Product Manager

Job Description SummaryJob Description

The Technical Product Manager is responsible for setting the direction of development, ensuring delivery of the strategy and working with key technical and non-technical stakeholders to design and prioritise features. They will work closely with the Head of Digital, Data and Technology Solutions on strategic planning and establishing cross-functional collaboration capabilities.

The Technical Product Manager will work closely with key data users throughout the organisation to build business relationships, gather market knowledge and work with key data users and technical representatives (such as Enterprise Architects) to prioritise features and implement industry best practice within Aegon Asset Management. 

This is a senior role that will be recognised as an evangelise in the use of data throughout the organisation, ensuring the products and services provided by the data and integration team are used effectively to drive value and demonstrating the value delivered to secure future investment. 

Responsibilities: 

• Process design: Design and establish processes and best practice for the new product-based ways of working.
• Relationship establishment: Activity build relationships with key data and integration stakeholders to secure a partnership relationship to improving the data and integration offering.
• User Feedback: Work closely with key data and integration users to gain an understanding of their challenges and opportunities to improve the data and integration offering.
• Market analysis: Review the wider data and integration market, particularly with Asset Management to then bring thought leadership to help set the direction of Aegon Asset Management’s data and integration offering.
• Performance Monitoring: Monitor and report on key performance metrics of data and integration to support informed decision making.
• Technical assessment: Work with technical stakeholders, such as Enterprise Architects to assess the technical feasibility of target initiatives.
• Product strategy: Work closely with stakeholders to create a data and integration product vision and strategy that supports the wider data strategy.
• Feature definition: Define features to address the identified issues and opportunities to collaborate with stakeholders (e.g., architecture) to design these.
• Feature roadmap: Own, maintain and communicate a feature roadmap for data and integration, providing a clear articulation of target feature releases.
• Prioritisation: Support assessment of relative cost and benefits to prioritise features within the roadmap.
• Communication: Provide communication throughout Aegon Asset Management to ensure a clear understanding of the product roadmap and provide an opportunity for issue and opportunities to be highlighted.
• Evangelism: Work through Aegon Asset Management to highlight the benefits of the data and integration products and ensure they are being used to maximise value.
• Budget planning: Make a value case for the D&I product budget and manage delivery against this, providing updates on the delivered value.

Experience and Knowledge: 

The Technical Product Manager is experienced in running successful product teams. They are an evangelical leader, understanding the core business problems and opportunities and evangelising how data and integration can increase business value.

• Establishing new core capabilities: Experience establishing new product led capabilities within a financial service organisation.
• Product implementation: Experience in implementing product ways of working for data and integration teams.
• Data evangelism: Experience in demonstrating the value of data and gaining support for investment and in changing behaviours to maximise value.
• Owning product delivery: Experience in owning the delivery and enhanced of a product, setting product strategy, defining features, and prioritising roadmaps.
• Data domain knowledge: Experience in understanding data use cases and working with data platforms and tooling to deliver valuable insight.
• Integration domain knowledge: Experience in understanding the technical integration requirements and planning integration modernisation.
• Technical experience: Specific experience working with Snowflake, Amazon Glue, FTP technologies and APIs.
• Industry knowledge: Has good knowledge of the asset management industry and the value that data can bring.
• Market knowledge: Has good knowledge of the D&I industry trends and new technologies and processes that could bring value to Aegon Asset Management.

Technical Skills:

• Product Management: Manages the full product life cycle to ensure that customer/user needs are met and that financial and other targets are achieved. Selects, adopts and adapts appropriate product development methods, tools, and techniques. Analyses market and/or user research, feedback, expert opinion and usage data to understand needs and opportunities. Develops product propositions and determines product positioning and variants for different customer and user segments. Prioritises product and service requirements, develops product roadmaps and owns the product backlog. Coordinates customer testing and product launches and supports communications and training. Anticipates changes in customer/user needs. Adapts products and creates product retirement and transitioning plans.
• Strategic Planning: Collates information and creates reports and insights to support strategy management processes. Ensures that all stakeholders are aware of the strategic management approach and timetables. Provides support and guidance to help stakeholders adhere to the approach. Develops and communicates plans to drive forward the strategy and related change planning. Contributes to the development of policies, standards and guidelines for strategy development and planning.
• Innovation: Manages the innovation pipeline and executes innovation processes. Develops and adapts innovation tools, processes and infrastructures to drive the process of innovation. Identifies resources and capabilities needed to support innovation. Encourages and motivates innovation communities, teams and individuals to share creative ideas and learn from failures. Manages and facilitates the communication and open flow of creative ideas between interested parties and the set-up of innovation networks and communities.
• Demand Management: Implements demand management analysis and planning activities. Provides advice to help stakeholders adopt and adhere to the agreed demand management approach. Manages the process of integrating demand management with complementary strategic, operational and change management processes. Maintains a register of business requests and routes requests to the right place. Reports on the status of each request. 
• Reviews new business proposals and provides advice on demand issues. Works with business representatives to agree and implement short-term and medium-term modifications to demand.
• Financial Management: Assists with identifying and calculating process, service, project and component costs for financial planning and budgeting. Collates required financial data and reports for analysis and to facilitate decision-making.
• Business Situation Analysis: Plans, manages and investigates business situation analysis where there is significant ambiguity and complexity. Advises on the approach and techniques to be used for business situation analysis. Ensures holistic view adopted to identify and analyse wide-ranging problems and opportunities. Engages and collaborates with a wide range of stakeholders, including those at the management level. Gains agreement from stakeholders to conclusions and recommendations.  Contributes to definition of organisational standards and guidelines for business situation analysis.
• Feasibility Assessment: Selects relevant feasibility assessment approaches and techniques. Identifies the range of possible options. Undertakes short-listing of options and feasibility assessment. Engages with internal and external stakeholders to get the information required for feasibility assessment. Supports preparation of business cases including cost/benefit, impact and risk analysis for each option.
• Data Modelling and Design: Investigates enterprise data requirements where there is some complexity and ambiguity. Plans own data modelling and design activities, selecting appropriate techniques and the correct level of detail for meeting assigned objectives. Provides advice and guidance to others using the data structures and associated components.
• Stakeholder Relationship Management: Leads the development of comprehensive stakeholder management strategies and plans. Builds long-term, strategic relationships with senior stakeholders (internal and external). Facilitates the engagement of stakeholders in support of the delivery of services and change projects. Acts as a single point of contact for senior stakeholders, facilitating relationships between them. Negotiates to ensure that stakeholders understand and agree on what will meet their needs, and that appropriate agreements are defined. Oversees monitoring of relationships including lessons learned and appropriate feedback. Leads actions to improve relations and open communications with and between stakeholders.

Business Skills

• Strategic thinking: Ability to consider longer term factors to increasing value and look beyond current issues.
• Leadership: Ability to provide strong leadership, fostering a collaborative and innovative culture
• Decision making: Makes decisions to enable the achievement of agreed strategic objectives, escalates when broader strategic direction is impacted.
• Stakeholder management: Ability to work closely with technical and non-technical stakeholders to understand their views and win their buy in to change activities.
• Communication: Ability to use several different methods to tailor communications to stakeholders and ensure effective conveyance of key messages
• Prioritisation: Ability to assess the relative merits of ideas and initiatives and prioritise based on business value
• Great sense of humour

Aegon Asset Management

Aegon Asset Management (Aegon AM) is a leading global investor. Our 385 investment professionals manage and advise on assets of US $337 billion for a global client base of pension plans, public funds, insurance companies, banks, wealth managers, family offices and foundations.

We organize our firm around four investment platforms: fixed income, real assets, equities and multi-asset & solutions, which includes a fiduciary and multi-manager business. Each investment platform has dedicated teams with deep asset-class expertise, organized globally and committed to maximizing client benefit from their specialist areas.

We are an international business: Our 1,160 employees work from 13 locations across Europe, the Americas and Asia. We share a common belief in fundamental, research-driven active management, underpinned by effective risk management and a commitment to responsible investment.

What will you be getting?

• Compensation level depend upon an applicant’s qualifications and will be determined by hiring supervisors/managers and HR;
• Plenty of scope and budget for your personal and professional development;
• A good pension scheme.
• By Q2 2025 Aegon will move to our new office at Schiphol WTC.

Interested? Apply!
Are you interested in joining our Team? We look forward to receiving your resume and motivation letter. Then make sure you apply immediately! Do you have some more questions? Send an email to Talent Acquisition via [email protected].

Diversity & Inclusion

At Aegon Asset Management, we are committed to fostering a diverse workforce and an inclusive culture. We are more than a global Asset Management firm – we are a people business, and we recognize that delivering excellent client outcomes comes from harnessing diverse perspectives. We value diversity in the full range of human uniqueness without limitation including race, gender, ability, language, culture, beliefs, age, origin, background, perspectives and experiences.

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Equal Opportunity Employer:

Aegon Asset Management aims to be an employer of choice in the financial services industry. As a global company, we offer excellent terms of employment, a very diverse and inspiring work environment, and development opportunities.