About the Role
As Lead Product Manager, you will be accountable for translating business and customer needs into a clear product strategy and measurable outcomes. You will lead cross-functional teams through discovery, development, launch and continuous improvement, while building alignment across senior stakeholders, clients and delivery teams. This is a strategic leadership role, not solely a backlog-management position. We are looking for someone who can operate confidently from product vision and commercial strategy through to detailed execution.
Responsibilities
- Own and communicate the product vision, strategy and long-term direction.
- Align the product strategy with organisational objectives, customer needs, commercial priorities and the wider strategy.
- Define the target customer, value proposition, product principles and strategic outcomes.
- Develop and maintain an outcome-focused product roadmap spanning multiple workstreams or product squads.
- Translate market insight, customer problems, operational needs and technology opportunities into clear product opportunities.
- Balance short-term delivery with longer-term platform capabilities, scalability, technical health and innovation.
- Lead product investment decisions and clearly articulate the expected customer and business value.
- Lead customer discovery, user research, journey mapping, problem definition and validation activities.
- Identify opportunities to improve workflows, efficiency, collaboration and visibility.
- Use customer insight, market research and competitive analysis to inform product decisions.
- Lead multidisciplinary teams across Product, Engineering, Architecture, UX/UI, Data, AI, Quality Assurance, Security and Operations.
- Provide clarity on the customer problem, desired outcomes, priorities and decision-making principles.
- Establish effective discovery and delivery practices across the product lifecycle.
- Ensure product teams have clear epics, requirements, user stories, acceptance criteria and measurable outcomes.
- Work closely with engineering teams to make pragmatic trade-offs between scope, quality, time, cost and technical risk.
- Maintain a healthy, prioritised backlog without losing sight of the wider product strategy.
- Identify and remove blockers, manage delivery risks and resolve cross-team dependencies.
- Lead release planning, readiness reviews, rollout planning and post-launch evaluation.
- Continuously improve product and delivery ways of working across the programme.
- Use Agile approaches pragmatically, including Scrum, Kanban and continuous discovery practices.
- Act as the primary product representative for senior internal stakeholders, clients and programme governance forums.
- Communicate product strategy, progress, outcomes, risks, dependencies and trade-offs clearly to both technical and non-technical audiences.
- Build alignment across global, regional and functional stakeholders with competing priorities.
- Facilitate effective decision-making and provide recommendations when information is incomplete or ambiguous.
- Provide leadership, coaching and mentoring to Product Managers, Product Owners and cross-functional delivery teams.
- Set high standards for product discovery, prioritisation, communication, documentation and outcome measurement.
- Help establish and continuously improve the organisation’s product management practices and operating model.
- Create a culture of customer empathy, accountability, collaboration and continuous learning.
- Lead through influence, creating clarity and momentum even where you do not have direct authority.
- Represent and strengthen the product function across the wider organisation.
Requirements
- Significant experience in product management, with a proven track record of leading complex products from strategy through to delivery and adoption.
- Extensive experience as a Product Manager, Senior Product Manager or Lead Product Manager within a B2B/D2C Commerce or digital transformations.
- Demonstrable experience owning product strategy, roadmap, prioritisation and outcomes across complex products or platforms.
- Experience delivering workflow, project management, operations or back-office SaaS solutions.
- Proven experience leading greenfield product development, platform transformation or the replacement of legacy systems.
- Experience working across multiple product squads, delivery teams or interconnected workstreams.
- A track record of delivering measurable customer, operational or commercial outcomes—not just features or project milestones.
- Experience working with senior executives, enterprise clients and complex stakeholder groups.
- Experience operating effectively in a large, global organisation with formal governance and complex decision-making processes.
- Strong understanding of commerce eco-systems and online Customer Experience, preferably including agency operating models, workflows and client-service environments.
- Strong understanding of Agile, Lean and modern product management practices, including Scrum, Kanban, continuous discovery and outcome-based planning.
- Ability to move comfortably between strategic thinking, customer discovery, commercial planning and delivery detail.
- Exceptional communication, presentation, facilitation and influencing skills.
- Strong commercial awareness and the ability to connect product decisions to revenue, efficiency, customer value and organisational strategy.
- Excellent analytical, critical-thinking and problem-solving skills.
- Confidence making decisions in ambiguous environments and managing complex trade-offs.
- Proven ability to lead, coach and motivate people through influence, with or without direct line-management responsibility.
- Highly organised, self-directed and comfortable taking ownership of significant initiatives.
- Resilient, pragmatic and able to maintain momentum in a fast-moving transformation programme.
- Comfortable using product and delivery tools such as Jira, Confluence, Aha!, Productboard or equivalent.
Skills
- Product vision
- Product strategy
- Roadmap development
- Customer discovery
- User research
- Journey mapping
- Problem definition
- Validation
- Agile methodologies (Scrum, Kanban)
- Continuous discovery
- Stakeholder management
- Executive engagement
- Coaching
- Mentoring
- Product management practices
- Commerce ecosystems
- Online Customer Experience
- Communication
- Presentation
- Facilitation
- Influencing
- Commercial awareness
- Analytical skills
- Critical-thinking
- Problem-solving
- Decision making
- Jira
- Confluence
- Aha!
- Productboard
Location
- Global
Work Type
- Hybrid
Experience Level
- Lead
- Senior
- Product Manager
- Lead Product Manager
Education Level
- Product Management or Agile Product Owner certification is desirable.
Benefits
- Opportunity to work with exciting brands
- Career development
- Skill growth
- Empowerment to make a difference
- Respect for individuality
About the Company
- VML is a leading creative company that combines brand experience, customer experience, and commerce, creating connected brands to drive growth.
- VML is celebrated for its innovative and award-winning human-first work for clients including AstraZeneca, Colgate-Palmolive, Dell, Ford, Microsoft, Nestlé, The Coca-Cola Company, and Wendy's.
- In 2026, VML was named Campaign’s Global Network of the Year and ranked #2 Creative Network of the Year at Cannes Lions.
- VML’s global network spans 55+ markets with principal offices in Buenos Aires, Kansas City, London, New York, São Paulo, Shanghai and Singapore.
- VML is part of WPP, the trusted growth partner for the world's leading brands.
- Powered by exceptional talent and our agentic marketing platform WPP Open, WPP unites cutting-edge media intelligence and data solutions, creativity, production, enterprise solutions and expert strategic counsel.
- WPP Enterprise Solutions is part of WPP, the trusted growth partner for the world's leading brands.
- Powered by exceptional talent and our agentic marketing platform WPP Open, WPP unites cutting-edge media intelligence and data solutions, creativity, production, enterprise solutions and expert strategic counsel.
Equal Opportunity
- WPP (VML) is an equal opportunity employer and considers applicants for all positions without discrimination or regard to characteristics.
- We are committed to fostering a culture of respect in which everyone feels they belong and has the same opportunities to progress in their careers.
