Head of Product Operations

TrustedHousesitters is a global pet care travel exchange; a double sided digital marketplace of owners and sitters that’s growing rapidly through our unique combination of product, proposition, marketing and community building.

We've just recently been named as one of the Escape the City's top organisations to work for 2023! Also joining the 2024 edition of the Future Fifty program.

Our small but mighty team has a collaborative and supportive culture. We’re passionate about pets, people and travel; continuously searching for the win, win, win that makes everyone’s lives easier, travel kinder on the pet and enables a more sustainable travel footprint.

We're fully in scale-up mode and have grown to be the only global platform of its kind. In the last few years, we’ve consistently achieved high year-on-year growth. Thanks to strong tailwinds in the pet and travel industry in the post-Covid world, 2022 has been our strongest year so far. At our marketplace we facilitate the perfect match between pet owners who want to leave their pets in safe hands and pet sitters looking to enjoy the companionship of pets whilst they travel.

We've recently made the transition to a remote-first business, however we've retained a HQ in central Brighton which is available for collaborative working and in-person meet-ups.

About the Role

As we scale our company and expand our market presence, we are seeking a dynamic Head of Product Operations to support and improve our strategic initiatives to drive customer growth, improve our product planning processes, and enhance cross-functional collaboration. The Head of Product Operations will be responsible for establishing and optimising the product operating model to support the rapid scaling of TrustedHousesitters.

This role will deliver efficient goal setting, alignment across teams, and delivery of high-quality product initiatives that meet our customers' needs and drive business success. The ideal candidate will have a strong background in areas such as product delivery, martech, user research and data, with a passion for driving operational excellence in a fast-paced, global environment.  The ability to coach and empower is at the heart of this role, managing by influence and empowerment.  This role will be an individual contributor to start with, but the remit and team will grow over time.  

The role reports to: Chief Product Officer

• 8+ years of experience in product management, agile coaching, delivery, operations, or a related field, with a track record of managing complex product operations in a fast-growing tech company
• Strong understanding of Agile and Lean methodologies
• Excellent analytical and problem-solving skills, with a data-driven approach to decision-making
• Proven ability to coach cross-functional teams and manage multiple stakeholders
• Exceptional communication, interpersonal, and project management skills
• Experience with product management tools (e.g., Jira, Confluence, etc) and analytics platforms.
• Experience working with C-suite teams and Cross-functional stakeholders
• Passion for the pet care and travel space and commitment to the TrustedHousesitters mission

• Operational Strategy and Execution:

• Drive a comprehensive goal setting and product operating model to support the company's growth objectives (e.g. OKRs, strategic alignment work)
• Coordinate with key stakeholders (e.g. VP Engineering, Head of Insights & Analytics) to create and drive agile and delivery processes, ensuring efficiency, consistency, and feedback loops to constantly improve how we deliver value and impact
• Ensure cross-team touchpoints are happening, documentation is consistent, and updates are streamlined (Roadmap status, Product monthly updates)  
• Oversee content structure and alignment on productivity tools such as Notion, Jira, Confluence

• Process Optimisation:

• Ensure functional teams are working in a streamlined (matrix) format to land our key growth and cross-functional initiatives (Marketing, Data, Product, Engineering, Services & Support)
• Identify and implement process improvements to streamline product development and delivery with Engineering Leadership.
• Utilise Lean and Agile methodologies to enhance the speed and quality of product releases.
• Ensure seamless integration of product management and marketing tools and systems.
• Ensure processes around data and insights (qual and quant) are governed and adopted by all teams

• Cross-Functional Collaboration:

• Facilitate effective communication and collaboration between product management, engineering, design, marketing, and customer support teams.  
• Establish and maintain clear processes for cross-functional initiatives and product launches. (e.g. consistent roadmapping and go to market processes)

• Enable Data-Driven Decision Making:

• Ensure metrics and KPIs are in place to measure product performance and operational efficiency and are leveraged by all teams
• Ensure analytics and user research/insights are enabled across teams to leverage insights in product usage, customer feedback, and market trends.
• Drive data-driven decision-making processes within the product team

• Resource Management:

• Coordinate resource allocation and capacity planning for the product development teams with the support of key stakeholders (e.g. Analytics & Eng Directors).
• Ensure that product development teams have the tools, and support needed to succeed.
• Enable budget and financial/strategic planning processes 

• Governance and Compliance:

• Implement and maintain best practices for product governance and risk management.

• Continuous Improvement

• Foster a culture of continuous improvement within the product team.
• Regularly review and refine processes based on feedback and performance data.
• Support initiatives to enhance product quality and customer satisfaction by ensuring customer and product feedback is centralised and available to teams (e.g. collating and systematising customer feedback surveys, reviews, etc)

Benefits

In addition to a competitive salary and bonus, we offer a range of benefits, including:

Fully remote work

Discretionary 10% annual bonus scheme

Generous equity options

25 days holiday annually plus bank holidays and Christmas to New Year closure

Pension scheme: 5% from you as an employee and 3% from TrustedHousesitters

Premium TrustedHousesitters pet owner and sitter membership. This includes benefits like airport lounge passes, sit cancellation insurance, and home and contents insurance for sits for you

X5 premium memberships for your friends and family each year

Our team have an unlimited housesitting allowance, can work remotely from their sits, and are eligible to £500 per year towards travel costs

£200 annually towards home office equipment

Access to Spaces (co-working) Locations across the globe

Monthly working from home stipend

Macbook

Find a rescue pet to join your family and we’ll cover the adoption fees, as well as paternity to help any pet settle into their new home.

We host a quarterly all-expenses paid meet-up and will fund team events (remote or in person) throughout the year

We can cover costs of personal development resources, and have a regular time set aside for personal development

Bupa Health Insurance and Dental Insurance plan

SimplyHealth Healthcare Cash plan

Trusted Giving scheme - employee volunteering via Onhand and employee giving via Tyve

Weekly virtual yoga sessions

Brighton Bikeshare

Recruitment Referral Bonus

If you're ready to join us on our mission to become the most loved pet travel solution, we'd love to hear from you!

In your application, please feel free to note which pronouns you use (For example- she/her/hers, he/him/his, they/them/theirs, etc).

At the heart of our team are a mix of diverse backgrounds. Here at TrustedHousesitters, we’re committed to the equal opportunities policy throughout the interview process and selection. Offers of employment into TrustedHousesitters are based solely on individual merit, qualifications, and the person's professional suitability.

Gender identity, sexual orientation, marital or civil partnership status, colour, race, nationality, ethnic or national origins, religion or beliefs, age, mental or physical disability, medical condition, pregnancy or maternity status, or any other protected characteristics do not enter into our decision-making process.

If you have a medical condition or an individual need for an adjustment to our process, and you believe this may affect your ability to be at your best - please let us know so we can talk about how we can best support you and make any adjustments that may be needed. person's professional suitability.