Deputy Product Owner

Working as a partnership, both Isle of Wight NHS Trust and Portsmouth Hospitals University NHS Trust have a shared vision for excellence in care for our patients and communities; with a set of strategic aims underpinning how we will achieve this. 

The single corporate service is delivered across both organisation.  You may be based at either IWT or PHU and individuals may be required to undertake business travel between sites. For leaders managing staff across multi-site locations, you will need to be visible and provide in person leadership. The arrangements and frequency will be agreed locally.

This vacancy is open to employees of Isle of Wight NHS Trust and Portsmouth Hospitals University NHS Trust only.

NHS Band 6 Salary: £39,959 - £48,117 per annum

Hours per Week: full time 37.5 

Contract type: Temporary for 18 months (Secondment Considered)

Location: Base location either St Mary's Hospital, Parkhurst Road, Newport, Isle of Wight,PO30 5TG, or Building 4000, Lakeside, North Harbour, Cosham, Portsmouth, PO6 3EN. Across site travel may be required, the frequency will be agreed locally

Job purpose

As part of the Electronic Document and Records Management System (EDRMS) programme, this role will contribute to improve the effectiveness and value of health care delivery for Isle of Wight NHS Trust and Portsmouth Hospitals University NHS Trust (the Trusts). This post is a member of the Digital Service, within the Product Owner function.

The DPO (Deputy Product Owner) will support the Product Owner team, in delivery the BAU service, and the EPR Convergence with the IWT, which is a key enabler in our five-year digital strategy and a foundational step toward the successful rollout of the OneEPR (HIOW Acute Electronic Patient Record).

Job summary

• Supporting Product management for the portfolio of patient facing IT products and managing the product(s) backlog
• Supporting Stakeholder and Supplier Management within the context of Agile Software Development
• Supporting the Maintenance Software User & Management Forums
• Represent the user within 'user stories' at sprint planning sessions and fulfilment of the sprint 'done' statement.
• Understand the 'product category' to a subject matter expert level.
• Promote the 'products' at various local, regional, and national forums.
• Ensure all relevant product documentation is maintained e.g. release notes, clinical safety, change management, communication notifications.

Specific Core Functions

IT Deputy Product Owners are responsible for supporting internal software applications and their Agile delivery in the Trust. Post holders play a key role in software implementations, migrations, upgrades, providing technical guidance and IT services to users and project teams. Post holders are also required to support the engagement stakeholders, Trust staff, and third-party suppliers where applicable to ensure services are delivered in a timely fashion to meet the requirements of the clinical and corporate business staff.

Specifically, Deputy Product Owners are required to:

• Support the Management and leadership of Software User & Management Forums.
• Represent users within ‘user stories’ at sprint planning sessions and sprint’ done’ statements.
• Be subject matter experts for the products they are responsible for.
• Ensure all relevant product lite documentation is maintained (e.g. release notes, clinical safety, change management and communications notifications).
• Act as representatives for their products at local, regional, and national forums.

This role will focus on the delivery, implementation, and development of a portfolio of IT Products that support engagement with our patients including appointment bookings, personal healthcare records and video consultations.

• Filter and translate differing requirements from users, owners and developers into a single consistent vision whilst managing various complex situations and demands on future software releases.
• Maintaining strong internal governance in the software release strategy for all internal products.
• Supporting the management of Low-Code application platforms to enhance product development or prototypes.
• Development of co-design, co-experience environments to enhance the application experience for staff and patients.
• Act as the subject matter expert (product owner) representing the needs of both the IT department and the Trust users when talking to software developers. The product manager will work with the stakeholders to obtain information and to verify decisions and strategies.
• Plan and coordinate software development for multiple features of varying complexities. Engagement and communication with all relevant stakeholders and management of any associated risks.
• Identify opportunities that can improve efficiency of both clinical and administration processes.
• During testing and release phases, this post holds the responsibility of planning the early life support, software troubleshooting issues, software bug recording and management to resolution.
• Creation of the system design and functional specifications for all in-house development projects.
• Continuous Business Engagement to understand the application user needs and ensure development aligned to Trust Strategy and NHS long term plan.
• Adoption of Clinical Risk Management policy across all in-house software applications.

Please refer to full job description for further details. 

Essential

• Degree level qualification or equivalent relevant experience.    

Desirable

• ITIL Foundation
• ISEB Testing Certification

Experience

Essential

• Excellent communications and interpersonal skills
• Experience managing Digital & IT and at a senior level, preferably in the public sector
• Successful implementation of significant change, both technical and organisational, in a complex setting.

Desirable

• Experience of working in a large, complex organisation (in or outside the NHS) leading on digital, IT and information services.
• Experience of successfully operating in and delivering priorities in a partnership environment.

Skills and Knowledge

Essential

• Good relationship building skills to gain maximum input from colleagues and software suppliers.
• Excellent planning and time management skills.
• Expertise in the use of MS Word, Excel, Powerpoint and Outlook.
• Self-motivated, enthusiastic, and confident.
• Patient and flexible able to operate as part of a team.           
• Good knowledge of data protection and information security / governance issues.
• Good technical awareness to understand and resolve technical problems, communicating effectively with technical experts.
• Knowledge and experience of computerised applications management and security practice

The health and wellbeing of our staff is at the forefront of everything we do. We are proud to be able to offer our staff some fantastic benefits including our on-site Nursery, access to our free Beach Hut for those long summer days, our on-site Wellness Centre including a gym and a swimming pool, access to our fantastic staff networks including LGBTQ, Race Equality and DisAbility, and awards ceremonies to recognise your achievements. We believe we can offer support to all of our staff when they need it the most.

We welcome the unique contributions that you can bring in terms of your education, opinions, culture, ethnicity, race, sex, gender identity and expression, nation of origin, age, languages spoken, veteran’s status, colour, religion, disability, sexual orientation, and beliefs. 

For more information, please see our People and OD Strategy 2026