Product Director

Job Description

carwow is looking for a Product Director reporting into our Chief Commercial Officer, to lead our Get Your Car (GYC - new cars, used cars and retail media) product vertical globally.

About carwow

We’re on a mission to change the way people buy, sell or use a car by creating the world’s best online car marketplace. Since starting our journey in 2011, we’ve grown to become one of the most trusted comparison sites with over 12 million active users and an ‘excellent’ Trustpilot rating of 4.7.

We’re market leaders in this space, from our world famous YouTube channel to our simple to use site that helps you find your perfect next car.

Carwow is backed by some of Europe’s most respected technology, marketplace and automotive investors. With $55 million Series D funding secured in December 2022, We've scaled to a team of over 300 carwowers across UK, Germany, Spain and Portugal.

The role

It’s an exciting time to join the automotive industry as we transition to electric vehicles, manufacturers are starting to sell direct and the landscape is awash with new cars from China that customers haven’t even heard of.

As a product Director for our Get Your Car vertical, you will lead the evolution of our vision for the future of how customers find and get the car that is right for them. You’ll develop our value proposition to work for both our users and our business partners (dealers, car manufacturers, advertisers and brokers).

This position will be at the heart of transforming our “old” value proposition (price comparison for users & lead generation for dealers) to a future proof value proposition, bringing true comparison and total car/deal confidence to our users and providing our partners access to the most engaged car buying audience for dealers as well as manufacturers and their brands.

Requirements

• Vision, value proposition and strategy: Create collaboratively with the executive and senior leadership across markets an exciting product vision, value proposition and strategy for the Get Your Car vertical.
• Problem definition and structured thinking: Synthesises insights from various sources to craft a clear problem statement articulating the root cause problem in a structured way and demonstrates clarity when aligning the team to the problem.
• Outcome ownership: Align the team around the outcome they are working towards and be able to prioritise effectively on multiple dimensions.
• Set up a team for success: Create an environment that allows the team to get the best out of all the people in their squad by helping provide wider context, giving clarity on goals, and supporting and setting processes for the team to collaborate effectively.
• Fluent with data: Use data to generate actionable insights, leverage insights to achieve goals set for the product, and to connect those quantified goals to meaningful outcomes for the business.
• Communication: Ensures all people involved and the wider commercial team are aware of the vision, team strategy, initiatives, priorities and progress.
• Stakeholder management: Work across a wide range of stakeholders to get the right input, and their ideas and ensure that they have the right information to represent the product team in their areas/functions.
• Voice of the customer: Build empathy with our customers and leverage feedback in the form of interviews, conversations, usability tests, surveys, and other forms of research to understand how users and enterprise partners engage with the product, make better decisions, and drive meaningful outcomes for the business.

For more information about our Product Organisation, please visit our medium blog (here).

About You

This is the perfect role for someone with experience in developing new value propositions, as well as experience in product management within marketplaces working with both a customer focus and enterprise partners. You will work closely with our C-level GYC leadership and with stakeholders across the business to define and deliver an exciting value proposition and product. A perfect role that prepares you for a CPO role.

• You are a visionary strategic thinker, being able to think both top-down and bottom-up
• You thrive in environments of change, when complexity is high and the problems to solve are hard. You have the ability to take it all in, articulate and structure a vision and a clear way forward
• You have a growth mindset, constantly looking for ways to go faster, do more and inspire your teams in this way.
• You have an empathetic leadership style and you build strong, effective relationships
• Have an outstanding ability to think on your feet and tackle intellectually challenging problems
• Be highly analytical and accustomed to using complex data to make decisions
• Be forward-thinking and ambitious. A great prioritiser, not afraid to say no.
• Excellent communication and presentation skills, whether to the tech team, to other stakeholders or to our leadership team. Effective in distilling complex solutions into bite-sized pieces when speaking and writing
• Data informs but doesn’t drive your decision-making: you know when to use it and when to lean on instinct to move quickly
• Love working autonomously, but you’re able to earn the trust of others with a collaborative style
• Excel at managing stakeholders, whilst also being confident in voicing your own opinions and challenging others

Experience

• (6-10 years) experience working in a product management-focused role, ideally with marketplaces across several markets
• Experience in media-focused products (retail media, digital advertising solutions etc)
• Accustomed to working in high-paced environments proven ability to quickly get up to speed in a domain and identify trends and opportunities.
• Track record of owning a product delivery pipeline with an ability to balance technical and product demands
• Deep understanding of Product Management methodologies, agile development practices and user-centered design principle

Benefits

🗺️ 🕔 Remote and hybrid working options: (2 days in the office)

💶 Competitive salary

🏢 Equity in the company (share options)

🏥 Vitality Private Healthcare

🪙Private pension scheme (carwow will match contributions up to 5%)

🫂Mental-health and wellbeing coaching sessions

🏖️ 25 days holiday, plus bank holidays and Christmas Eve or an alternative (religious) holiday of your choice

💻 Tech: The latest core technology (Macbook or Surface)

🪑 Remote working: You'll receive a ‘home office allowance’ of up to £500/€550 to help get set up with everything you need to succeed at home

🌍 Remote working: New: ‘work from anywhere for a month each year'

👶 Inclusive parental, partner and shared parental leave, fertility treatment and pregnancy loss policies

📚 Learning and development budget

💬 Social: Company wide collaboration such as bi-weekly product demos, tech lunches, coffee with the exec sessions, book clubs, social events

🧑‍🤝‍🧑 Refer a friend and get paid!

🥪 Lunch & learns with internal and external speakers

A great Product org where you can grow as the company grows and learn from people who are keen to better themselves

Diversity and inclusion is an integral part of our culture. We know that diverse teams are strong teams, so we welcome those with alternative identities, backgrounds, and experiences to apply for this position. We make recruiting decisions based on experience, skills and potential, so all our applicants are treated fairly and equally.

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