VodafoneThree - Product Lead - Tooling

Working Hours: Full time 37.5 hours per week - Monday to Friday The Product Lead - Tooling is responsible for the in life performance, enhancement backlog and governance of ND&I's tooling estate, ensuring tools are reliable, compliant and continuously improved within the strategy and value framework owned by the Senior Manager Digital Solutions & Tooling. Own the in‑life product roadmap and backlog for ND&I tools, ensuring enhancements, fixes and improvements are prioritised and delivered in line with ND&I needs and the overall tooling strategy Manage the performance, stability and usability of existing ND&I tools, working with OSS/IT, vendors and delivery partners to resolve incidents, defects and service issues in a timely manner. Work with a small team of contractors, setting clear objectives, providing direction and coaching, and ensuring effective execution of in‑life tooling work. Gather, assess and prioritise enhancement requests and pain points from ND&I stakeholders, ensuring they are translated into clear backlog items with defined outcomes and acceptance criteria. Oversee tooling governance and lifecycle management, including versioning, deprecation and replacement plans, ensuring alignment with architecture, security and compliance standards. Use usage data, performance metrics and user feedback to identify optimisation opportunities and drive continuous improvement across in‑life tools. Collaborate with OSS/IT, technical system leads, Data & Analytics and security teams to ensure changes and enhancements are technically feasible, secure and consistent with wider platform roadmaps. Work closely with the Product Lead - AI & Automation to plan the transition of new AI/automation and replacement tooling into in life management, taking ownership of BAU backlog, incidents and enhancements once solutions are stabilised. Represent in‑life tooling products and operational performance in ND&I tooling and investment governance forums chaired by the Senior Manager Digital Solutions & Tooling, providing insight, risks and recommendations. Ensure in‑life tooling documentation, governance artefacts and audit trails are maintained to required standards, supporting regulatory, security and operational assurance. Strong experience in product management or in‑life product ownership for digital tools, platforms or OSS/IT solutions in complex operational environments. Proven track record managing BAU backlogs, incidents, defects and enhancements, balancing stability, user needs and change velocity. Understanding of tooling architectures, integrations and dependencies across OSS/IT and network operational systems. Experience leading small teams or squads, setting priorities and ensuring effective delivery through others. Strong stakeholder management skills, with the ability to gather and balance input from diverse ND&I users and technical teams. Data‑driven mindset, comfortable using usage data, performance metrics and feedback to inform decisions and prioritisation. Familiarity with agile delivery models and tooling (e.g. Azure DevOps, Jira) for managing backlogs and change. Understanding of governance, security and compliance considerations related to in‑life tooling and data