Senior Product Manager

At Arbor, we’re on a mission to transform the way schools work for the better. 

We believe in a future of work in schools where being challenged doesn’t mean being burnt out and overworked. Where data guides progress without overwhelming staff. And where everyone working in a school is reminded why they got into education every day. 

Our MIS and school management tools are already making a difference in over 13,000 schools and trusts. Giving time and power back to staff, turning data into clear, actionable insights, and supporting happier working days. 

At the heart of our brand is a recognition that the challenges schools face today aren’t just about efficiency, outputs and productivity - but about creating happier working lives for the people who drive education everyday: the staff. We want to make schools more joyful places to work, as well as learn. 

As a Senior Product Manager, you’ll be a vital cross-functional catalyst at Arbor. You will take abstract, overlapping software development lifecycles—from initial discovery through to go-to-market execution—and turn them into intuitive, high-impact features.

Working closely with engineering, design, and commercial teams, you will own the strategic roadmap for core user-facing capabilities that impact millions of daily interactions across UK schools. Ultimately, you will be accountable for driving platform adoption, elevating customer satisfaction, and unlocking revenue growth.

Strategic Roadmap Ownership & Vision

• Own, prioritise and execute the product vision and delivery roadmap for assigned tools and features.
• Translate broad product strategy into clear operational plans, milestones, and release timescales.
• Partner with the Engineering, Product Marketing and executive peers to commercialise innovative capabilities that support company growth.

Backlog Management & Requirements Engineering

• Empathise with MIS users, turning complex operational needs into clear problem statements, epics, and user stories.
• Rigorously prioritise backlogs using data, customer usage and market trends.

Agile Squad Leadership

• Lead routine sprint ceremonies, backlog grooming, and planning sessions in direct partnership with your Lead Engineer.
• Balance high product quality with on-time delivery schedules.
• Drive continuous team process improvements by monitoring software pipeline performance.

User Experience & Iterative Design

• Build prototypes independently to rapidly test and iterate solutions.
• Partner with UX/UI and Frontend teams to deliver measurable usability improvements.
• Ensure all interface changes align strictly with modern UI/UX standards.

Compliance, Commercials & Go-To-Market

• Align product functionality directly with commercial outcomes, partnering with Sales and Marketing to develop and execute effective go-to-market plans.
• Work in collaborating with internal Sales and Customer Success teams on upcoming releases, feature updates, accessing customers, providing feedback and educating them.
• Represent Arbor at sales meetings, user forums, and national education conferences.

Essential:

• SaaS Product Experience: Strong experience in a B2B or B2C SaaS product environment.
• Commercial Acumen: Proven ability to connect product strategy to commercial impact, balancing user value with business growth and retention.
• AI-Powered Product Practice: Active use of generative AI tools (e.g. LLMs for user research synthesis, drafting specs, data exploration and prototyping) to accelerate decision-making, increase personal productivity and elevate day-to-day product craft.
• UI/UX Fluency: Solid understanding of user experience design methodologies and interface best practices.
• Tooling Proficiency: Hands-on experience with product management systems including AI-driven product development
• Framework Mastery: Practical experience prioritising work based on competing, complex priorities.
• Agile Delivery: Proven track record running agile working practices and sprint ceremonies.
• Communication & Autonomy: Strong communication skills with a self-starter mindset and complete ownership of outcomes.
• Mission Alignment: A true passion for improving the working lives of school staff and thriving in a fast-paced environment.

Desirable:

• UK Education Domain Knowledge: Understanding of the UK school system, educational structures or data frameworks.
• Coaching & Mentorship: Experience coaching product managers, designers or cross-functional team members to elevate product thinking and foster best practices.
• Analytics Tools: Experience working with user engagement data in platforms to understand trends and patterns to understand impact.

The chance to work alongside a team of hard-working, passionate people in a role where you’ll see the impact of your work everyday. We also offer:

• A dedicated wellbeing team who champion initiatives such as mindfulness, lunch n learns, manager training, mental health first aid training and much more!
• 32 days holiday (plus Bank Holidays). This is made up of 25 days annual leave plus 7 extra company wide days given over Easter, Summer & Christmas
• Life Assurance paid out at 3x annual salary
• Comprehensive wellness benefit provided by AIG Smart Health, which provides a 24/7 virtual GP service, Mental health support, Counselling, and personalised Health Checks 
• Private Dental Insurance with Bupa 
• Salary sacrifice Pension provided by Scottish Widows
• Enhanced maternity and adoption leave (20 weeks full pay) and paternity (6 weeks full pay) pay
• 5 free return to work maternity coaching sessions, helping you adapt to this new exciting time of life!
• Access to services such as Calm and Bippit (financial wellbeing coaching) 
• All of our roles champion flexible working and we are happy to discuss what this means to you
• Social committees that plan team, office and company wide events to bring people together and celebrate success
• Dedicated professional development training budget (CPD courses, upskilling resources, professional memberships etc)
• Volunteer with a charity of your choice for a day each year

1. Phone screen
2. 1st stage
3. 2nd stage

We are committed to a fair and equitable recruitment process, so if you require any reasonable adjustments during your application or interview process, please reach out to a member of the team at [email protected].

Our commitment is also backed by our partnership with Neurodiversity Consultancy, Lexxic who provide us with training, support and advice. 

Our goal is for Arbor to be a workplace which represents, celebrates and supports people from all backgrounds, and which gives them the tools they need to thrive - whatever their ambitions may be so we support and promote diversity and equality, and actively  encourage applications from people of all backgrounds. 

Know someone else who would be good for this role? You can refer a friend, family member or colleague, if they are offered a role with Arbor, we will say thank you with a voucher valued up to £200! Simply email: [email protected]