Early Years Product Specialist

Job description

As a Early Years Product Specialist, you will help shape and deliver digital products that support Early Years Funding and related services within a regulated UK public-sector context. You will work across customers, product, design and engineering teams to understand user needs, interpret statutory and operational requirements, and translate them into clear, actionable and testable product requirements. The role combines strong business analysis practice with domain expertise in Early Years and local authority processes. You will play a key part in ensuring that solutions are user-centred, operationally effective, compliant with relevant statutory guidance, and aligned to product strategy and delivery priorities. You will contribute across the product lifecycle, from discovery and analysis through to delivery, validation and continuous improvement. Core Responsibilities Work with customers, users and internal teams to understand current processes, pain points, policy intent and desired outcomes. Analyse and document business processes, service workflows, business rules, data requirements and user journeys for Early Years Funding and related services. Translate statutory guidance, operational policy and local authority practice into clear product requirements, acceptance criteria and solution options. Break down complex problems into manageable features, stories and increments that can be delivered in an agile environment. Support product discovery by helping define problem statements, user needs, success measures, assumptions and options. Collaborate closely with Product Managers/Owners, Designers, Developers, QA and Support teams to ensure shared understanding of requirements and priorities. Facilitate workshops, interviews and playback sessions with stakeholders to validate understanding, align expectations and build consensus. Own or support the production of high-quality BA artefacts, such as process maps, decision tables, requirements, business rules, user stories, acceptance criteria, wireframes and service models. Ensure requirements are clear, consistent, prioritised, traceable and maintained as products evolve. Support backlog refinement and sprint planning by ensuring items are sufficiently defined, testable and aligned to business value. Work with delivery teams during build and test to clarify requirements, resolve queries, support test scenario design and validate outcomes. Use customer insight, operational data, service feedback and performance information to identify opportunities for product and process improvement. Assess the impact of policy, regulatory or operational changes on product behaviour, workflows, data and reporting. Support solution evaluation by reviewing whether delivered changes meet user needs, regulatory intent and operational objectives. Act as a subject matter contributor for Early Years Funding processes and help share knowledge across the wider business. Knowledge of Early Years Funding processes, including eligibility, applications, provider submissions, validation, payments & reporting. Proven experience within a Product, software, digital or product delivery environment. Experienced in translating complex business, policy or operational needs into clear, deliverable software requirements. Ability to interpret statutory guidance and operational policy, and translate these into system requirements, workflows and business rules. Strong process analysis and modelling skills, including documenting current and future state processes, workflows and business rules. Experience working in agile delivery teams, including backlog refinement, user story development and iterative delivery practices. Ability to write clear, concise and testable user stories and acceptance criteria. Experience facilitating workshops and engaging a wide range of stakeholders to identify needs, resolve ambiguity and align priorities. Experience producing and interpreting artefacts such as process maps, user journeys, wireframes, prototypes, decision tables and requirements documentation. Working understanding of how modern software solutions are designed, built, tested and released, including the flow of requirements through delivery. Understanding of both functional and non-functional requirements, including usability, accessibility, performance, security and audit considerations. Experience using tools such as Jira, Confluence, Figma, Miro, Visio or similar tools. Familiarity with user-centred design principles and experience working alongside design and research colleagues. Soft Skills Excellent communication skills, with the ability to explain complex processes, rules and requirements clearly to both technical and non-technical audiences. Strong stakeholder management and relationship-building skills across customers, internal teams and delivery partners. Analytical and curious mindset, focused on understanding problems deeply before proposing solutions. User-focused, with a commitment to delivering meaningful and practical improvements. Structured and detail-oriented, while maintaining awareness of the wider product and service context. Collaborative and pragmatic, able to work effectively in multidisciplinary agile teams. Adaptable and resilient, comfortable working in evolving delivery and regulatory environments. Proactive and outcome-driven, with a strong sense of ownership and accountability. We pride ourselves in offering an excellent benefits package, including an above average pension scheme. When you join the team at NEC Software Solutions, you are provided with the following: Private Medical Cover funded by NEC for Employees (with the option to add family members at an additional cost) 25 days paid holiday with the option to buy/sell (FTE) 4 x basic salary life assurance cover funded by NEC (with the option to increase cover at an additional cost) A Group Pension Plan with fantastic employer contributions up to a maximum of 8.5% A selection of flexible benefits to suit your individual needs All colleagues get free access to LinkedIn Learning. Over 15000 courses covering a huge breadth of subjects. Learn about what you like, when you like, how you like. OTHER INFORMATION Candidates must be able to demonstrate a pre-existing right to work and travel within the UK. Documentary evidence will be required. All offers are subject to satisfactory vetting, references and occupational health checks. Depending on the nature of the role a Disclosure Barring Service (DBS) check may also be required. NEC Software Solutions is an equal opportunities employer, welcoming applications from all communities. If you require any reasonable adjustments or have specific accessibility needs during the recruitment or interview process, please feel free to share these with us. We are committed to ensuring an inclusive and accommodating experience for all candidates. Who We Are: We’re NEC Software Solutions (part of global tech giant NEC Corporation). While you read this ad, our software is helping to support families, keep trains on the move, locate missing people and even test the hearing of newborn babies. Working with us, you’ll be helping our 3,000+ employees push the boundaries of what’s possible and support amazing public services. We work with governments, hospitals, housing providers, local authorities and more. We help them pay financial support faster, speed up treatments for patients and respond to emergencies in the right way. The more we do, the more our customers can do for others. And together, we make a world of difference. We’d love your help. And we’ll support you all the way. Come join us and make a difference in the world! Discover more at NO AGENCIES PLEASE Role can be remote or Hybrid, Subject to Location