Head of Product, Core Journeys

About Safeguard Global: We enable global expansion without the risk. 

Safeguard Global has been at the forefront of global workforce enablement since we pioneered centralised global payments in 2008 and launched the employer of record (EOR) category globally in 2010. And we haven't stopped there. 

Today, with our 500+ in-country HR experts, cutting-edge technology, and comprehensive solutions, we've helped over 2,000 organisations hire, recruit, pay, and manage employees in 170+ countries. 

Because we created this category, we've learned that successful global expansion isn't driven by technology alone. It requires deep global expertise. We call this the marriage of expert and technology, human when it matters. 

This means we have the people and the technology to ensure 100% compliance with local, regional, national, and international laws. Together, this ethos and our solutions portfolio allow businesses to scale up or down wherever, however, and whenever they want to expand, without the risk. 

Overview of the role 

We're looking for a Head of Product, Core Journeys to lead the platform experience across our core client journey, from hiring a worker through to invoicing for them. 

The role is accountable for the platform experience, delivery, and outcome achievement across the core transactional workflows. You'll translate that target experience, combined with the product strategies set by the Directors of Product into a prioritised order of work; leading the product managers who deliver it and ensuring we deliver on business and customer experience objectives. 

What you will be responsible for 

Platform experience 

• Own the end-to-end platform experience across the core client journey, including the transitions between one part of the platform and the next 

• Identify where the experience is failing clients and set the plan to correct it 

• Own regulatory and compliance obligations as product requirements within your area, working with legal, tax, and the in-country teams so that they are designed in rather than retrofitted 

Prioritisation and roadmap 

• Translate the platform strategy and commercial priorities into a prioritised order of work for your area 

• Feed that prioritisation into the single prioritised roadmap owned by the SVP, Product 

• Recommend what is built, what is deferred, and what is retired within your area, and secure agreement with the SVP, Product and the Directors of Product 

• Build the case for significant investment, including the value expected, the payback, and the trade-off against the alternatives 

• Work with the Directors of Product to sequence commercial priorities in a way the platform can deliver 

Delivery 

• Hold accountability for delivery against commitment, on time and to the quality bar set in the definition of done 

• Work hand in hand with engineering and design leadership, from the earliest shaping of an idea through to release, so that trade-offs between client need, technical feasibility, and cost are made together 

• Work with sales, marketing, customer success, finance, and legal so that what we build is understood, sellable, supportable, and compliant on the day it launches 

• Identify and resolve delivery risk early, including teams that are blocked, unclear, or behind 

• Manage dependencies within your area and into the connected experience areas 

Customer insight and product performance 

• Build the relationships, with clients and with internal teams, that sustain a continuous understanding of customer and internal pain points, and of the opportunities they point to 

• Ground product decisions in client insight, usage data, and market evidence 

• Raise the standard of discovery and validation across your teams 

• Define the expected outcome for each investment and own the value delivered against it 

• Own platform NPS and adoption for the core journey, and act on the results 

• Act as the product expert in senior client and prospect conversations, and represent the platform externally where it helps us win and keep clients 

Team leadership 

• Line manage the product managers within your area 

• Set clear expectations, give direct feedback, and address performance issues early 

• Work with each product manager to understand their individual development needs, and take a coaching approach to growing their capability 

• Drive AI adoption where it creates the best outcome, recognising that it serves some tasks well and others poorly, and help the product team keep pace with how the role of product is rapidly changing 

What will give you an advantage 

• Eight or more years in product, including at least five leading people 

• Proven experience leading product managers in a B2B SaaS or platform business, ideally where several teams contribute to a single client experience 

• Experience owning a multi-team product area end to end, with accountability for both delivery and the value delivered 

• A record of defining the expected value of an investment up front and evidencing what was realised 

• Knowledge of the HR industry is preferred but not critical 

• Experience of building products in a regulated environment, where compliance shapes what can be built 

• Enough technical depth to hold a credible conversation with engineering leadership on architecture, platform scalability, and data 

• A demonstrable record of developing product managers 

• Experience leading globally distributed teams across multiple countries and time zones 

Primary performance metrics 

• Delivery: commitments delivered on time and to quality 

• Business impact: value delivered against the outcomes committed at the point of investment 

• Experience: platform NPS 

• Adoption: adoption of the core journey, from hiring to invoicing 

Baselines and annual targets are set with the SVP, Product at the start of each financial year. 

Competencies 

• Product judgement: makes clear recommendations on scope, sequencing, and trade-offs that hold up over time 

• Strategic thinking: sets a direction for the platform that connects client need, market direction, and commercial goals 

• Systems thinking: designs the journey around what matters most to the customer, and focuses only on the work that delivers value 

• Delivery leadership: maintains a predictability and quality bar across multiple teams without becoming a bottleneck 

• Communication: strong written and verbal communicator at all levels of the organisation, from SLT to team 

• People development: understands what each individual needs and coaches them to grow 

• Influencing: aligns commercial, engineering, and design leadership around a single sequence of work without direct authority 

• Commercial judgement: determines what is worth building next, and evidences the case 

Key personal attributes 

• Grit and determination: moves work forward despite obstacles, and does not give up easily 

• Curiosity: actively seeks out different points of view, customer needs, and the problems worth solving 

• A leader and a doer: operates strategically while staying close to the detail 

• Warm, open, honest, and fun to work with