Product Director

Trainline is an innovative, tech business with a mission to bring together the world’s rail, coach and other travel services into one simple experience. We aim to make travel easier and more accessible, encouraging people to make more environmentally sustainable travel choices. We’re hugely proud to be the world’s leading independent rail and coach travel platform and rank among the highest-rated travel and ticketing apps globally. Today, we offer our customers travel to thousands of destinations in and across 45 countries in Europe and beyond. That’s more than £3.7 billion in ticket sales annually, and over 90 million visits to our apps and websites each month. In another major milestone, Trainline listed on the London Stock Exchange in June 2019 and is now part of the FTSE 250.

 

Our culture is central to our success. We’re driven to sustain our phenomenal growth from recent years, and this means we’re always working closely and collaboratively to turn our ideas into reality. It’s this sense of pace, innovating and improving pretty much everything we do, that makes Trainline so exciting and unique - we truly believe our work has a genuine impact and will change travel for the better.

 

Reporting to the CPO (Dave Price, who is a seasoned Product leader in Digital, Travel & Technology) this is a critical leadership role within the Product team with overarching responsibility for the Product strategy, line management of Senior Product personnel and delivery of Trainline’s B2B activities which cover 4 critical areas:

 

- Trainline Carrier Solutions have built a large and loyal customer base of UK Train Operating Companies (TOCs) using their Digital Retailing Platform, however we believe we have only scratched the surface internationally. This role will lead the growing teams charged with extending our Product to meet the ever-changing landscape in the UK and European TOCs.

- Extend the reach of rail travel by providing rail retailing and servicing capability to an ever-increasing array of partners through the largest Global Distribution Services (GDSs), Travel Management Companies (TMCs) to an array of global online businesses and start-ups.

- Leading from inception through to delivery the customer experiences for business travellers booking through Trainline directly or through Trainline’s SME suite of tools.

- Building upon Trainline’s unrivalled position at the confluence of rail demand and supply, the role will shape how Trainline approach Partner Insights.

 

The Covid pandemic, while short term impactful on so many areas of life and business, also presents a unique, ‘once in a generation’ opportunity to be at the forefront of a digital future for travel as habits and behaviours evolve. To this end, there are a wealth of design and product led questions that need to be answered. How might the intersection of the physical and digital travel offer evolve to benefit the customer? How might Trainline’s role in the industry adapt? Looking outside the UK into Europe, similar customer problems and opportunities await, and with increasing industry investment in infrastructure, environmental awareness and market liberalisation, Trainline is exceptionally well placed to introduce new propositions to an international audience. 

 

 

You will be passionate about inspiring a team in their craft, and be an inspirational leader, nurturing the next generation of the Product talent at Trainline. You will operate and influence across the organisation. You will join the Extended Leadership Team, where, as a senior leader at Trainline, your influence will extend beyond Product, with an expectation you will inform our strategy, improve process and ultimately embody our culture. In particular in this role, you will form close partnerships with the CPO and CTO, and will be expected to be influential at Board and Exec level.

- You will shape how Trainline thinks about our B2B customers, formulating a bold and far-reaching product vision and strategy. 

- You are a compelling storyteller who communicates effectively with partners and to anyone in the organisation - from the teams designing and building the products, to the senior-most partners across Trainline.

- You understand that vision and strategy are important, however being able to dive in and connect that strategy to the details of tactics is crucial.

- In partnership with the Commercial and Technology teams you will ensure delivery that Trainline partners can depend upon.

- You will develop a team who crave data in pursuit of forming insights and beliefs, which in turn translate into clear hypotheses to achieve the best customer and business impact.

- You will establish the operations and systems to constantly raise the quality bar and improve efficiency and effectiveness.

- You deeply value and have experience with hiring, coaching and leading diverse and high-performing teams of product managers, including senior managers, creating an inclusive space where people can learn and do the best work of their careers

- Be an external face for Product at Trainline with regular media participation, representation at industry events and driving our engagement with the wider Product community.

- Be a key member of Trainline’s Extended Leadership team working closely with Exec and Board to inform strategy, influence ways of working and evolve our culture.

We’re looking for creative big thinkers with small egos to achieve our ambitious plans. Therefore some of the skill we’re looking for include: being creative, data-driven, and a commercially minded Product leader with a stellar track record of creating and delivering best-in-class experiences for top tier digital businesses.  You will be an outstanding people leader, able to attract and retain world-class talent.  You will also have strong communication and stakeholder management skills, and bring a strategic and analytical toolkit to marry the needs of customers and the business.

 

We work in a very fast-paced, entrepreneurial culture, so if you’ve worked in a similar environment, which is a consumer-facing digital or multichannel business then we’d love to hear from you.  To summarise, you will be a creative yet commercial disruptor, balancing the art and creativity of building world-class B2B products with the commercial challenges of the organisation.

 

Here are the attributes relayed below:

 

- Track record of building world class Product teams that have shaped high volume B2C or B2B online experiences.

- Deep commercial acumen and be able to contribute to wider business decisions outside of the Product domain.

- A product and design visionary who has been able to marry the practicalities of delivery.

- Experience working across a complex and evolving product set, using the latest techniques for product discovery and hypothesis-driven product development.

- A storyteller and an all-round exceptional communicator, who inspires your team and influences those you interact with.

- The voice of the customer and possess a track record of building teams who strive to answer questions and find insights from an array of sources.

- A manager who attracts and hires top Product talent and possesses the tools to develop and grow individuals into leading Product Managers and builds exceptional teams. 

- 25 days holiday +2 extra days at Christmas

- Free private medical and dental insurance for you and your family (you just pay the tax on what you choose!)

- Life assurance & income protection

- Good pension scheme

- Season Ticket loan

- Charity leave

- Enhanced primary caregiver leave

- Free breakfast everyday and fruit galore!

- Yoga Mondays

- Regular inclusive socials at a team and company level

....and many more