Head of Product, eCommerce

Springer Nature 

Job Title:   Head of Product eCommerce PPG

Location:    Berlin or London

Reports to: EVP Product and Platform Group

About the Springer Nature Group

Springer Nature opens the doors to discovery for researchers, educators, clinicians and other professionals. Every day, around the globe, our imprints, books, journals, platforms and technology solutions reach millions of people. For over 175 years our brands and imprints have been a trusted source of knowledge to these communities and today, more than ever, we see it as our responsibility to ensure that fundamental knowledge can be found, verified, understood and used by our communities – enabling them to improve outcomes, make progress, and benefit the generations that follow. 

Purpose of the Role  

The Head of Product, eCommerce will manage Springer Nature’s eCommerce Product, creating with direct top line responsibility to deliver to Springer Nature’s annual B2C and B2B online sale targets. This role will create and manage the roadmap to hit these targets in close coordination with different business areas within Springer Nature. 

The role will be both a strong individual contributor and team leader with the ability and desire to simultaneously think strategically, translate strategies to tactics and actions, and effectively execute on plans. This role will report to the EVP Product and Platform Group under the Chief Solutions Officer.

Responsibilities 

• Manage Springer Nature’s eCommerce Product actively using data and customer feedback. Define a roadmap that meets business requirements, continuously improves performance and delivers on team OKRs.

• Create and drive the eCommerce Product strategy to maximise online sales, conversion and margin contribution across Springer Nature content and solutions in close cooperation with the Business Owners. 

• Create a best-in-class eCommerce customer experience together with the UX and CX teams at Springer Nature.

• Drive cross-category cross sell / up sell based on commercial performance. 

• Provide strategic and data-backed original insights to continuously optimise the website (and online sales channels) in line with business goals. 

• Manage reporting on performance. Input into prioritisation of product roadmap based on rapid experimentation of new ideas and models (AB testing, bandit testing…) 

• Work with Marketing, Sales and other Springer Nature teams to contribute to broader commercial topics(pricing, promotions, bundling, upselling etc) in order to maximise revenue and margin whilst maintaining customer experience. 

• Work closely with Marketing and leadership team to hit digital traffic and conversion targets across: Paid Search, Paid Social, Organic Social, Email, Youtube, Organic Search, and other digital channels (e.g. affiliates)

• Works proactively and independently with Business Owners, stakeholders, partners and other Product Tribes and Engineering to create, own and execute a product strategy that blends commercial, editorial, technical and customer needs.

• Works with Product leadership to ensure that managed products are aligned to overall company product portfolio and strategy.

• Line manages a Product team, defining team OKRs, and helping them to develop core product management skills as well as providing regular support and guidance. Oversees product team members, their roles, their assignments, development, pay and performance. 

• Represent the Product Management discipline internally and externally for Springer Nature ensuring that SN keeps-up-to-date with the latest product management practice.

• Drives productive strategic stakeholder and senior management relationships and creates strategic alliances to ensure the product team can excel. 

Key Relationships

• Rest of PPG Peers

• Internal providers of solution and content (Research Solutions, Journals, Books,..)

• eCommerce Business Owner within Research Sales and Marketing (RSM)

• SN Digital and IT

• Legal

Experience, Skills & Qualifications

Experience

• Demonstrable experience in eCommerce, leading an eCommerce team as Head of eCommerce or Senior Product Manager in a consumer goods business, retail, or high volume transactional B2C business. 

• Demonstrable experience in Product Management, Agile methodologies (Scrum), OKRs, rapid prototyping and working with full stack squads to deliver relevant customer products.

• Experience working in fast paced organisations, managing uncertainty and balancing thinking strategically but also focusing on the detail to deliver tangible customer value

Skills

• Superior analytical and problem-solving skills, with a focus on attention to detail while delivering against tight deadlines

• Transparent towards stakeholders and willing to be held accountable for product performance, especially in terms of revenue 

• Customer obsessed, very experienced in talking to customers and using data and customer feedback to drive product strategy. 

• Experienced in using and configuring leading e-commerce platform (Shopify, etc), analytics platforms (GA4, Adobe Analytics, etc), different CSMs, etc

• Proven success in meeting product goals including quantitative, qualitative and commercial measures.

• Exposure to digital marketing, strategy, or finance with a focus on ecommerce

• Expert in stakeholder management, influencing and negotiation skills, able to facilitate timely decision making. 

• Demonstrable experience of managing products at different stages of the product lifecycle from inception to retirement.

• Experience of mentoring or line managing product teams or other digital disciplines. 

• Highest ethical standards, integrity, authenticity, credibility and character