We are seeking a Product Director for HR to define and lead the strategy, delivery, and end‑to‑end success of Zellis’ HR product portfolio. This role is accountable for customer outcomes, commercial performance, and long‑term value creation, shaping a compelling, compliant, and commercially successful AI‑first HR proposition for large, complex organisations across multiple markets.
Reporting to the Chief Product Officer, you will lead product managers and operate as the portfolio owner for HR, with accountability that spans product, technology, delivery, and go‑to‑market outcomes. You will work in close partnership with Engineering, Design, Compliance, Commercial, and Customer teams, operating with high autonomy in an environment of ambiguity —setting direction, making explicit trade‑offs, and translating customer, regulatory, and commercial needs into focused product and investment bets.
Key Responsibilities
Lead the HR portfolio as a long‑lived value stream, aligning product, technology, delivery, and go‑to‑market efforts around clearly owned outcomes rather than projects or components.
Product Strategy & Vision
Define and own the HR product vision and multi‑year strategy, with a clear view of how AI and automation are reshaping HR work. Set coherent direction across core HR capabilities, employee lifecycle journeys, data, integrations, and intelligent automation. Translate strategy into outcome‑focused roadmaps that evolve as customer needs and constraints change.
AI‑Enabled Product Innovation
Lead the shift from workflow‑driven features to intent‑led HR capabilities, enabling customers to delegate outcomes rather than operate systems. Define where AI and automation can safely take responsibility, and where explicit human control must remain. Ensure intelligent capabilities are designed with explainability, safeguards, governance, and escalation paths from the outset.
Enterprise Customer Outcomes
Act as the senior product voice for enterprise HR needs, including scale, security, governance, and complex organisational structures. Engage directly with customers to validate problems, test direction, and assess post‑launch outcomes. Partner with Sales, Customer Success, and Implementation to support strategic accounts, major deals, and renewals.
Delivery & Execution Leadership
Lead and coach product managers to move confidently from ambiguity to execution. Ensure strong product discovery, clear problem definition, great user experience, and outcome‑driven delivery across HR product areas. Own prioritisation, sequencing, and scope decisions across competing demands.
Commercial & Portfolio Leadership
Own the commercial success of the HR portfolio, including growth, retention, and long‑term value creation. Shape value propositions, packaging, and differentiation for enterprise HR buyers, and partner with Product Marketing on positioning, launches, and sales enablement.
Make explicit prioritisation and investment trade‑offs to maximise customer and commercial impact, and represent the HR portfolio in leadership forums, portfolio reviews, and investment decisions with clear accountability for outcomes.
What Success Looks Like
- You set clear strategic direction for the HR product portfolio and align senior stakeholders behind priorities and trade‑offs.
- You are recognised as the credible senior product authority for enterprise HR and AI‑enabled capability.
- You establish strong cross‑functional relationships and set clear expectations for senior product managers.
- You have turned complex customer and commercial needs into a small number of high‑impact product bets with clear outcomes.
- Prioritisation discipline has improved, increasing delivery focus and reducing noise. Product leaders operate with greater autonomy and stronger outcome ownership
- AI‑enabled capabilities progress with clear governance and guardrails.
- You are clearly accountable for the performance of the HR value stream, with leadership alignment that treats you as the portfolio owner rather than a functional contributor.
- The HR portfolio enables customers to delegate meaningful HR outcomes, not just operate workflows.
- You have built a high‑performing, trusted product leadership team that sustains momentum without heavy process.
- You are a trusted voice with enterprise customers, influencing major deals and renewals.
- There is clear evidence of customer and commercial impact, with strong traceability from strategy to results.
What Type of Leader We’re Looking For
You think in systems and outcomes, are comfortable setting direction amid ambiguity, and see AI as a fundamental shift in how work gets done. You balance innovation with responsibility in regulated, people‑critical domains and build strong product leaders through clarity, trust, and leverage rather than control.
Experience
- 10+ years in product management, including senior leadership roles in enterprise B2B software
- Strong exposure to HR, payroll, workforce, or adjacent domains
- Experience delivering AI‑enabled or automation‑heavy products at scale
- Strong cross‑functional leadership and executive‑level communication skills
At Zellis we create market-leading HR & Payroll products and services, to power exceptional employee experiences so that you and your people do better. Our multi-award-winning products pay over five million employees a year, with almost half (42%) of the FTSE 100, 50% of the top retailers and 30% of the top universities in the UK & Ireland as customers, making us the largest provider of Payroll and HR software and managed services.
Our vision is to be the clear leader in pay, reward, analytics, and people experiences. We're passionate about creating an environment where people want to join, belong to, and be part of a progressive organisation. Our values, which were defined with input from all of our 2,000 colleagues, we live and breathe every day:
- Unstoppable together.
- Always learning.
- Make it count.
- Think scale.
Our people are critical to our ongoing success; we’re proud of our inclusive culture that gives you the platform to grow, challenge the status quo and play a crucial role in further enhancing our market position as the leading provider of HR & Payroll software and services. With Zellis you’ll have the chance to stretch and challenge yourself in an environment that’s varied, flexible and hugely supportive.
We also love to reward and recognise our brilliant colleagues. As part of your benefits package, you’ll receive:
- A competitive base salary.
- 25 days annual leave, plus your birthday off and the opportunity to buy additional holiday.
- Private medical insurance.
- Life assurance 4x salary.
- Enhanced pension scheme with company contributions up to 8.5%.
- A huge range of additional flexible benefits across financial & personal wellbeing, lifestyle & leisure.
