Product Lead

Alzheimers Society

Hours
35 hours per week

About the Organisation

Alzheimer’s Society is the UK’s leading dementia charity, and the only one to tackle all aspects of dementia by providing help and hope to people living with dementia today and in the future. We give vital support to people facing the most frightening times of their lives, while also funding groundbreaking research and campaigning to make dementia the priority it should be. Together with our supporters, we’re working towards a world where dementia no longer devastates lives. Our values ensure that our focus remains clear for the challenges and opportunities ahead, reminding us of what we all stand for.

About the role

The Product Lead plays a vital role overseeing the software products and tools that underpin the Society’s provision of dementia services, generating funding for groundbreaking research, and campaigning to make dementia the priority it should be. We are embarking on an exciting technology transformation programme, partnering with the wider Society to achieve our Help and Hope strategy by delivering modern, secure and user-centred tools, enhancing capabilities, simplifying operations, and fostering innovation. We will apply the mindsets of the internet era to make our services as tailored and inclusive as possible, so that we can maximise our impact on people’s lives.

The Alzheimer’s Society is needed more than ever. We’re at a pivotal moment for dementia. We’re already having a huge impact and making a difference to people's lives, both today, thanks to our support for people affected by dementia, and in the future,
thanks to our research and campaigning. Meanwhile, breakthroughs in research, improvements in diagnosis rates, and changes in perceptions have given hope that one day we will be able to end the devastation of dementia. This makes it even more important that our efforts are underpinned by best-in-class technology.

This role leads and develops high-performing product teams at the Society. This includes responsibility for new products and platforms and supporting the existing product estate. The role is also a key specialist position, responsible for establishing our product approach and community of practice, and for managing and developing product management professionals. Our Digital team has a critical role to play in change; to enable the ongoing modernisation of the Alzheimer’s Society’s operations in support of the organisation’s overall Help and Hope strategy. The Product Lead will help focus our portfolio on the following priorities:

• Risk awareness and reduction by developing evidence-led digital journeys that help people understand and act sooner.
• Improved detection and diagnosis pathways, ensuring more people get an accurate diagnosis faster - and then receive a seamless transition into effective ongoing support.
• Strengthened treatment, care and ongoing support through inclusive, personalised and connected products and services.
• Making dementia the priority it should be by influencing local and national decision-makers and increasing public awareness of the disease.
• Reaching more people, especially those who have the least ability to support themselves or each other, and the communities that rarely receive dementia support and experience the detrimental effects of health inequality.

Responsibilities

Lead and deliver digital products, platforms, and end-to-end services:

• Strategy and stakeholder management. Translate our organisational strategy and Technology priorities into product strategies, roadmaps and measurable outcomes for your relevant area. Get the organisation and teams to buy into your vision. Engage with teams across the organisation to understand priorities, align plans, and communicate with senior stakeholders. Work with Research & Innovation to identify and champion evidence-led opportunities where digital products or tools can deliver real-world impact. Work with non-technical stakeholders to learn from their expertise.
• Value, evidence and outcomes: Measure real-world impact to define value and use qualitative and quantitative data to inform decisions. Focus on outcomes, not solutions. Translate the vision into prioritised, deliverable goals. Take considered, data-driven decisions and have the humility to learn from mistakes. Track and monitor product and portfolio performance and user outcomes to iterate and improve on features.
• Leadership and decision-making: enable and lead multidisciplinary teams towards shared outcomes, creating clarity, proportionate autonomy and accountability. Navigate ambiguity and uncertainty and support Product Managers and teams to do so. Create an equitable, inclusive, and collaborative culture. Ensure teams know how their work relates to organisational objectives and user needs.
• Product management and operating model: enable clear product, service, business and technical ownership. Work across Product, IT Delivery, Data, PMO, Business Analysis and service teams to agree decision rights, roles, escalation routes and ways of working. Coordinate complex dependencies and capacity for high-value strategic work while managing reactive and operational needs.
• User-centred and inclusive design: ensure people affected by dementia, carers, supporters, volunteers and colleagues shape products throughout the lifecycle. Seek out voices that are least likely to reach us, work closely with lived-experience and involvement specialists, and treat accessibility and dementia-inclusive design as quality standards.
• Agile, lean and readiness-led delivery: Use agile methodology and apply an agile mindset to all aspects of your work. Create a fast-paced, evolving environment and use an iterative method and flexible approach to enable rapid delivery, also enabling a balance between research, design, governance, adoption and operational readiness.
• Technology, data and responsible innovation: Demonstrate an understanding of technology and data, including the range of available technology choices. Support connected and reusable technology choices and responsible experimentation through awareness of the wider digital economy and emerging technologies. Make informed decisions based on evidenced user needs, real-world impact and value for money.
• Responsible and ethical approach: take a responsible and ethical approach, and minimise potential unintended consequences. Understand and work within given parameters, including (but not limited to) technology, policy, regulatory, information management, financial and legal constraints.
• Lifecycle perspective: Understand the different phases of product delivery and contribute to, plan or run these. Maintain a product or process through the delivery phases, into live, and then into retirement. Shape and lead a team through the different phases of the product delivery lifecycle.

Financial and Operational Management:

• Financial, commercial and supplier ownership: develop evidence-led investment cases and prioritise spend against strategic outcomes, whole-life cost and value.
• Shape statements of work and commercial models, maintain clear acceptance criteria and exit plans, and retain internal ownership of the product vision, roadmap, evidence and outcomes.
• Operational and partner management: Work closely with other operational delivery teams such as Information Governance, Procurement, Practice and Compliance, PMO, Planning, Finance & Assurance, Organisational Development & Learning and other teams across the Society. Embed technical partners within multidisciplinary teams, setting shared goals and ways of working, and assuring capability, quality, and alignment. Understand incident management and service support so that products are built effectively. Overcome operational constraints to deliver a successful product or service.

Take an Active role in the Leadership Team for Digital:

• Work closely with the Head of Product, Technology and cross-functional colleagues, our Communities of Practice, and specialist discipline leads to help define and deliver our Digital strategy and the wider Technology operating model.
• Strengthen relationships across the Society and help Digital and Technology operate as trusted strategic partners, with clear priorities, transparent decisions and reliable delivery.
• Build product literacy and capability through coaching, communities of practice, working in the open and sharing evidence, decisions and learning.

Manage Senior Product Managers and Product Managers:

• Line manage and coach members of our Product colleagues as we continue to grow.
• Create the organisational conditions for Product Managers to lead, including clear mandates, decision guardrails, senior sponsorship, multidisciplinary support and constructive stakeholder relationships.
• Develop consistent but adaptable product practices that support discovery, prioritisation, delivery, continuous improvement and benefits realisation across different organisational contexts and supporting the Society’s mission and strategy.
• Foster an inclusive, psychologically safe culture of curiosity, experimentation, learning and shared accountability.

Other:

• Deputise for the Head of Product and supervise product teams, as required from time to time.
• Undertake any other duties as may be reasonably required within the scope of the role

Skills, Competencies, Experience & Attributes

Skills & Knowledge:

• Successful track record of leading multidisciplinary teams and product portfolios to deliver and continuously improve digital products, platforms or end-to-end services in a large and complex organisation
• Extensive experience translating organisational strategy, user evidence, research and innovation insight and technical context into product strategy, portfolio priorities, roadmaps and measurable outcomes
• Ability to embody a product-mindset and lead through ambiguity and constraints and enable delivery, maintaining a user-centred focus, making trade-offs transparent and creating the conditions for empowered teams to succeed
• Passionate about Tech for Good and with a proven desire to work in a social impact-driven organisation solving complex problems I
• Proven commitment to inclusive, accessible and evidence-led product practice, including meaningful involvement of people whose needs are less likely to be represented
• Demonstrable understanding of technology and data, including platforms, APIs and microservices architecture, analytics, responsible use of AI or emerging technology, and managing the relationships between interdependent product and platform teams
• Significant experience leading external technical or delivery partners, shaping commercial arrangements and statements of work, assuring quality and retaining internal ownership of vision, decisions and outcomes
• Commitment to sharing your knowledge, having mentored and coached others. Embrace the value that comes from working in the open and sharing with other organisations
• Demonstrable influencing, relationship-building and negotiation skills across senior leaders, service owners, specialists and delivery partners, including the ability to clarify ownership, decision rights and shared ways of working with a diverse, non-expert audience who may be sceptical of a user-first or agile approach

Competencies & Personal Attributes:

• Collaborative and generous, able to build trust while giving constructive challenge and asking for support when needed.
• Curious, proactive and comfortable making proportionate decisions in uncertainty. 
• Highly organised, able to create focus, manage dependencies and protect sustainable pace.
• Clear and transparent, with strong attention to evidence, commitments and follow-through.
• Compassionate and non-judgemental in communication and leadership.
• Committed to equity, diversity, inclusion and belonging in teams, partnerships and products.
• Reflective and adaptable, willing to learn from delivery, change approach and share learning openly. 

Compensation & Benefits

• Paid compassionate and bereavement leave
• Paid time off work to support
• Annual leave of 27 days, increasing to 30, plus bank holidays
• Career breaks of up to 3 months
• Flexible working
• Wellbeing leave
• Health Cash Plan
• Paid dependants leave
• Values Hero and Society Legend Awards
• Group Personal Pension Plan
• Life Assurance Scheme - two times your annual salary
• Home Allowance of £312 per year
• Discounted gym membership with Society Plus
• Mental health app and unlimited therapy
• Women in Leadership Development Programme
• Leadership development programme
• Financial support towards relevant professional qualifications, enhanced family leave - 16 weeks paid for all parents
• Paid time off work for fertility treatments for both partners, paid carers' leave

Working locations

• Home-based

How to apply

• Apply to our website
• Please also contact Alzheimer’s Society Talent Acquisition Team via [email protected] for application support or any adjustments you might need.

Interviews

• Interviews begin: week commencing Monday 2nd November 2026.

Policies

We need to ensure the voices around our table better reflect and understand the communities we exist to serve. We strongly encourage individuals to apply who have a disability, impairment, or health condition, or individuals who identify as Black, Asian, or from another minority ethnic background, as these groups are currently under-represented at Alzheimer's Society.  

We want everyone we work with, as a colleague, volunteer, supporter, or someone we support, to feel included and that they belong at Alzheimer's Society. Our Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion Strategy here, along with our internal employee forum and Employee Lived Experience network groups, helps us promote inclusion and belonging, becoming an engaged and inclusive organisation for all our people.

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