Product Manager

Product Manager

Uniware Systems Limited is a division of Vesta Software, an operating group of Constellation Software Inc., and is a UK market leader established in 1993, providing EPoS, Payments and digital solutions across catering, retail and hospitality environments.

We support a broad range of customers including universities, financial institutions, motorway services, professional services organisations and other major businesses across the UK.

Uniware is entering an important phase in the development of its products and delivery model, including the adoption of AI-DLC across product discovery, definition, construction, testing, documentation and handover.

Reporting to the Business Unit Leader, this role will take ownership of product direction across Uniware's software portfolio.

The Product Manager will develop a deep understanding of our customers, users and markets; identify and validate product opportunities; shape product vision, strategy and roadmap; and work across Development, QA, Commercial, Account Management, Support and other teams to ensure we build products that create customer and commercial value.

The Product Manager will own the product-management lifecycle from strategy and opportunity identification through discovery, prioritisation, definition, delivery, launch, measurement and continuous improvement.

The focus is not simply on managing development requests or maintaining a backlog, but on ensuring Uniware understands the right problems to solve, defines successful outcomes clearly and follows products through to successful customer adoption.

The role will also play a key part in Uniware's AI-DLC approach, using AI to improve customer discovery, ideation, requirements definition, prototyping and product delivery while retaining clear human ownership of product decisions.

Job Purpose

• Develop and maintain product vision, strategy and roadmap across the Uniware portfolio.
• Develop a strong understanding of customer needs, market opportunities, competitive positioning and product performance.
• Lead structured product discovery with customers and internal stakeholders.
• Identify and prioritise new products, features and product improvements.
• Define clear customer outcomes, requirements, user journeys and acceptance criteria before construction begins.
• Ensure user experience and usability are treated as core product requirements.
• Lead Product participation throughout the AI-DLC process.
• Work collaboratively across the business to ensure delivered solutions remain aligned with agreed product outcomes.
• Support successful launches, Early Adopter activity and wider product adoption.
• Define and monitor appropriate product success measures and use evidence to inform future product decisions.
• Manage the product lifecycle, including opportunities to enhance, consolidate, replace or retire products and features.

Job Responsibilities

• Gather, analyse and prioritise requirements from customers, prospects and internal stakeholders.
• Facilitate customer interviews, workshops, product walkthroughs, roadshows and structured discovery sessions.
• Identify the underlying customer problem rather than relying solely on requested features.
• Combine qualitative customer research with product usage, support data, commercial feedback, market information and other available evidence.
• Maintain and communicate a clear product roadmap aligned with company strategy and commercial priorities.
• Assess opportunities based on customer value, commercial potential, strategic fit, delivery feasibility, risk and evidence.
• Define product scope, user journeys, requirements, acceptance criteria and measurable success outcomes.
• Lead the Product contribution to AI-DLC ideation and inception activities.
• Use AI tools to support research, discovery, analysis, prototyping, requirements definition and documentation.
• Use AI responsibly in line with company requirements relating to confidentiality, data protection, security, intellectual property and human review.
• Ensure significant projects enter construction with sufficient clarity around the customer problem, expected outcome, user journey and requirements.
• Ensure relevant security, performance, reliability, accessibility, compliance, implementation, support and operational requirements are considered during product definition.
• Work closely with Development to ensure technical decisions continue to support the agreed customer and product outcome.
• Ensure significant product or UX changes during construction are explicitly discussed, understood and recorded.
• Work with QA to ensure delivered functionality can be validated against agreed requirements and acceptance criteria.
• Maintain visibility of delivery progress, risks, blockers and expected delivery.
• Work with Commercial and Account Management to understand customer segments, market demand, competitive positioning, pricing considerations and opportunities for product growth.
• Support business cases for significant product investment, including expected customer value, commercial opportunity, assumptions and risks.
• Support product positioning, internal enablement, demonstrations and customer communications for significant launches.
• Lead Product involvement with Early Adopter customers, actively gathering feedback, identifying usability issues and undetected faults, and coordinating with the relevant teams to ensure material issues are understood, prioritised and resolved quickly.
• Use Early Adopter feedback and initial product-performance data to determine whether changes are required before wider rollout.
• Define and monitor appropriate product health and success measures, including relevant customer, usage, support and commercial evidence.
• Regularly assess the health, strategic relevance and commercial performance of products and significant product areas.
• Use this evidence to refine existing products and inform future roadmap priorities.
• Maintain awareness of competitor products, market trends and emerging technologies.
• Communicate product decisions, priorities, rationale and changes clearly to relevant stakeholders.

Decision Responsibilities

The Product Manager will be accountable for recommendations and decisions relating to:

• Customer problem definition.
• Product vision, strategy and roadmap recommendations.
• Product scope and intended outcomes.
• Product requirements.
• User journeys and intended user experience.
• Product priorities.
• Acceptance criteria.
• Customer validation.
• Product success measures.

Development remains accountable for technical architecture, implementation approach and engineering standards.

Product, Development and QA will work collaboratively on feasibility, delivery trade-offs and readiness.

Where technical constraints require an agreed product requirement or user journey to change, this should be an explicit and traceable decision rather than an undocumented change during development.

Where demand exceeds available capacity, competing priorities should be surfaced and consciously prioritised rather than being resolved informally.

Job Qualifications

• Experience in a Product Manager, Senior Product Owner or comparable software product role.
• Experience working within a software or technology environment.
• Proven experience taking products or significant features from customer discovery through definition, delivery, launch and adoption.
• Experience developing or materially influencing product strategy and roadmap.
• Strong customer-discovery and requirements-analysis skills.
• Strong commercial awareness and ability to assess opportunities based on customer and business value.
• Experience using qualitative and quantitative evidence to support product decisions.
• Good understanding of software product development.
• Strong written, verbal and presentation skills.
• Experience working directly with customers and presenting product concepts or functionality.
• Relevant degree or equivalent professional experience is desirable.

Knowledge and Skills

• Ability to build strong relationships with customers and colleagues across all levels of the business.
• Strong analytical and problem-solving skills.
• Ability to balance customer, commercial, operational and technical considerations.
• Strong understanding of user experience and the importance of UI/UX in product development.
• Demonstrable ability to provide product leadership and influence cross-functional teams without relying on formal line-management authority.
• Ability to challenge experienced stakeholders constructively and create clarity where priorities or viewpoints differ.
• Strong organisational skills and ability to prioritise competing demands.
• Ability to translate complex information into clear product decisions and communications.
• Strong attention to detail while retaining sight of the wider product objective.
• Comfortable using modern AI tools as part of everyday Product work.
• Experience with Jira, Confluence or similar systems is desirable.
• Experience in EPoS, payments, catering, hospitality or retail technology would be advantageous.

Person Characteristics

• Customer-focused and naturally curious.
• Commercially minded.
• Confident and able to