Head of Product

About QuantSpark

QuantSpark is an award winning boutique analytics and AI consultancy based in London.  We’re small enough that the work you do is visible to the whole business, and ambitious enough that what we take on is some of the most interesting and challenging work in our field, applying data science, machine learning and applied AI to problems that solve complex problems for the organisations we work with.

Our incredible team works across financial services, manufacturing, retail and the public sector, on everything from FTSE 100 transformation programmes to long-running work on tricky societal problems. We deliver that through four capabilities:

• AiRE (AI Rollout Engine): embedding AI tools into how a business actually runs
• QuantSpark Labs: short, sharp engagements that prove or kill an idea fast, before anyone commits serious budget to it
• QuantSpark Transform: consulting-led change to how a business makes decisions, using data, AI and software as the lever
• QuantSpark Forge: enterprise data and AI solutions, built and embedded to solve problems that come up again and again

The role

 We’re looking for a commercially minded, technology-led product leader to shape how we design, build and scale data and AI-enabled products and propositions for our clients, and for QuantSpark.

 This is not a traditional internal product management role. AI has changed what a product team can do and how fast it can do it. Most consultancies are still working out what that means. We want the person who works it out for us, and then does it with clients.

As Head of Product you will own QuantSpark Labs and lead our Product capability across the business. That means the proposition and how it evolves, the client relationships and the commercial results, the Product team and what it becomes, and the way we design and build AI-enabled products for clients and for ourselves. You will join the Senior Leadership Team and help set the direction of the company.

What you will lead

The proposition

• Own and evolve our Labs proposition, the client problems we target, the value we promise, the delivery model and the standards behind it.
• Keep Labs at the front of what is possible as AI, data and tooling move, and set a clear view on where QuantSpark should build, partner, experiment and invest.
• Work with Marketing and Commercial on positioning, messaging and thought leadership, and put your own voice into the market.

Clients and commercials

• Be the product leader in the room at pitch stage - shape proposals and pricing, differentiate us, and give a prospective client confidence at first contact.
• Own the Labs P&L: budgets, forecasts, utilisation and margin, with direct input into company financial planning.
• Negotiate scope and trade-offs directly with senior client stakeholders, balancing client value, company profit and team sustainability, especially when clients push on price.
• Build trusted relationships with senior clients and grow accounts: turn a good Labs engagement into a Forge build, a Transform programme or a long-term partnership.

Delivery

• Take senior accountability for Labs engagements, from discovery and problem definition through to solution and handover.
• Stay close enough to every live engagement to walk into a client steering committee and field a detailed question yourself, and step in to guide delivery when it needs it.
• Set the standards and ways of working for how Labs engagements run, and make sure what we learn on one engagement improves the next.
• Decide when an idea has proved out and should graduate into Forge, and when it should stop.

The team

• Lead and grow our talented Product team: three Product Managers and a Senior PM who is being developed into a management role.
• Coach the team into confident, commercially aware, client-facing product leaders, with clear progression as the capability grows.
• Set how Product works with Engineering, Consulting, Commercial and Marketing so multidisciplinary delivery actually works.
• Build a culture of curiosity, experimentation and accountability, and make QuantSpark the place ambitious PMs want to work.
  

AI-enabled product

• Define how QuantSpark designs and builds products when AI does much of the building: discovery, prototyping, experimentation and iterative delivery.
• Build reusable assets, accelerators and IP out of client work, and champion the use of AI to run product development and the wider business faster.

Who we are looking for

We are looking for someone who brings a combination of strong product leadership, technology fluency, client delivery experience and commercial judgement.

• You have led a product in a consultancy before, large or boutique, and you like the client side of it. We’re looking for someone who has delivered projects for paying clients, with a pitch to help win and a project margin to protect.
• You have commercial experience. You have priced work, written proposals and negotiated trade-offs directly with clients, and you can be honest about what you gave up when you could not have everything.
• You like the detail. You read the plan, challenge the estimate and know what your team shipped last week.
• You are equally at home with a senior client, an engineering lead and a founder, often in the same day - you have experience managing senior stakeholders and building trusted, long-term relationships.
• You are fluent in AI: you have built AI systems for clients and you use AI yourself to work faster, and you can talk about tools, workflows and what changed.
• You want to build a team. Our leadership team is collaborative and low-ego, we want a peer who will shape our direction with us and then make it happen.

Also useful but not essential: consulting into financial services or other demanding enterprise sectors, having productised IP or a SaaS offering before, leading through a second-line manager,  time alongside a founder in a small, bootstrapped business.

Benefits

• EMI share options
• £6,000 annual training and conference budget
• Up to 12% matched pension
• Comprehensive private healthcare through Vitality
• 25 days holiday plus 8 bank holidays, with the option to buy or sell up to 5 additional days
• Work from anywhere in the world for up to 1 month a year
• Enhanced maternity, paternity and shared parental leave
• Free annual Headspace subscription
• Cycle to work scheme
• Modern Blackfriars office (Southwark), with regular team socials, monthly QuantSpark Fridays and employee-led clubs
• Retail, travel, technology and fitness discounts via Vitality
• Regular tech talks, knowledge-sharing sessions and dedicated innovation time

 
Equal opportunities

We strongly believe that diversity of people and ideas is essential for the wellbeing and effectiveness of our team, and we are committed to creating a company where diversity in culture, experience, and background is truly valued. Diverse and inclusive teams bring different perspectives and ideas that help better serve our clients and help us all develop. QuantSpark is an equal opportunities employer and makes every effort to ensure that all potential employees are treated fairly and equally, regardless of their sex, sexual orientation, marital status, race, colour, nationality, ethnic or national origin, religion, age, or disability.