Product Development Manager - Online Shopping Performance

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.
• 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.
• 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..
• 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.
• 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.
• 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.
• 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’.
• 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.
• A track record of stepping into complex environments to build collaborative, psychologically safe teams and resolve ambiguity through constructive, clear communication.
• The confidence, resilience, and commercial awareness to have honest conversations with senior stakeholders, specifically the ability to manage expectations in a high-stakes environment.
• Experience managing volatile operational demands alongside planned project work, with a calm, methodical approach to incident leadership and risk mitigation.
• 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

Benefits

• 25 days holiday plus bank holidays
• Profit-related bonus - based on company performance
• Management share options
• Company car or car allowance
• Private medical insurance
• Sharesave scheme - make savings from your net pay to buy NEXT shares at a discount
• Pension - fixed contribution rates from both an employer and employee perspective, but you're also able to make additional voluntary contributions (AVCs) if you wish to save more.
• Life assurance
• Group income protection
• Wagestream - helping you make the most out of your money
• Salary finance - offers access to affordable loans repaid through salary, simple savings and free financial education.
• 25% staff discount on most NEXT products - plus discount on other products
• Direct to work - NEXT orders delivered free to the office for collection
• VIP sale - early access to the NEXT sale
• Access to NEXT staff shops
• Octopus energy - like cycle-to-work, but for electric vehicles
• Free parking (excluding London locations)
• Travel2NEXT - bus services dependent on location
• On site dining facilities (excluding London locations)
• National and local discounts on goods and services - this includes things like discounted cinema tickets
• Wellhub - includes access to discounted gym membership
• Simply health - a healthcare subscription service
• Aviva Digicare Workplace+ healthcare service - 7 Free services including Digital GP appointments and an annual health check.
• Onsite GP - Leicester Head Office
• Onsite Physio - Leicester Head Office
• A range of dedicated 3rd party wellbeing partners
• Free eye testing - voucher to use at specific locations

Conditions apply to all benefits. These benefits are discretionary and subject to change.

We aim to support all candidates during the application process and are happy to provide workplace adjustments when necessary. Should you need support with your application due to a disability or long-term condition, feel free to get in touch with us by email [email protected] (please include 'Workplace Adjustments' in the subject line), or call us on 0116 284 2486 and leave a voicemail.