Principal Product Lead (CX)

About Autotrader

You’ve probably heard of Autotrader, but do you know what we’re all about?  

We're the most trusted, most visited automotive marketplace in the UK. A heritage brand and a tech innovator. We bring together vehicle buyers and sellers to give them real choices. Cars may be what we're best known for but we’re also the place for pretty much everything else on wheels, from e-bikes to caravans.

In the automotive world, change is a constant, that’s why we take our job of untangling the complex car-buying journey very seriously. 
 
At our core, we’re all about people. We go our own way while embracing diversity and celebrating our differences. We dedicate ourselves to the idea that we work better together. 

Autotrader is a beautiful, surprising and vibrant place to work. We might not be for everyone, but we could be perfect for you. 

About the Role

The Principal Product Lead (CX) owns the strategy and delivery of Autotrader's customer experience tooling and internal product capability. Working across cross-functional teams, you will deliver quality interactions between consumers, customers, and colleagues through best-in-class technology, process design, and evidence-led product thinking.

This role sits at the intersection of CX strategy, internal product development, and platform optimization, balancing off-the-shelf platform capability (such as CRM, ticketing, and contact centre) with bespoke internal product development where business needs are unique. Sitting within Product & Technology, you will work in close partnership with Sales, Operations, Finance, Marketing, and commercial teams. A strong awareness of overall business priorities and building trusted relationships with senior leaders is essential.

What you’ll do 

CX Tooling Strategy & Platform Ownership

• Own the ongoing strategy and roadmap for Autotrader's CX tooling estate, including our off-the-shelf CRM, ticketing, messaging, and telephony platforms alongside supporting internal tools.
• Ensure platform capability is continuously aligned to evolving customer, consumer, and colleague needs.
• Lead platform optimisation initiatives, balancing off-the-shelf capabilities against custom builds, including working with third parties to evaluate opportunities and risks.
• Build maintain, share, and socialise a principled approach to enable overall business transformation.

Internal Product Development

• Directly lead the development and adaptation of custom internal product capabilities for activities not serviced by off-the-shelf tooling.
• Define and prioritise an internal product roadmap that reflects genuine business need, evidenced through data and stakeholder input.
• Champion product management discipline across internal tooling, ensuring teams focus on proactive, outcome-oriented roadmaps over reactive backlog management.

Cross-Functional Process & Experience Design

• Review and help redesign cross-functional processes supporting customer experiences and interactions, ensuring they are efficient, effective, well-supported by technology, and easy to report on.
• Work closely with operations, sales, finance, and marketing teams to ensure technology and process changes land well operationally.
• Apply service design principles to ensure high quality of experience across consumer, customer, and colleague touchpoints.

What We’re Looking For

• Proven experience leading product strategy and platform delivery across internal tools, enterprise platforms, or CX technology estates (e.g., CRM, ticketing, telephony, contact centres).
• Demonstrated capability in balancing off-the-shelf software solutions with bespoke internal product development (buy vs. build decisions).
• Strong track record applying service design and evidence-led product thinking to complex cross-functional business processes.
• Excellent senior stakeholder engagement skills, with experience working alongside Sales, Operations, Finance, and Marketing teams.
• A passion for championing the Product discipline, elevating teams from reactive backlog execution to outcome-driven roadmaps.

Benefits and more

We’re offering a salary of £90k+ plus an additional 10% of your salary awarded to you in shares each year. These awarded shares will become yours in yearly instalments over the next three years, and you can choose to either sell them or keep them as shares. And you'll receive 28 days holiday, plus bank holidays and comprehensive private medical cover. 

That’s not all. You'll be enrolled in our pension scheme, where our standard contributions are 7% and employee contributions are 5%. We also have comprehensive private medical cover, enhanced family leave provisions, a car salary sacrifice scheme, share-save options, and much more.  

We always want to give you the support you need and help prioritise your wellbeing, that’s why we provide access to 24/7 online GP and dentist, as well as specialist support for assisted fertility, gender dysphoria, menopause, period care plans and lots more.  

On top of all that, our hybrid model, Connected Working, combines the best of both worlds – office and home working. You'll spend a minimum of 3 days a week in the office with your team, focused on collaboration and connection.

Additionally, we have our remote-first periods at set times during summer and winter. During these periods, you can work remotely anywhere in the UK and from certain locations abroad.

Discover more about our journey by watching the video version here or reading the Medium blog post here to see to see how our ways of working have evolved.

 

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