Collinson Group is a global leader in driving loyalty and engagement for many of the world’s largest companies. Predominantly through the provision of travel related benefits within a market leading digital travel ecosystem. The group offers a unique blend of industry and sector specialists who together provide market-leading experience in delivering products and services across four core capabilities: Loyalty, Lifestyle Benefits and Insurance.

The group provides unrivalled insight and expertise around affluent consumers and frequent travellers, creating and delivering products and services now accessible to over 400m end consumers.

We have more than 25 years’ experience, with 28 global locations, servicing over 800 clients in 170 countries, employing 1,800 people.

We have been bringing innovation to the market since inception – from launching the first independent global VIP lounge access Programme, Priority Pass to being the first to sell direct travel insurance in the UK through Columbus Direct and creating the first loyalty agency of its kind in the travel sector with ICLP. Today we still invest heavily in innovation to ensure that we continue to deliver superior customer experiences.

Key clients include: Visa, Mastercard, American Express, Cathay Pacific, British Airways, LATAM, Flying Blue, Accor, EasyJet, HSBC, Chase, HDFC.

Our mission is focused on doing good beyond profit, which for us means we seek out opportunities for our people to share in our success and that we give back to the communities and people within which we work.

Never short of ambition, the success of our business is delivered through the diverse and talented team of over 1,800 colleagues globally.

What Does Vice President of Product Innovation Do:

The VP of Product Innovation establishes and drives the product innovation vision, mission, and development strategy across AD’s global network of airport experiences. The position will add value to AD through:

• Identifying AD’s new product innovation strategy and opportunities to differentiate by leveraging consumer research, insights and responding to changes in the marketplace that can drive scalable value
• Develop and a new product lifecycle and identify stakeholders and expertise that need to be involved and engaged in the development process
• Leading cross-functional collaboration workstreams to successfully incubate and operationalize AD’s new product innovations.
• Supporting new strategic partnerships that require product led innovation to drive success at scale
• Ensuring new product innovations are commercially viable by understanding the customer relevance, revenue and associated costs to ensure effort is directed towards profitable outcomes
• Championing the voice of our consumers and partners at a leadership level and across the organization to ensure our product strategy is customer-centric and insight led
• Providing success measures and developing reporting and dashboards that track success and can be used for continuous development throughout the innovation lifecycle.

The VP of Product Innovation is a collaborative leader with a sound understanding of product innovation and operational delivery. They are strategic with a focus on detail and ability to turn a product vision into operational and financial success. They have exceptional communication skills and recognize the importance of a strong team. The VP has the ability to quickly adapt to new responsibilities and situations. A leader who can navigate the situation with professionalism and identify solutions to problems quickly.

What You'll Do:

• Create a product innovation strategy roadmap that is targeted towards products that have customer relevance, market scale and commercial success.
• Create & implement business process that ensure the effectiveness of the innovation development lifecycle.
• Recommend resourcing allocation and requirements that set the innovation process for success and leverage third party expertise where needed.
• Collaborate with strategic partners to develop products and innovations that meet partner brands and objectives.
• Identify and direct external partners and agencies to ensure successful outcomes and value is derived from any third-party engagements.
• Provide reporting on initiatives, milestones achieved and key challenges and risks to project delivery.
• Allocate and advocate for budgets that will ensure successful delivery of objectives.
• Escalate project risks appropriately to allow for collaboration and resolution.
• Establish guest experience standards and expectations for each new innovation that can be used for effective training and execution.
• Monitor and report customer engagement performance ratings and implement strategic plans for improvements across AD network.
• Promote a culture of high performance and continuous improvement and a culture and way of working in keeping with AD’s company values.
• Position will be required to travel both domestically and international as required to support the product innovation roadmap. Expected travel at 20-30%.

What You'll Need: 

• A Strategic thinker, open to new perspectives and better ways to do things
• A creative visionary that can effectively put plans into action and manage innovation
• Able to demonstrate a genuine passion for product innovation accelerating go-to-market speed, challenging the status quo to drive creative solutions to remove delivery barriers.
• A strong understanding of all aspects of product growth and make data-informed, strategic decisions that deliver results and delight customers.
• Executive-level communication and influencing skills with the ability to resolve issues, build consensus among groups of diverse internal/external stakeholders, and have proven skill in negotiating and mediating conflict
• A minimum of 7 years’ experience in a senior leadership role with airport, airline or airline lounge guest experience responsibility.
• A growth leader who can make recommendations at pace, inspiring global teams and encouraging followership of a product vision and adopting a product growth mindset
• Energetic, flexible, collaborative, and proactive; a leader who can positively and productively impact both strategic and tactical initiatives.
• Comfortable working in a matrix international management structure
• Excellent decision-making skills with the ability to delegate tasks appropriately

You can look forward to a competitive salary and benefit plan including but not limited to:

• 100% employer paid medical, dental, life & LTD insurance for employees
• 100% match to your 401k deferrals (limited) with 100% vesting at 6 months
• Supplemental Insurance including STD, additional Life
• Priority Pass Membership
• Global Mentoring Program
• Wellness Programs
• Lifestyle Benefits

Collinson is an equal opportunity employer and welcomes differences in all their forms including: color, race, ethnicity, gender identity, sexual orientation, neurodivergence, family status, age, individuals with disabilities and people from all backgrounds, cultures and experiences as we strongly believe this contributes to our on-going success.

We are focused on continually evolving our purpose driven, high performing culture, providing an environment where our people have the opportunity to achieve their full potential and do interesting and meaningful work. Our company values are: Act smarter, Do the right thing, One team and Be insight led. These help guide everything we do internally in terms of how we think, act and interact, right through to how we deliver value to our customers and clients.

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

If you need any extra support throughout the interview process, then please email us at ushr@collinsongroup.com