HR Product Line Director

Job Purpose/Overview

• The Global Senior Director of Product Line – P&O will lead the strategy, development and lifecycle management of the digital product portfolio enabling People & Organisation capabilities across Mars. The role will translate P&O priorities into integrated digital roadmaps that improve Associate and people leader experiences, strengthen organisational effectiveness and deliver measurable business value.
• Partnering with P&O functional leaders, global process and experience owners, shared services leadership and Digital Technologies teams, the role will connect business capability needs with technology investment and execution.
• It will champion a product-led operating model, bringing together business, design, data and engineering capabilities around shared outcomes and sustained product ownership.
• The portfolio may encompass core people processes and data, talent acquisition and onboarding, talent and performance management, learning, reward, workforce planning, people analytics and digital Associate services. Final boundaries will be agreed with P&O and relevant platform and service owners.
• The Senior Director will combine P&O domain understanding with strategic product leadership, financial discipline and the ability to lead cross-functional teams.
• The role will balance enterprise standardisation with justified segment and local requirements, ensuring products are user-centred, secure, reliable and scalable.
• The role will also identify opportunities to simplify processes and apply automation, analytics and AI responsibly, in partnership with P&O, data, privacy, security and governance stakeholders.

Key Responsibilities

1. Product Strategy and Vision:

• Develop and communicate an integrated P&O digital product vision and strategy aligned with P&O priorities and enterprise business objectives.

• Translate business capability needs and Associate and people leader insights into outcome-based product strategies.

• Define and prioritise the portfolio using business value, user needs, risk, architectural fit, dependencies and available capacity.

• Assess functional and technology developments to identify opportunities for simplification, innovation and improved experiences.

2. Product Development and Roadmap:

• Establish an integrated, multi-year product roadmap connecting strategic priorities with delivery capacity and investment.

• Lead product discovery with P&O stakeholders and users to understand problems, test assumptions and define measurable outcomes.

• Lead product managers and work across design, engineering, architecture, data and service teams to execute the roadmap.

• Define product requirements and oversee development from discovery through launch, adoption and continuous improvement.

• Make dependencies, priorities and delivery trade-offs transparent, escalating decisions through agreed governance.

3. Product Lifecycle Management:

• Own lifecycle management of the P&O digital product portfolio, from initial discovery through development, operation, enhancement and retirement.

• Manage product investment and total cost of ownership, partnering with Finance and business owners on benefit realisation.

• Monitor product performance through measures covering adoption, experience, reliability, process effectiveness and cost.

• Partner with engineering and service operations teams to ensure clear operational ownership, support arrangements and service expectations.

• Reduce unnecessary product duplication, complexity and technical debt while maintaining business continuity.

4. Stakeholder Management and Governance:

• Build strong partnerships with P&O leadership, global process and experience owners, segment stakeholders and shared services teams.

• Align stakeholders around product outcomes, roadmap priorities, funding requirements and business readiness.

• Establish or participate in product councils and executive governance forums to resolve trade-offs and track value.

• Communicate product strategy, progress, risks and decisions clearly to business and technology audiences.

• Manage strategic technology supplier relationships in partnership with Commercial, Procurement and platform owners.

5. Team Leadership and Development:

• Build, lead and develop a product organisation with clear accountability for business outcomes and product performance.

• Coach product leaders and managers in discovery, prioritisation, roadmap management, stakeholder partnership and value measurement.

• Foster collaboration across product, engineering, design, data and service management disciplines.

• Establish clear roles, decision rights and interfaces with P&O process owners and other Digital Technologies teams.

• Create a culture of learning, experimentation, accountability and continuous improvement.

6. Business and Financial Acumen:

• Develop and manage portfolio budgets, forecasts and investment proposals, making costs, benefits and assumptions transparent.

• Link product investment to measurable outcomes such as improved Associate experience, process efficiency, service quality and workforce insight.

• Partner with P&O and Finance to establish benefit baselines, ownership and ongoing measurement.

• Balance investment in new capabilities with operational resilience, mandatory requirements and platform health.

• Evaluate build, buy, reuse and partnership options based on business fit, lifecycle cost, risk and enterprise standards.

7. Cross-Functional Collaboration and Adoption:

• Collaborate with P&O, segment technology leaders, shared services and enterprise platform teams to deliver integrated capabilities.

• Partner with Enterprise Architecture, Cybersecurity, Privacy, Legal and Data teams to embed relevant standards and controls throughout the product lifecycle.

• Align product delivery with process design, change management, communications, learning and operational readiness.

• Work with business owners to drive adoption and ensure new capabilities translate into sustained changes in ways of working.

• Support enterprise reuse while accommodating justified regulatory, statutory and local business requirements.

Key Knowledge/Experience

• Proven experience leading digital product portfolios and business capability development in P&O, human resources technology or a closely related enterprise domain.

• Substantial experience with enterprise people platforms, associated integrations and the delivery of end-to-end digital people experiences.

• Experience leading global transformation across multiple functions, regions or business segments.

• Leadership experience establishing and developing cross-functional product organisations.

• Strong understanding of product management, Agile delivery, DevOps and service management practices.

• Understanding of key P&O processes and the relationship between process design, people data, technology and service delivery.

• Experience managing sensitive people data requirements in partnership with privacy, security and legal specialists.

• Demonstrated ability to manage investment portfolios, articulate business cases and track measurable benefits.

• Strong communication, stakeholder partnership and change leadership skills.

• Ability to balance enterprise standardisation with local requirements and influence decisions across a complex organisation.

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