Lead Product Manager

About the company

At Kpler, we are dedicated to helping our clients navigate complex markets with ease. By simplifying global trade information and providing valuable insights, we empower organisations to make informed decisions in commodities, energy, and maritime sectors.

Since our founding in 2014, we have focused on delivering top-tier intelligence through user-friendly platforms. Our team of over 700 experts from 35+ countries works tirelessly to transform intricate data into actionable strategies, ensuring our clients stay ahead in a dynamic market landscape. Join us to leverage cutting-edge innovation for impactful results and experience unparalleled support on your journey to success.

Your tasks

This role holds the middle of Maritime & Logistics together. It line-manages the product people across two platform crews, AIS Network and Risk & Compliance and the Senior Product Managers running five sector lines: Automotive, Container Intelligence, Insurance, Fisheries and Cruise Liners. On top of that, it carries individual-contributor ownership of two further crews: Maritime Distribution and Maritime Models (Analytics).

Both halves are the job, and they are deliberately held by one person. The platform crews produce the vessel, position and risk data the sector lines sell; the sector lines generate the demand the platform has to meet. Holding both sides is how Kpler keeps the verticals honest about what the data can actually support, and keeps the platform honest about what the verticals need next.

It suits someone who can manage product managers and still ship: set direction across seven product areas, make the trade-offs between them explicit, and keep two crews of their own on a predictable cadence.

Lead and grow the product team. Line-manage the Senior Product Managers across Automotive, Container Intelligence, Insurance, Fisheries and Cruise Liners, and the product people on AIS Network and Risk & Compliance. Hire, coach, set objectives and run performance conversations.

Set direction across the portfolio. Agree a 6–12 month direction for each line, and make the trade-offs between them explicit when they compete for the same platform work.

Own Maritime Distribution end to end, as an individual contributor. Strategy, roadmap, delivery and release, with a healthy backlog and a predictable cadence.

Own Maritime Models (Analytics) end to end, as an individual contributor. Strategy, roadmap, delivery and release, including the analytic outputs other lines depend on.

Hold the platform–vertical seam. Make sure AIS Network and Risk & Compliance deliver the coverage, refresh and risk signals the sector lines are built on, and that the sector lines declare what they need with enough notice to be built.

Guard methodology and data credibility. One definition per shared concept, reused across lines rather than re-invented per sector, with claims traceable to a number before they reach a customer.

Sequence the shared roadmap. Decide what gets built and in what order when verticals compete for the same platform capacity, and escalate to the VP rather than letting two Senior PMs trade favours.

Take releases to market. Work with Product Marketing, Sales and Customer Success across the lines in scope on positioning, packaging, pricing input and launch.

Represent Product to the BU and to Engineering. Keep the VP and BU leadership informed on roadmap trade-offs, delivery risk, resourcing and market feedback.

Build the bench. Make sure no line depends on one person's head, and that there is a credible successor behind each Senior PM seat.

Requirements

Experience & Background Essential:

• Bachelor's degree or equivalent professional experience. A qualification in maritime studies, supply chain or logistics, or transport economics is an advantage.
• 8–12 years in product management in B2B data, analytics or SaaS, including time at senior level owning products that customers adopt
• Line management of product managers: hiring, coaching, objective-setting and honest performance conversations
• Running a portfolio with several products or crews at once and making the trade-offs between them explicit
• Data-heavy products: sources, pipelines, suppliers and technical dependencies, and what they mean for a roadmap
• Comfortable being both a manager and a practitioner; this role still carries delivery of its own
• Maritime, shipping or trade intelligence: AIS, vessel and ownership data, ports and terminals

Desirable

• Experience spanning both a data platform and the verticals built on top of it
• Standing up a new product line as well as growing a mature one
• Data-supplier evaluation and sourcing decisions at contract scale
• Exposure to risk, compliance or sanctions screening products

Skills & Competencies Technical / Functional Skills:

• Portfolio prioritisation across competing lines, and roadmap sequencing under constraint
• Product discovery and backlog ownership being hands-on, not only supervising
• Working with data and engineering teams on data-product delivery
• Go-to-market planning: positioning, packaging and pricing input
• Maritime and trade data concepts: AIS, MMSI coverage and refresh rate, port and berth calls, voyage legs
• Jira, Confluence, and Productboard

Behavioural Competencies

• Develops people: gives direct feedback and grows product managers into larger scope
• Decisive: makes trade-offs, says no, and explains the reasoning
• Holds a line under commercial pressure without becoming an obstacle
• Clear written and verbal communication, technical and commercial, internal and external
• Pragmatic bias to action