Product Owner
Department: Product Engineering
Employment Type: Permanent
Location: Newcastle-upon-Tyne
Reporting To: Tribe Lead
Description
Product Owners at Bede are responsible for shaping, evolving and driving the success of our products. Each PO takes ownership of a specific product area, building an expert understanding of that space and taking responsibility for moving it forward. This includes staying close to industry developments, customer needs and the wider business context.
As Bede specialises in digital lottery and casino platforms, this role has a strong focus on the end-to-end delivery of customer-facing features across web and mobile apps, within highly regulated gaming environments. Prior experience in lottery, casino, gaming or comparable regulated industries would be highly beneficial.
This is a hybrid role that requires you to be in our Newcastle-upon-Tyne office two days a week. Please apply only if you're comfortable with this arrangement.
What you'll be doing
Vision
- Own, maintain and curate the Tribe backlog, based on the strategic direction set by the Product Board.
- Contribute to the Bede Product Roadmap for relevant product areas.
- Create high-level requirements and contribute to proposals for new product initiatives where needed.
Delivery
- Play a key role in the Tribe through all stages of the Bede SDLC.
- Act as the voice of the stakeholder, whether that is a client or Bede sponsor.
- Turn high-level objectives and requirements into clear, detailed product requirements in the form of user stories with acceptance criteria.
- Follow requirements through execution, either by deriving requirements from BA documentation or developing requirements for own initiatives.
- Take accountability for product quality and feature sign-off at the end of each sprint.
- Collaborate with Team Leads to produce sprint reports and project delivery dates for small to mid-scale projects. Large-scale projects will have a dedicated Project Manager.
- Support defect triage for both internal and externally raised defects.
Product knowledge
- Be the product subject matter expert for the relevant product area.
- Take accountability for product area documentation and own the strategy for filling any gaps.
- Create and contribute to product release notes.
- Write and maintain product user guides.
- Share product knowledge with the Product Training Specialist.
Collaboration & stakeholder management
- Work closely with software engineers to deliver product increments.
- Collaborate with the Product Board to shape a compelling product strategy in line with Bede's wider vision.
- Build positive relationships with external clients and internal stakeholders, where applicable.
- Work with Team Leads to support continuous improvement practices.
What we are looking for
- Experience managing a product backlog, including writing clear user stories, defining acceptance criteria and prioritising work effectively.
- Strong understanding of agile methodologies, such as Scrum and Kanban, with the ability to support sprint planning, set realistic goals and keep teams focused on delivering value.
- Ability to think strategically and make decisions that align with the long-term vision and goals of the product.
- Good understanding of market trends, customer needs and the competitive landscape, using insight to inform product decisions.
- Strong stakeholder management skills, with the ability to gather requirements, manage expectations and ensure alignment across customers, internal stakeholders and delivery teams.
- Effective negotiation and prioritisation skills, with the ability to balance competing needs and make considered trade-offs.
- Strong problem-solving skills, with the ability to address challenges and find practical, value-focused solutions.
- Experience supporting product releases, coordinating across teams and helping to ensure smooth delivery to users.
- Confidence facilitating meetings, workshops and discussions to encourage collaboration and gather input from the team.
- Commitment to continuous learning and improvement, staying up to date with industry trends, agile practices and product management techniques.
What we can offer you
Here at Bede, we offer a competitive salary and a strong benefits package, but what really matters to us is creating an environment where people feel trusted, supported and able to do their best work. We’re a people-centric business and we regularly review our benefits based on colleague feedback, so what we offer continues to reflect what matters most to our teams.
Some of the benefits you can expect include:
- A friendly, flexible and trust-based approach to working
- 25 days annual leave, plus 8 bank holidays and usually a generous Christmas break
- Fully matched private pension scheme (up to 8%)
- Bupa private healthcare from day one, including cash plan benefits, dental and optical cover (covers all pre-existing conditions)
- Life assurance cover of 4x your annual salary
- Employee Assistance Programme (via Bupa), providing confidential support and practical advice whenever you might need it
- Access to Calm - the #1 app for meditation and sleep
- Innovation and learning - space to develop skills, try new ideas and experiment, with an annual hackathon where some ideas make it into real work.
- A work-owned mobile phone or tablet of your choice, with the monthly contract covered by us
- A great office setup - free snacks and drinks every day, plus regular food vans from some of the best places in Newcastle
- Bede Bucks - exclusive colleague discounts and access to a wellbeing platform
- Lots of social events - both in and outside of working hours
- Referral programme - help us grow the team and receive a referral bonus of up to £3,000 (pre-tax, subject to scheme terms)
- Bede swag - including hoodies, t-shirts and our much-loved Bede socks
- Bede Holidays - extra discretionary days off through the year as a thank-you for the great work our teams do
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