Chief Product Officer

Shape the Future of the FT

Rarely does an opportunity arise to shape and drive the product strategy for a fast-growing, iconic media brand. Delivering high-quality news to our global audience has never been more critical, and in this role, you will be key in shaping how the FT continues to grow and deliver on its mission.

About the FT

The Financial Times is one of the world’s leading business news and information organisations, recognised globally for its authority, integrity, and accuracy. We have a well-established, growing B2B and B2C subscription business alongside an increasingly diverse set of products, with a global paying audience exceeding 2.8M and growing year on year.

At the FT, curiosity thrives, and ambitious thinking is rewarded. Together, we help audiences stay better informed and deepen their understanding of the world around them.

Our Product & Technology teams are integral to this success, driving us forward in an ever-evolving digital landscape. These teams deliver cutting-edge products to over one million digital subscribers daily, enabling our employees to do their jobs and our customers to enjoy highly engaging experiences of journalism. 

Collaboration with a 'products are partnerships' mindset is central to how we work, enabling alignment across departments and ensuring exceptional journalism. Supported by a diverse and dynamic group of product, tech, delivery, and data specialists, we build world-class tools that continue to drive our growth and success.

With a supportive culture, entrepreneurial spirit, and endless opportunities for growth, there are no limits to where your FT career can take you. Build a newsworthy career at the FT.

Our commitment to diversity, equity and inclusion 

We believe in the power of unique perspectives and want all voices in our organisation to be heard, respected and valued. A supportive workplace is one where employees feel they can be themselves and operate to their full potential. We are committed to removing barriers for everyone, with a focus on addressing those faced by underrepresented groups.

About the Role

We are looking for a Chief Product Officer with a proven track record of working alongside technology, data, editorial, and commercial departments. The successful candidate will excel at applying cross-departmental know-how and experience, with a bias for action and delivery. They will have the ability to determine how much product discovery is required and adapt approaches based on context using FT experience departments. Strong stakeholder engagement and management are critical, as is understanding the needs and perspectives of the editor and board members.

As the leader of a team of 80+ product managers, UX and design practitioners, customer researchers, and business analysts, you will oversee product management across the Financial Times Ltd portfolio. This includes FT.com, mobile apps, and FT Specialist products:FT Specialist.

Additionally, you will manage internal tools/products/capabilities such as our CMS, Editorial tools, Martech, CRM, and the underlying platforms. Your focus will be on ensuring the FT builds the right products and services to accelerate the growth of the Financial Times Group as well as our parent group, Nikkei. You will take mature products forward, build new products to drive growth, and recognise when to retire or close products that no longer align with our strategic objectives.

This role reports  to the Chief Product and Technology Officer and is part of a senior leadership team responsible for all Product and Technology at the FT, covering everything from laptops and WiFi through to cyber security, data, software and product development.

It is a truly global role—you will have team members in London, in the UK, and Sofia in Bulgaria, and work with engineers in Manila in the Philippines. You will also work closely with our colleagues at our parent company, Nikkei.

In this role, you will shape the FT’s long-term success by ensuring the delivery of impactful products aligned with editorial and commercial business goals and strategies.

Main Responsibilities

• Bring a creative and pragmatic approach to the work. We need to be inventive, adaptive, and pragmatic about how we achieve a big impact with lean teams. This will include resolving conflict, adaptable prioritisation, and recognising how and when decision-making authority may change.
• Act as a trusted partner to Editorial and Commercial teams, ensuring alignment of the product strategy to the overall editorial and company strategy, and building strong cross-departmental trust to deliver shared objectives and growth for the FT.
• Lead, develop, and inspire empowered teams of product, design, business analysts, and research professionals to ensure product solutions, throughout their full lifecycle, achieve business outcomes and improve the quality of user experience of the FT.
• Further embed and refine an operating model premised on a ‘products are partnerships’ principle, building collaboration and trust across multiple teams and departments, including cross-departmental decision-making to improve transparency and alignment.
• As an enterprise leader with an understanding of the news industry and whole business, you will bring a long-term perspective to investment decisions and product strategies.
• Communicate using a range of skills to tailor to audiences, including written/verbal, and the ability to explain technical and domain-specific information to a range of audiences.
• Continue to build a diverse, inclusive, and collaborative culture that welcomes everyone.

This role involves travel—it is critical that our global teams are fully supported. We share travel responsibilities among the senior team to ensure we balance the requirement to spend time with team members and the importance we place on our home lives.

You will have…

Skills and Expertise:

• Strong commercial acumen, with experience in building a subscription business, with expertise in both B2B and B2C subscription business models being advantageous. 
• Familiarity with digital ads business models is advantageous
• Demonstrable knowledge of balancing multi-revenue business models effectively.
• Advanced influencing and negotiation skills, with proven experience managing budgets and creating compelling business cases

Experience:

• Experience in digital ads business models is helpful, but vital is demonstrable knowledge of how to ensure a multi-revenue business model is successfully balanced.
• Proven experience managing niche products with lean, cross-functional teams across editorial, product, tech, and commercial disciplines.
• Ability to adopt a pragmatic approach to the development of smaller products.
• Solid understanding of tools required to support newsroom and commercial operations.
• Extensive experience using data to inform decision-making in high-growth environments.
• In-depth knowledge of the entire product lifecycle, from insights/analysis to roadmap development, UX/UI design, and delivery.
• A track record of leading high-performing, empowered teams in fast-paced, global environments.
• Success working with dispersed product and technology teams.

What’s in it for You? Our Benefits

Our benefits vary by location, but we are committed to providing best-in-class perks across all our offices. These include:

• Generous annual leave
• Comprehensive medical cover
• Inclusive parental leave packages
• Subsidised gym memberships
• Opportunities to give back to the community

Full details of our benefits are available here

We’ve embraced a hybrid working model that promotes flexibility, including remote work options. We will support specific flexibility requests for all roles where feasible.

Accessibility

We are a Disability Confident employer and a Valuable 500 signatory.

Please let us know if you require any reasonable adjustments or personalisation as part of the application process or to enable you to attend an interview. If you would like to discuss your requirements or have any questions, email talent@ft.com, and a member of our team will be happy to help.

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