Job summary
We are looking for an experienced and motivated Technical Product Manager to define, prioritise, and deliver technically complex product capabilities that underpin our commercial satellite software solutions, as we approach our next exciting period of growth this role will help deliver our plans.
As a key member of our team, you would be responsible for translating product strategy and customer needs into clear technical requirements, ensuring scalable, secure, and reliable system design and execution. You would work closely with product, engineering, and services leadership to align technical decisions and trade-offs with both near-term delivery and long-term product evolution. The role partners across Product Engineering and Services Engineering to enable robust implementation while maintaining alignment with commercial and customer objectives. You would play a critical role in de-risking delivery, enabling engineering velocity, and building strong technical foundations that support growth, performance, and operational excellence. A hands-on understanding of the products, customer domain, and the software development life cycle (SDLC) is essential, including a working knowledge of software development practices.
We see this role as being full time, although this is negotiable. Ideally, we would like this role to be based in Edinburgh, on a hybrid basis to allow for regular interaction with the teams responsible for Product Management, Customer delivery and operations, Finance, Business Development and Sales and Marketing.
What you will do
As a member of the Product Management team, reporting to the Head of Product Management, your key responsibilities would be:
Product Strategy & Roadmap
- Own specific product areas or feature sets from discovery to delivery, making technically informed decisions throughout.
- Lead or contribute to technical discovery work, including feasibility assessment, systems analysis, and collaboration with engineering leads.
- Translate user needs and stakeholder requirements into clear, technically sound product specifications and user stories.
- Work with the Head of Product Management and engineering teams & designers to scope and prioritise development efforts, & shape solutions that balance usability, scalability, and engineering constraints.
- Maintain and prioritise the product backlog with an understanding of architectural impact, complexity, and technical debt.
- Support roadmap development with the Senior Product Manager, including evaluating dependencies and technical sequencing.
Go-To-Market Strategy
- Develop and execute GTM plans in collaboration with marketing, sales, and engineering teams.
- Define product positioning, messaging, value propositions, and target market segments.
- Lead competitive analysis to inform product differentiation and market strategy.
- Gather customer and market insights to refine product offerings and ensure adoption.
Stakeholder Collaboration & Leadership
- Act as the primary bridge between engineering, commercial teams, and customers.
- Collaborate with the Head of Services Engineering to align product development with customer support, service capabilities and operational scalability.
- Work closely with sales and marketing to ensure product-market fit and commercial viability.
- Represent the product internally and externally, including industry events, customer meetings, and partner engagements.
Commercial & Business Outcomes
- Define pricing strategies and business models to maximize revenue and profitability.
- Track product performance against key commercial and technical KPIs.
- Work with finance and leadership to build business cases for product investments.
- Identify and mitigate risks related to product adoption, scalability, and market entry.
Essential skills & experience
We see experience with the following as essential to the job:
- Strong background in software product management, preferably within the satellite, aerospace, or geospatial software domain or in a deeply technical role.
- Experience defining and executing roadmaps for B2B software products, ideally involving cloud-based, edge computing, or AI-driven solutions.
- Understanding of software development processes (Agile, DevOps, CI/CD) and modern software architectures (APIs, microservices, containerization.
- Demonstrated ability to define, deliver, and iterate on product features in a technical domain.
- Ability to break down complex technical problems and communicate them effectively to diverse audiences.
- Strong analytical skills with a data-informed approach to decision-making.
- Firsthand experience with software engineering and the software development life-cycle.
- Firsthand experience with the role that tools play in software development, especially build tools including compilers etc.
- The ability to read and understand code in multiple languages, at least at a high level, including C, Java and Python.
- An understanding of the detail, implications and nuances is not strictly necessary, nor is the ability to write code without further support.
- The ability to read and understand structured data files such XML, JSON and YAML.
- Some basic ability to work with source code files in version control systems such as git.
Personal skills
We’re especially looking for someone who has:
- Combines a strong technical foundation with user-centric and strategic thinking.
- Enjoys diving into technical details and collaborating closely with engineers to understand trade-offs and constraints.
- Is proactive, accountable, and takes ownership of their product areas.
- Works well independently while being an effective team collaborator.
- Communicates clearly and confidently with both technical and non-technical audiences.
- Thrives on solving complex problems from both a technical and product perspective.
Desirable skills & experience
We think that the following skills would definitely be valuable in this role:
- Experience in space industry standards (e.g., CCSDS, ESA standards, NASA protocols)
- Familiarity with spacecraft software, ground systems, or integration with hardware systems.
- Experience with model-based tools for software engineering, especially those that provide code generation features
- Experience in start-ups or scale-ups, especially in pre-launch product environments.
What we can offer you
- A competitive salary in the range of £45k-£65k depending on experience, with regular reviews.
- A fantastic opportunity to join a growing, innovative, employee-centred business pushing boundaries in the space industry.
- Flexible hours and hybrid working, enabling you to create your ideal work life balance.
- 36 days paid holiday per annum.
- 6% employer pension contribution.
- Enhanced Company Sick Pay and Long-Term Sickness cover.
- A Health Cash Plan to cover costs such as dental, physio and optical.
- Life Assurance cover (x4 salary).
- As a member of the Bright Ascension team you would have a stake in the business through our Employee Benefit Trust.
- Enhanced maternity, paternity and adoption pay.
- Opportunities for international travel for exhibitions and trade shows.
- Investment in you and your skill development and the opportunity to attend relevant events and conferences to aid career / skill development.
- Company events and regular activities for social engagement and team building.
- An open, supportive, inclusive environment where you can explore your ideas and make a big difference to the product and business.
About Bright Ascension
We are a fast growing, innovative company changing the way that software is developed in the space industry. With customers across the world, ranging from universities and space agencies, to commercial organisations and start-ups, our core technologies enable our customers to develop and operate space-based systems and services faster, more cost effectively and more reliably.
Innovation is at the heart of what we do and it is our team which drives that innovation; this is reflected in our commitment to employee ownership, which gives all of us a voice, and a stake, in our current and future success. With offices in Dundee, Edinburgh and Bristol we now have more than 50 members of staff and plans to expand significantly over the next 12 months. We are at a very exciting time in our ambitious growth plans and have fantastic opportunities for talented individuals to join our team.
Our Values
We worked together to identify and shape the values that underpin everything we do, our actions, our vision and all things Bright Ascension.
Passion & Innovation
Enjoy what you do and have fun. Be curious and be fearless. Unconventional ideas and passion are the paths to true innovation.
Teamwork & Collaboration
Sharing knowledge helps the team thrive. Start a dialogue and win through teamwork. Success comes through collaboration and support.
Respect & Integrity
Recognise differences and accept opinions. Integrity, respect and high standards create unbreakable trust and builds reputation.
Full job specification Technical Product Manager