Head of Product Operations and Support
5 days ago
London
Head of Product Operations and Support A leading global provider of new generation IT solutions to the global Travel, Transportation and Logistics industries is looking for a Head of Product Operations and Support. The role reports to the Chief Customer Officer. The Head of Product Operations and Support is a key leadership role responsible for establishing, managing, and scaling high-performing global support and operations functions. The role entails defining operational strategies, fostering service delivery excellence, driving support automation and ensuring a superior customer experience across all products and services that support mission-critical business operations in the aviation, cruise and hospitality industries worldwide. While the IT Operations team under the CTO manages 24x7 cloud infrastructure operations, this is a complimentary role focused on application-related support. Currently, Product Operations and Support functions operate within individual product lines. This role is part of an effort to consolidate these into a centralized function. The consolidated team will be responsible for all application-layer support activities, including platform-related issues, production incident management, performance monitoring, L2/L3 issue resolution and end-user ticket handling. Key Responsibilities: Support Strategy and Operations Setup - Design the global support operations framework, covering incident management, service request handling, L2/L3 models and escalation handling. - Establish and manage a 24x7 global support structure including regional support teams, tools, processes and SLAs. - Define operating models for product support, including interfaces with Cloud Operations, Product, Engineering, Delivery and Customer Success teams. - Drive operational efficiency in all dimensions - consolidation of activities, usage of tools, new models based on AI. People and Process Leadership - Build and lead a high-performing team of support managers, operations analysts and technical specialists. - Define and institutionalize SOPs, playbooks, onboarding frameworks, shift models and knowledge management systems. - Drive operational excellence using ITIL or equivalent service management frameworks. Customer Experience and Escalation Management - Ensure responsive and technically sound support experience for all customer segments. - Serve as a senior escalation point for critical issues impacting customer business, both internally and externally. - Work closely with Customer Success to track and improve CSAT, NPS and incident resolution metrics. Tools, Automation & Data - Lead evaluation and implementation of support platforms (e.g., ServiceNow, Jira Service Desk). - Implement monitoring, alerting and proactive issue detection systems to reduce reactive support. - Drive automation of repeatable processes to reduce MTTR (mean time to resolution) and increase efficiency. Governance, Reporting & Stakeholder Communication - Develop governance frameworks including service performance reviews, RCA tracking and compliance reporting. - Own operational dashboards, SLA/KPI reporting and executive-level updates. - Work cross-functionally with Cloud Operations, Product, Engineering, and Delivery to ensure timely feedback loops and resolution. Continuous Improvement and Innovation - Identify operational gaps and drive continuous improvement programs. - Introduce the best practices from SaaS/enterprise product support and global operations. - Stay current with industry trends in support automation, self-service and AI-driven support models. Mandatory Requirements: - 15+ years of experience in leading support/operations roles in enterprise SaaS or technology environments. - Familiarity with cloud-based environments (AWS) and observability platforms. - Background in managing support across hybrid or multi-tenant platforms. - Proven experience in building and scaling global support teams and operational processes. - Expertise in support tooling, incident/problem/change management and SLA/KPI frameworks. - Strong customer focus with a deep understanding of service delivery in a mission-critical business context. - Operational efficiency improvement through usage of tools including AI driven models - Exceptional leadership, communication and stakeholder management skills. Desirable Skills: - Exposure to the aviation, logistics or travel technology sectors. - Certifications in ITIL, PMP, or equivalent service and project management methodologies. - Experience in DevOps/SRE environments with close coordination with engineering and QA. Practicalities: - Flexible Location. - Competitive Package. - International travel required. TPBN1_UKTJ