Product Manager

Introduction

Iswe is a social impact foundation dedicated to finding ways to put people at the heart of social and political decision-making to solve some of society’s greatest challenges. 

We are looking for a hands-on Product Manager to lead the delivery and ongoing development of Assemblis - a hugely ambitious global platform to strengthen community-led decision-making - as it moves from a working prototype to a fully fledged product used by community groups worldwide.

The period from 2025 to 2026 presents a unique opportunity to scale the use and impact of Assemblis around the COP30 UN Climate Conference—set to take place in the Amazon at the end of 2025—by leveraging strategic relationships, including key support from the Brazilian government.

About Assemblis

Assemblis will support communities across the world to run community gatherings, deliberate on shared challenges, and make collective decisions. The platform combines step-by-step guidance, storytelling features and data aggregation, enabling community groups to deliberate meaningfully, share their insights and connect with each other.  Our vision:

A world of resilient local communities that have the tools and confidence to make fair, effective decisions, through community assemblies that facilitate learning, build solidarity and have clear pathways to local and global action.

Assemblis will support people to deliberate on challenges and act together in their communities, whilst building a global picture of citizen needs, actions and solutions, which will inform global decision making. One of the ways it will do this is through the Global Citizens’ Assembly - a permanent institution that Iswe and partners are building.

A Global Citizens’ Assembly for COP30 to be launched in Brazil in November is the key opportunity to pilot Assemblis. We are about to test a minimum viable product (functional prototype) with small sets of global users, and are looking for someone who can lead the iteration process, with the goal of an alpha launch in Climate Week in September.

Assemblis’s vision - A world of resilient local communities that have the tools and confidence to make fair, effective decisions, through community assemblies that facilitate learning, build solidarity and have clear pathways to local and global action. 

We know that building a team representative of wider society fosters creativity and innovation. We welcome people of all backgrounds, identities and experiences and are committed to being a place where all belong. We therefore particularly welcome applications from candidates who are disabled, Black, Asian or from other minority ethnic backgrounds, who identify within the LGBTQIA+ community, or identify as from a lower or disadvantaged socioeconomic background as these groups are currently under-represented on our staff team.
 

About the role

You’ll take a user-centred approach to shaping the product, balancing strategic vision with on-the-ground experimentation. You’ll lead, and help to build, a small, agile team, currently a developer, researcher/product designer and data specialists, working closely with a wider team of deliberation specialists, content creators and a strong network of global partners. 

You will play a key role in defining the roadmap, testing features with real-world users and ensuring Assemblis becomes a powerful, trusted tool for citizen-led change.

We are open to full-time or part-time applicants, depending on experience and availability.
 

Main duties

• Lead product delivery: Own the product vision and roadmap, ensuring features meet user needs and align with organisational goals.

• User-centred design: Champion a user-first approach through ongoing testing, feedback loops, and engagement with a diverse global user base.

• Team leadership: Lead and support a small cross-functional team; identify and recruit additional roles as needed.

• Technical direction: Work with developers to make key decisions on technology architecture, infrastructure, and tools, ensuring scalability and sustainability.

• Stakeholder collaboration: Work closely with Iswe’s internal leads to ensure strategic alignment, and global partners (civic groups, movement partners, and research collaborators) to incorporate their needs into the platform.

• Governance and data: Embed deliberative values in product choices, including data ethics, privacy, accessibility, and transparency.

• Business model development: Support the development and testing of a sustainable income-generating model for Assemblis, while ensuring accessibility and alignment with Iswe’s mission.

• Agile processes: Implement lightweight product management processes (e.g. sprints, prioritisation frameworks, documentation) to maintain momentum and clarity.

• Working in the open: Publish regular blog/weeknotes content to communicate about the work to ensure transparency and inspire healthy criticism and collaboration.
   

About you

This role will suit you if you are a decisive leader who is excited by the potential of civic tech to deepen democracy and empower communities. But you must also be a doer - ready to take responsibility for getting things done, while you grow the team. You might come from a digital agency, a startup, a civic organisation, or a product-led nonprofit. What matters most is your ability to lead with empathy, think strategically, and build things that work.
 

Essential skills and experience

• Strong product management experience in digital platforms, tools or services

• Passion for civic technology and democratic innovation

• Good knowledge of the technologies shaping deliberative democracy, such as facilitation tools, decision-making platforms, participatory budgeting systems, emerging AI tools, etc.

• Creative and bold; willing to listen to competing opinions, ask questions and raise healthy challenges 

• Self reflective; able to give and receive feedback well

• Experience managing or collaborating with cross-functional teams

• Excellent communication skills, both internally and externally

• Able to be an ambassador for the product, speaking persuasively to partners and stakeholders

• Ruthless and pragmatic prioritisation and strong project management skills

• Comfortable working in a startup-style environment (adaptable, proactive, solutions-oriented)
   

Desirable skills and experience

• Experience building online tools or platforms

• Experience working with global, multilingual, or underserved communities

• Familiarity with accessibility and inclusive design principles

• Understanding of data governance, privacy, and ethics in civic platforms
   

Salary, Benefits & Working Conditions

• Salary:  £55-70k per annum, depending on experience

• Hours: Full-time or part-time (minimum 4 days/week); UK adjacent hours

• Location: Remote (occasional UK in-person meetups)

• Leave: 35 days holiday plus UK bank holidays (pro-rata if part-time); 14 days medical leave

• Pension: Statutory employer contributions (currently 3%)
   

About Iswe

We believe that many of the crises we face today - health, climate, the cost of living etc - are symptoms of failing governance structures, and that putting people in the driving seat of decision-making will transform our futures for the better. Our work focuses on Citizens’ Assemblies.

Our team has decades of experience in democratic innovation. Projects include Global Assembly for COP26 and The Future Armenian. Iswe is a fast-growing foundation, dedicated to empowering citizens to play a leading role in the decision-making that affects their lives. 

Our work is founded on strong values, including openness, transparency and humility. We believe that when ‘I’ (an individual) becomes ‘we’ (part of the collective), the results are transformational. We are actively working to build a healthy culture, rooted in care and characterised by being self-organising and self-reflective. We are committed to addressing the dynamics of oppression in ourselves and our work.
 

How to Apply

Please submit a CV and short cover letter outlining your interest in the role and relevant experience, via CharityJob.

Applications will be reviewed on a rolling basis, and the advert may be closed early if we find a suitable candidate.