VP Product

Job description

At Checkatrade, our north star is Powering Great Work — transforming the landscape for trades, consumers, and the next generation of skilled workers. As our next VP Product, you’ll have the mandate to shape what that mission looks like in practice. This is a rare chance to own product strategy and execution at one of the UK’s most recognised home services brands — reporting directly to the CEO, working at the intersection of consumer experience, trade-side tooling, marketplace dynamics, and AI. The foundations are strong. The opportunity ahead is enormous. Forget long lists, here’s what you’ll actually spend your time on: - Setting and owning the multi-year product vision and roadmap — translating Checkatrade’s growth ambitions into a clear, prioritised strategy that the whole business can get behind. - Leading, coaching and growing all Product Managers across the business — building a culture of ownership, curiosity, and pace, and creating the conditions for PMs to do their best work. - Driving rigorous prioritisation and planning — balancing short-term commercial impact with long-term platform investment, and keeping the organisation moving at pace. - Leading the integration of AI and machine learning across the product — from search and matching to personalisation and automation — identifying where these tools can genuinely unlock step-change improvements in experience and efficiency. - Partnering closely with Marketing, Engineering, Design, Data, and Commercial teams to make sure product decisions are grounded in real user needs and real business outcomes. - Representing the product function in board and investor conversations — communicating roadmap, progress, and trade-offs with clarity and confidence. It’s not about ticking every box. It’s about turning up curious, ready to crack on. You’ll do well here if you bring: - A solid background in senior product leadership — you’ve owned product direction end-to-end and built high-performing PM teams from the ground up. - Proven experience in a two-sided marketplace or platform business — you understand supply and demand dynamics, network effects, and what it actually takes to grow a marketplace. - Demonstrable experience building and shipping AI-powered product features — from concept through to production, with a clear view on where the technology adds genuine value versus noise. - Strong commercial acumen and the ability to connect product decisions to revenue, retention, and growth — combined with exceptional communication skills that work equally well with a cross-functional team or a board room. We believe great work deserves great rewards. Here’s just a taste: - Competitive salary + annual bonus - Employee Share Programme - Health, well-being and learning support - Gym membership, Smart Tech Scheme and Cycle Scheme - Birthday/Special day leave - Buy & sell holiday scheme - 1 week’s paid charity leave and much more! How we’ll get to know each other: - Screening call with Laura Scott, Talent Acquisition - 45 minute interview with Jambu Palanippan (CEO - 120 minute (split in two) Scenario based interview with Ashley Bartley (Chief People Officer, Gabriella Overeem (VP, Consumer), Gorden Pretorius (Chief Technology Officer), Mickael Barjoud (VP, Leads) - Final stage interview incl case study presentation with Jambu Palaniappan (CEO), Ashley Bartley (Chief People Officer), Mathieu Proust (Chief Operating Officer), and Gorden Pretorius (Chief Technology Officer) Need sponsorship to work in the UK? We can support Skilled Worker visa applications for this role. If this sounds like the place where you can do your best work, we’d love to hear from you, even if you don’t tick every box. Want to join our Talent Community and be one of the first to know about our vacancies? Register your interest on our Registration Form https://jobs.ashbyhq.com/checkatrade/form/register-interest About us We’re Checkatrade – the UK’s leading platform for finding a tradesperson. With more than 50,000 trades listed and over 6 million reviews, we help homeowners get jobs done right and help tradespeople grow their business. We’re growing fast, with big plans to become the go-to brand for home improvements. If you care about great work, take pride in the details, and want to make an impact, you’ll fit right in.