Senior Product Lead (New car advertising products)

About Autotrader 

You’ve probably heard of Autotrader, but do you know what we’re all about?   

We're the most trusted, most visited automotive marketplace in the UK. A heritage brand and a tech innovator. We bring together vehicle buyers and sellers to give them real choices. Cars may be what we're best known for but we’re also the place for pretty much everything else on wheels, from e-bikes to caravans. 

In the automotive world, change is a constant, that’s why we take our job of untangling the complex car-buying journey very seriously.  
  
At our core, we’re all about people. We go our own way while embracing diversity and celebrating our differences. We dedicate ourselves to the idea that we work better together.  

Autotrader is a beautiful, surprising and vibrant place to work. We might not be for everyone, but we could be perfect for you.  

About the Role 

Autotrader’s marketplace helps thousands of sellers advertise, promote, and sell stock to the largest car-buying audience in the UK, while supporting millions of buyers to find and buy their next car safely. It is an area that is evolving rapidly and increasingly being shaped by AI, as consumers search in new ways and as we integrate Autotrader Intelligence into the core of our user experience. It is the engine that drives the commercial performance of our business, delivering £500m+ in revenue through advertising, transactional, and data products. 

A two-sided marketplace naturally creates a healthy, dynamic tension between buyer and seller priorities. Navigating this complexity and striking the optimal balance is a central requirement of this role, including: 

• Delivering a market-leading experience for car buyers. 

• Ensuring advertising products deliver clear value and return on investment for sellers. 

• Maximising commercial opportunities for Autotrader with careful consideration for both buyers and sellers. 

As a Senior Product Lead in New Car Advertising Products within our Marketplace community, you will own the advertising products we offer to our partners (new car manufacturers, like Ford, Tesla and BYD). This is an area of strategic importance for Autotrader as we diversify our revenue outside of our core used car business, and the opportunity is growing with more new brands looking to enter the UK (mostly from China). 

Examples of products that sit in within New Car Advertising Products:

• Lead generation products that deliver high-intent buyers to manufacturers.   

• Awareness raising products that support integrated campaigns (i.e. new model launch).  
• Stock based products that allow brands and retailers to advertise physical new car inventory.  

What you’ll Do 

• Lead the strategic planning process for your product domain, setting a clear direction, coherent vision, and outcome-driven roadmap. Communicate this effectively across business stakeholders. 

• Use quantitative data, qualitative user research, and your product intuition to make high-impact prioritisation calls. 

• Work collaboratively with cross-functional engineering, UX, data science, and commercial teams to iteratively deliver value. 

• Navigate complex cross-functional relationships, creating aligning across teams and ensuring smooth go to market delivery.  

• Role-model product excellence, mentoring more junior Product Leads and Product Analysts, and contributing to the wider Product & Technology (P&T) community at Autotrader. 

What we’re looking for 

• Strong experience leading product strategy and execution in a scaled digital marketplace, e-commerce, or SaaS platform. 

• Proven commercial acumen with accountability for revenue, P&L, or key commercial outcomes. 

• Experience managing two-sided marketplace dynamics and balancing buyer/seller priorities. 

• Familiarity leveraging data, experimentation, and using emerging technology (e.g., AI/ML capabilities) to optimise for conversation and enhance product experiences. 

• Collaborative communicator who can align technical teams, commercial partners, and senior leadership. 

• Curiosity and adaptability with regards to how AI is changing how teams build and deliver products.  

Benefits  

We’re offering a salary of £65,000 - £90,000  plus an additional 10% of your salary awarded to you in shares each year. These awarded shares will become yours in yearly instalments over the next three years, and you can choose to either sell them or keep them as shares. And you'll receive 28 days holiday, plus bank holidays and comprehensive private medical cover.  

That’s not all. You'll be enrolled in our pension scheme, where our standard contributions are 7% and employee contributions are 5%. We also have comprehensive private medical cover, enhanced family leave provisions, a car salary sacrifice scheme, share-save options, and much more.   

We always want to give you the support you need and help prioritise your wellbeing, that’s why we provide access to 24/7 online GP and dentist, as well as specialist support for assisted fertility, gender dysphoria, menopause, period care plans and lots more.   

On top of all that, our hybrid model, Connected Working, combines the best of both worlds – office and home working. You'll spend a minimum of 3 days a week in the office with your team, focused on collaboration and connection. 

Additionally, we have our remote-first periods at set times during summer and winter. During these periods, you can work remotely anywhere in the UK and from certain locations abroad. 

Discover more about our journey by watching the video version here or reading the Medium blog post here to see to see how our ways of working have evolved.

 

#LI-CI1

#LI-Hybrid