Director of Product, Merchandising & Trip Planning

Director of Product, Merchandising & Trip Planning

As Director of Product – Merchandising & Trip Planning, you will lead the Connected Trip Merchandising (CTM) and Trip Planning product organization within Marketplace Product Experience, owning the 18‑month direction for how  merchandises cross‑sell recommendations, promotions and next‑best‑actions and helps travellers plan, shape and manage end‑to‑end trips — turning fragmented, surface‑specific merchandising and a standalone planning experience into one shared, trip‑aware decisioning and planning layer.

Operating at Product Director scope, you are responsible for multiple product groups (Home Screen, the Unified Merchandising System, Cross‑sell, and the end‑to‑end Trip Planning experience), accountable for customer impact, business impact and Product Quality / Excellence, and a key player in Marketplace's Commercial Levers strategy.

• Own the merchandising and trip planning strategy for Connected Trip and set a clear 18‑month direction, translating company, Marketplace and Commercial Levers strategy into an aligned portfolio direction with sharp trade‑offs.
• Define the strategic narrative and sequencing of major bets across Home Screen composition, the Unified Merchandising System, AI‑driven recommendations, and the end‑to‑end Trip Planning experience.
• Own department‑level outcomes and a measurable performance narrative using Connected Trip outcomes (incremental multi‑vertical attach, recommendation engagement, trip‑level success) and shared Commercial Levers economics (incrementality, iROI, contribution margin, CPiMVT), linked to financials and investment decisions.

• Lead the organization across multiple product groups, driving 18‑month planning and resource allocation while balancing short‑term commercial delivery with long‑term capability investments.
• Ensure delivery excellence and raise the bar on product quality — reliability, maintainability, compliance, cost efficiency, operational health, recommendation explainability and adherence to NFRs at scale.
• Lead the migration from fragmented, legacy rendering into the Unified Merchandising System, with Trip Planning as the first strategic use case, ensuring capabilities are operationally ready and duplicated logic is deprecated.

• Partner with Engineering leadership on multi‑year architectural investment decisions shaping the Unified Merchandising System, the Recommendations stack and the Trip Object / Trip Platform within the broader Connected Trip platform.
• Connect merchandising and trip planning into the commercial operating model — partnering with incentives and AI/ML decisioning leaders, participating in the weekly trading rhythm, and contributing to cross‑lever arbitration when levers compete for the same traveller, surface or moment.
• Lead complex cross‑BU initiatives where merchandising and trip planning intersect with Search, the verticals, Genius / loyalty and platform teams, and represent the area in VP / SVP‑level forums with clear options and decision requests.

• Develop leaders, design and evolve the organization structure (including integrating trip planning teams), and hire, coach and performance‑manage senior PMs and GPMs for strong team and portfolio health.
• Lead as a true people manager with clear delegation and direct feedback, and contribute beyond core scope to Marketplace PX, Connected Trip and the wider PM craft.

• Own the Home Screen as the trip‑aware first interaction point and “traffic controller”, directing travellers to Trip Planning, broad discovery or vertical funnels based on need and intent.
• Own the Unified Merchandising System as a single, AI‑first, reusable capability that replaces fragmented rendering, and the Recommendations engine that ope rationalises “next best action” across non‑search surfaces using the Trip Object and Traveller Intelligence as standard inputs.
• Make cross‑sell recommendations trip‑aware, explainable and consistent across surfaces, and integrate incentives and…