Senior Product Owner, Ecommerce & Websites

Location: Chester/Hybrid

Function: IT & Projects

Reports To: Chief Technology Officer

Contract Terms: Permanent, full time

Specialist Holidays Group (SHG) is a leading specialist travel group, bringing together a family of trusted, expert-led brands that create exceptional holidays for discerning travellers. Each brand combines deep destination knowledge with personalised, high-service experiences — expertise that sits at the heart of everything we do.
Our portfolio spans accessible luxury and cruise through Destination2 and Destination2Cruise; ultra-premium, bespoke travel through Sovereign Luxury Travel; the USA, Canada, Caribbean and Latin America through American Holidays; authentic Italy through Citalia; and great-value getaways through Holiday Gems. Together they share one promise: Travel. Expertly Delivered.

We are seeking an experienced and commercially focused Senior Product Owner to lead the development and evolution of Specialist Holidays Group's website and ecommerce technology estate.
This role will be responsible for defining and managing the digital product roadmap across the Group's customer-facing websites, ensuring that business objectives, customer needs and technology priorities are aligned and delivered effectively.
Working closely with stakeholders across Commercial, Marketing, Customer Service, Operations and Technology teams, you will be responsible for gathering, documenting and prioritising requirements, maintaining a high-quality backlog within Azure DevOps and ensuring delivery teams are focused on the highest-value initiatives.
This is a highly visible role that requires a proactive individual who can identify opportunities, challenge thinking, drive continuous improvement and become a leading voice for ecommerce and digital customer experience across the Group.
You will combine strategic thinking with hands-on product ownership, helping shape the future of our digital platforms while delivering measurable improvements in customer experience, conversion and business performance.

• Own and maintain the roadmap for SHG's websites and ecommerce platforms across multiple brands.
• Develop a clear product vision aligned to business goals, customer needs and commercial priorities.
• Lead discovery activities to identify opportunities for website enhancements, customer experience improvements and ecommerce growth.
• Gather, analyse and document business requirements from stakeholders across the organisation.
• Translate requirements into detailed user stories, acceptance criteria and supporting documentation within Azure DevOps.
• Own and manage the product backlog, ensuring priorities are aligned with business value and strategic objectives.
• Work closely with business stakeholders to agree priorities, manage expectations and balance competing demands.
• Champion best practice across ecommerce, digital experience and website optimisation.
• Collaborate with UX, Development, QA and Architecture teams to ensure successful delivery of roadmap initiatives.
• Facilitate workshops and discovery sessions to define problems, explore opportunities and shape solutions.
• Use customer feedback, analytics and commercial performance data to inform prioritisation and decision making.
• Monitor industry trends, competitor activity and emerging technologies to identify opportunities for innovation.
• Support Agile delivery processes and help remove blockers that impact successful delivery.
• Ensure delivered solutions meet agreed business requirements and deliver measurable outcomes.
• Act as the primary point of contact for website and ecommerce product initiatives across the Group.
• Promote a culture of continuous improvement, customer focus and data-driven decision making.

• Proactive and self-motivated with a strong sense of ownership.
• Commercially aware and focused on delivering measurable outcomes.
• Strong communicator who can engage effectively with both technical and non-technical stakeholders.
• Confident challenging assumptions and influencing decision making.
• Customer-focused with a passion for digital experiences and ecommerce.
• Analytical and data-driven in approach.
• Organised and able to manage multiple priorities effectively.
• Comfortable operating in a fast-paced, multi-brand environment.

• Professional Experience
• Significant experience as a Product Owner, Senior Product Owner, Product Manager or similar digital product role.
• Proven experience managing website and ecommerce products.
• Experience creating and maintaining product roadmaps and prioritised backlogs.
• Strong experience gathering and documenting business requirements.
• Experience working within Agile delivery environments.
• Experience collaborating with development, UX and business teams.
• Demonstrable success delivering digital initiatives that improve customer experience and business performance.
• Experience managing and influencing a broad range of stakeholders.

• Strong experience using Azure DevOps or similar product management and backlog tools.
• Excellent requirements gathering, analysis and documentation skills.
• Ability to write high-quality user stories and acceptance criteria.
• Strong backlog management and prioritisation capabilities.
• Understanding of Agile and Scrum methodologies.
• Ability to translate strategic objectives into practical, deliverable initiatives.
• Strong stakeholder management and workshop facilitation skills.
• Experience using data and analytics to support decision making.

• Strong understanding of ecommerce principles and customer journeys.
• Experience improving website performance and conversion rates.
• Understanding of digital customer experience best practice.
• Experience working with Marketing, CRM and Commercial teams.
• Knowledge of SEO, CRO and digital optimisation principles.
• Experience balancing customer needs with commercial objectives.
• Experience working within a multi-brand environment would be advantageous.

Essential

• Experience working within a multi-brand environment would be advantageous.
• Website and ecommerce product management experience.
• Product roadmap ownership and prioritisation.
• Azure DevOps backlog management.
• Requirements elicitation and documentation.
• Agile delivery methodologies.
• Customer journey mapping and optimisation.
• Stakeholder management and prioritisation.
• Strong communication and presentation skills.
• Data-driven decision making.

Desirable

• Experience within travel, leisure or consumer ecommerce businesses.
• Experience with experimentation and A/B testing.
• Understanding of UX research and usability principles.
• Experience with personalisation and customer data initiatives.
• Knowledge of modern digital commerce platforms and technologies.

Education

• Degree in Business, Technology, Digital Product Management, Ecommerce or a related discipline.
• Postgraduate qualification in Product Management, Digital Strategy or Ecommerce would be advantageous.

Product Management/ Agile Certifications

• Certified Scrum Product Owner (CSPO)
• Professional Scrum Product Owner (PSPO I/II)
• APM or PMI product/project certifications

• Website conversion rate improvement.
• Delivery of roadmap commitments against plan.
• Backlog health and readiness.
• Stakeholder satisfaction.
• Time from discovery to deployment.
• Customer engagement and digital experience metrics.
• Delivery of strategic website and ecommerce initiatives.
• Adoption and business value delivered from new features and enhancements.

• Competitive executive salary and package.
• Contributory pension scheme.
• Travel discounts and a range of employee offers and benefits.
• Genuine career progression within a growing specialist travel group.