Head of People Technology Products & Engineering

Job Type: Permanent

Location: Hybrid, aligned to one of our core locations of London, Birmingham or Edinburgh

Flexible working: All roles are open to part-time, job-share and other types of flexibility. We will discuss what is important to you and balancing this with business requirements during the recruitment process. You can read more about flexible working here.

Salary & Benefits: £90,000-£110,000 DOE with an indicative bonus range of 30% -60% , 38 days annual leave, excellent pension, 12x salary life assurance, career breaks, income protection, 3x volunteering days and much more.

Closing Date: 03/11/2027

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Who are we?

We’re Standard Life, a retirement specialist focused entirely on retirement savings and income. We champion the belief that everyone’s journey to and through retirement can be better, and for more than 200 years, we’ve been helping our customers plan and prepare for their financial futures.
Life today is increasingly complicated, uncertain and unpredictable. People move through different careers, face unexpected moments and navigate important choices. We offer our colleagues flexibility, trust and benefits that work for whatever life brings. In return we expect curiosity, connection, accountability and high standards. We make room for what matters - so you can bring your best, every day.

The role

This role is accountable for translating People strategy, stakeholder needs and colleague insight into a coherent portfolio of digital products that improve colleague experience and deliver measurable business outcomes. It owns the People Technology demand front door, product roadmaps, product management, engineering capacity, delivery cadence, testing and value realisation.

Reporting to the Head of People Technology & Digital Excellence and as part of the leadership team, the role will build sustainable Product and Engineering capability while working effectively with the Platform team, enterprise technology and partners.

Oracle HCM remains the core system of record, but this is a broad technology role spanning Oracle, best-of-breed People technologies, Microsoft 365 including Co-Pilot, alongside other agentic and automation technologies.

Key responsibilities:

• Own integrated product roadmaps and outcomes, translating People and workforce strategy into end-to-end digital experiences rather than isolated system improvements.
• Operate the single front door for People Technology demand, consulting with stakeholders to shape needs, challenge solution-first thinking and recommend priorities within agreed portfolio governance.
• Determine the right response to business needs across process change, existing platforms, enterprise technology, engineering, integration, external products, AI and automation.
• Lead Product teams as trusted consultants, accountable for product vision, roadmaps, backlogs, adoption, outcomes and value realisation.
• Build and lead Product Engineering, Test and Delivery capability across prototyping, low-code, workflow, automation, AI, testing and product enhancement.
• Partner with Colleague Experience teams to embed user insight, accessibility and inclusive colleague centric design throughout product discovery, delivery and optimisation.
• Own an effective delivery rhythm from discovery and build through testing, controlled release, adoption and continuous optimisation.
• Lead the development and delivery of AI-enabled People products and in-flow-of-work experiences utilising Oracle, Teams, Co-Pilot and other connected services ensuring appropriate evaluation, controls, human oversight and operational ownership.
• Partner with Platforms, IT, AI and Risk teams to ensure solutions are secure, scalable and maintainable, and delivery aligns with architecture, engineering and production standards.

What we are looking for:

• Significant leadership experience in digital product management, People Technology or product engineering, translating strategy and complex business needs into executable product roadmaps.
• Strong product-management capability across discovery, user needs, prioritisation, roadmaps, backlogs, product metrics, adoption and lifecycle management.
• Experience across major HCM platforms alongside broader digital technologies, Microsoft 365, AI, automation and best-of-breed solutions.
• Proven experience building and leading multidisciplinary Product and Engineering teams and taking digital or AI-enabled products from discovery through controlled release, adoption and optimisation.
• Strong understanding of engineering, low-code, APIs, integrations, testing and deployment, with the judgement to make credible technology and delivery choices.
• An influential, outcome focused leader who creates clarity and pace through prioritisation, empowered teams and transparent trade-offs.
• Relentlessly customer outcome and user focused, balancing innovation, curiosity and experimentation with evidence and control.
• Curious, pragmatic and outcome-focused, balancing experimentation and innovation with evidence, control, sustainable capability and measurable value.

We want to hire the whole version of you.

We are committed to ensuring that everyone feels accepted and welcome applicants from all backgrounds. If your experience looks different from what we’ve advertised and you believe that you can bring value to the role, we’d love to hear from you. If you require any adjustments to the recruitment process, please let us know so we can help you to be at your best.
We’re reviewing applications as they come in and may close this role before the closing date, so apply early to avoid missing out.

Find out more about working at Standard Life

•    Guide for Candidates: standardlifeplc.pagetiger.com/guideforcandidates
•    Find or get answers from our colleagues: www.standardlifeplc.com/careers/talk-to-us

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