About the role

We are seeking a Product Director for HR to define and lead the strategy, delivery, and end‑to‑end success of [Employer hidden]’ HR product portfolio. This role is accountable for customer outcomes, commercial performance, and long‑term value creation, shaping a compelling, compliant, and commercially successful AI‑first HR proposition for large, complex organisations across multiple markets.

Reporting to the Chief Product Officer, you will lead product managers and operate as the portfolio owner for HR, with accountability that spans product, technology, delivery, and go‑to‑market outcomes. You will work in close partnership with Engineering, Design, Compliance, Commercial, and Customer teams, operating with high autonomy in an environment of ambiguity — setting direction, making explicit trade‑offs, and translating customer, regulatory, and commercial needs into focused product and investment bets.

Key Responsibilities

• Lead the HR portfolio as a long‑lived value stream, aligning product, technology, delivery, and go‑to‑market efforts around clearly owned outcomes rather than projects or components.
• Define and own the HR product vision and multi‑year strategy, with a clear view of how AI and automation are reshaping HR work. Set coherent direction across core HR capabilities, employee lifecycle journeys, data, integrations, and intelligent automation. Translate strategy into outcome‑focused roadmaps that evolve as customer needs and constraints change.
• Lead the shift from workflow‑driven features to intent‑led HR capabilities, enabling customers to delegate outcomes rather than operate systems. Define where AI and automation can safely take responsibility, and where explicit human control must remain. Ensure intelligent capabilities are designed with explainability, safeguards, governance, and escalation paths from the outset.
• Act as the senior product voice for enterprise HR needs, including scale, security, governance, and complex organisational structures. Engage directly with customers to validate problems, test direction, and assess post‑launch outcomes. Partner with Sales, Customer Success, and Implementation to support strategic accounts, major deals, and renewals.
• Lead and coach product managers to move confidently from ambiguity to execution. Ensure strong product discovery, clear problem definition, great user experience, and outcome‑driven delivery across HR product areas. Own prioritisation, sequencing, and scope decisions across competing demands.
• Own the commercial success of the HR portfolio, including growth, retention, and long‑term value creation. Shape value propositions, packaging, and differentiation for enterprise HR buyers, and partner with Product Marketing on positioning, launches, and sales enablement. Make explicit prioritisation and investment trade‑offs to maximise customer and commercial impact, and represent the HR portfolio in leadership forums, portfolio reviews, and investment decisions with clear accountability for outcomes.

What Success Looks Like

In the First 3 Months: Set clear strategic direction, recognised as credible senior product authority, establish cross‑functional relationships. By 6 months: Turn complex needs into high‑impact bets, improve prioritisation discipline, AI capabilities progress with governance. By 12 months: Accountable for HR value stream performance, customers delegate meaningful outcomes, high‑performing product leadership team, trusted with enterprise customers, clear customer and commercial impact.

Skills & Experience

What Type of Leader We’re Looking For: You think in systems and outcomes, comfortable with ambiguity, see AI as a fundamental shift. Balance innovation with responsibility in regulated domains. Experience: 10+ years in product management including senior leadership roles in enterprise B2B software; strong exposure to HR, payroll, workforce or adjacent domains; experience delivering AI‑enabled or automation‑heavy products at scale; strong cross‑functional leadership and executive‑level communication skills.

Benefits & Culture

At [Employer hidden] we create market-leading HR & Payroll products and services. Our multi‑award‑winning products pay over five million employees a year, with almost half of the FTSE 100, 50% of top retailers and 30% of top universities in the UK & Ireland as customers. Benefits package includes: competitive base salary, 25 days annual leave plus birthday off and option to buy additional holiday, private medical insurance, life assurance 4x salary, enhanced pension scheme with company contributions up to 8.5%, and a huge range of additional flexible benefits.