The Role:
Get into the driver's seat of Next Online’s project delivery and accelerate ROI through improved response times and proven system scalability. Navigate the performance landscape ensuring we are building performant, scalable systems at the point of delivery, and in future.
Performance is a key consideration for everything we build - a mere half second can erase the benefit of a project; thousands of users the difference between us having a Sale site or not. This is a fundamental, strategic, leadership position where you will be able to move us to the next level with measuring and helping deliver performant projects, whilst maintaining value and improving efficiency for the business.
As a Product Development Manager, you’ll have a direct line to key stakeholders within the business who will depend on your knowledge and experience to inform their decisions ranging from improving our overall release cadence to shift-left operations with Product teams to identifying where those vital half-seconds are costing us.
You’ll manage a broad range of innovative and dedicated system engineers, on-shore and off-shore, motivating them in developing improved processes for the team, incorporating the Next ways of working, fostering an environment where your team can excel further.
You will be from a technical background, able to discuss cloud technology scaling-up with infrastructure, RPS and LCP with the business, and NFRs with the development teams and architects.
These frontline workstreams carry a high mental load and significant commercial value. You will act as the essential translator between the business's strategic intent and your team's technical execution, and the shield that protects your team's focus from external noise. This role is about establishing sustainable delivery rhythms out of volatile demands, embedding quality, and fostering an environment where your developers can do their best work.
What You’ll Take On:
- Delivery Leadership:
Own the end-to-end delivery of your team's commitments. You will run projects to Agile standards, actively manage capacity, and continuously balance planned work with complex operational realities.
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People & Culture:
Act as the direct line manager and coach for your system engineers. You will drive their professional growth through Personal Development Plans, foster a collaborative environment, and maintain team momentum.
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Stakeholder Collaboration:
Build strong, trust-based relationships with Product Owners and key business stakeholders. You will pro-actively work with product teams to deliver accurate, timely and efficient performance services, ensuring they can deliver their products on time, with minimal delay..
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Process & Quality:
Champion our Ways of Working. You will ensure consistent adherence to the Next SDLC, and maintain continuous oversight of system quality and security.
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Cross-Functional Orchestration:
Partner with peers across domains to enable smooth delivery of wider initiatives, stepping into gaps pragmatically to unblock flow and ensure shared outcomes succeed.
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Sustainable Workload Management:
Treat workload as a visible, actively managed constraint. You will challenge unrealistic estimates, push back on unsafe planning expectations, and use data to protect team health.
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Promote Shift-Left Strategy:
Identify opportunities for activities within the team to be devolved to product or support teams, giving more time for innovation and forward-facing work.
What You’ll Bring:
This role requires a leader who is able to hit the ground running. The environment is fast-paced and demands immediate competency in navigating shifting priorities without passing that stress onto the team. You must balance a sharp focus on delivery outcomes with genuine empathy and strong people leadership skills. Because this is an internal role, you will already understand the pace of our eCommerce environment, but you are someone who wants to shape how we work just as much as what we deliver.
- Strong, technical experience
from your previous development roles, which you will bring to bear on complex technical issues around performance and scalability, in the cloud and ‘on prem’.
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Immediate, proven capability
in a technology delivery environment (e.g., as a Lead Developer, Scrum Master or existing manager) with a strong practical grasp of Agile methodologies and continuous improvement.
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A track record of stepping into complex environments
to build collaborative, psychologically safe teams and resolve ambiguity through constructive, clear communication.
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The confidence, resilience, and commercial awareness
to have honest conversations with senior stakeholders, specifically the ability to manage expectations in a high-stakes environment.
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Experience managing volatile operational demands
alongside planned project work, with a calm, methodical approach to incident leadership and risk mitigation.
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A strong intrinsic drive to coach others
, share knowledge, and elevate the overall capability of your team and the wider Online Ordering domain.
#LI-LE1 #LI-Hybrid
You know Next, but did you know we’re a FTSE-100 retail company employing over 44,000 people across the Next group. We’re the UK’s 2nd largest fashion retailer and for Kidswear we’re the market leader. At the last count we have over 450 stores, plus the Next Online and it’s now possible to buy on-line from over 80 countries around the world! So we’ve gone global!
