SVP Product or Product Business GM with 22–28 years in technology or a comparable recurring-services enterprise. Your experience combines economic accountability for a multi-offer portfolio with personal authority over roadmaps and customer adoption.

Your accountable P&L, book, budget or portfolio has been at least £1,200 million, and you have led 375 or more people. Evidence should show portfolio choices and adoption sustained through two reporting periods.

You understand managed-service economics, product accountability and migration. You can challenge custom work disguised as strategy, make retirement decisions and maintain customer and technical followership through consolidation.

Compensation and terms

Base compensation is £290,000–390,000 plus annual incentive and LTI. This permanent London appointment is onsite and supports international relocation. Notice of up to six months can be accommodated.

Confidentiality

The organisation, portfolio, customers and consolidation options remain confidential. Identity will follow mutual interest under a signed undertaking; all public facts are rounded and blended.