Head of Product, Search and AI

Who are we? ATG is leading the transformation of the multi-billion-dollar global auction industry. The company has grown rapidly over the last 7 years, expanding from ~$18m of revenue and $3m of profits seven years ago to over $170m of revenue and over $80m of profits today. The company IPO’d in 2021 and has had a successful run both during the Covid period and after. ATG is early in our journey to establish a hugely influential global internet company that is revolutionizing one of the last industries in the world yet to move significantly online.

What do we do? ATG connects thousands of auction houses, listing millions of items worth over $15 billion annually (and growing), to buyers in over 170 countries around the world. These buyers generate over 100 million bids a year for our sellers, helping them achieve maximum value for the goods they sell. We help auctioneers sell everything from medieval swords to combine harvesters, paintings and decorative art through to classic cars, furniture, and Caterpillar forklifts. We do this through 8 marketplaces that leverage our online auction technologies. We make auctioneers more efficient; we make small companies big by bringing them access to millions of bidders they could never find on their own, and we bring them technology they could never afford alone. We bring bidders choice of unique and specialized items, convenience, and trust. And we do it all in a shared success model that accelerates growth of the circular economy and sustainable buying. We have ethical ambition and it’s something our employees value and is a key part of who we are….as well as being a high growth marketplace company with excellent competitive positioning

Where are we now? ATG achieved “first mover advantage” in each of the sectors we serve. As such, we have benefited from incredible network effects meaning that as we brought the most sellers, we attracted more buyers and as we brought more buyers, we then organically attracted more sellers. This symbiotic relationship has been pivotal to our profitable growth.

ATG established a vision that has 3 big strategic phases for how we will lead the transformation of the auction industry. Phase 1 was assembling the critical mass of marketplaces and technologies that would serve as the foundation on which we would build. It enabled us to capitalize on the network effects and set ourselves apart from competitors. We are now in Phase 2. Here, we are building out eCommerce basics, following the well-trodden path of online marketplace development---improved UI and UX, investing in search and discovery, improving trust, adding payment and shipping options, and much more. The goal is: Maximize Quality Bidders.

What are we hiring for? ATG has built a great team, and we want to add to that team by bringing on the right person to lead Search, Taxonomy and AI strategy across our marketplaces. The Head of Product of Search & AI will own and define the vision, strategy and vision for our Search and AI investments and drive the delivery of that roadmap. This is a hybrid position in our London office. There will be travel required, likely at least quarterly, typically to one of our offices in New York, Salt Lake City or London.

This role will report to the Chief Product Officer (CPO), playing a key role in the formulation and execution of our strategy for one of the most important areas of ATG.

Who are we looking for? We seek an individual who thrives in an environment of fast-paced execution with a passion for leading and motivating teams, and a knowledge of how to build and manage those teams. The candidate must be extremely commercial, intellectually curious, with the ability to communicate effectively up the chain to the executives as well as down the chain to product managers with all levels of experience, commercial teams, marketing colleagues, and operations team members. Comfort with numbers and driving teams to work with a constant eye to “does this matter?”, “Is this the best way to deliver this?”, “How well does this align to the company strategic goals,” and a willingness to engage across functions is essential.

We seek a passionate, driven leader. A person with experience in driving innovation and articulating meaningful milestones along the way. They need to take ownership of, evangelize and deliver upon a roadmap that gives us differentiated insight into the merchandise on our site and equips us to provide optimized search, discovery, and recommendations for both sides of our marketplace. Experience with 0 to 1 products and experimentation is a plus.

What we offer you If you like what you’ve read above, then you are likely someone who’s already seen real success in your career and hopefully can tell this is a place where you can continue or expand on that success as you build your career. What we offer, we believe is unique. We are big enough to have real resources to put against our strategy and small enough where you will KNOW you are making an impact. We are large enough to have IPO’d but are still very early in our journey as a business so you are still part of shaping all that ATG is and will become. We don’t just talk about our culture; we actively cultivate it and seek people who fit it---our employee NPS scores in the high 80s reflect this. Our brand, while known in niche areas today, will one day be a global brand. And YOUR personal brand equity will grow alongside ours. And finally, as we succeed, you will share in that success since every ATG employee is a shareholder.

About the role

What are the key responsibilities? You’ll be…

• Own and define the vision, strategy and roadmap for our Search, Taxonomy & AI investments
• Synthesize market changes and the technology/people/skills investments needed to fully leverage AI and machine learning to drive efficiencies and customer value
• Increase bids per bidder and improve search success across multiple marketplaces through experimentation
• Define goals and KPIs that align to short-term and long-term revenue, and drive teams to achieve them.
• Embedding a results-focused, commercially driven mindset into the Product team combined with a passion for delivering impactful solutions for our customers
• Maintain a deep understanding of customer behaviors, the competitive landscape and technology trends to shape strategic decisions, plans and priorities
• Help identify new investment areas and product opportunities
• Collaborate with colleagues across the entire company, including, other product teams, marketing, sales, finance, legal, and the executive team
• Identifying issues and obstacles and working energetically cross teams to remove them
• Generating and advocating product initiatives from identifying needs to full implementation, including strategy, feature elaboration, engineering requirements, and release planning
• Help develop a culture of rapid experimentation, learning and data-driven decision making/prioritization
• Recruit and develop extraordinary talent by coaching, managing, and mentoring teams of product managers

Who are you? You have…

• 10+ years business experience – both startup and mid to large scale company experience is a plus
• Deep understanding and several years of experience in product delivery of AI services, machine learning platforms and products, and generative AI
• Strong understanding of 2-sided marketplaces
• Experience leading and managing Product teams
• Ability to engage and challenge senior executives and articulate a position backed by data & logic
• Practical knowledge of eCommerce and search platforms
• Proven experience with ROI driven prioritization
• Readiness to collaborate and communicate openly
• Outstanding written/oral, organizational, analytical skills and attention to detail
• Ability to provide clear direction, set measurable goals and give insight on industry trends
• Persuasive communicator – able to explain complex or intangible concepts to stakeholders at all levels
• Good listener – weighs input from multiple perspectives when forming opinions and recommendations
• Able to easily motivate and inspire team members, peers, stakeholders and executives
• Innovative; thinks beyond boundaries
• Analytical; solves problems at root cause and prioritizes effectively
• Continuous improvement mentality; never satisfied
• Can be called on to speak with customers
• Flexible and open-minded; proactively seeks input from others
• Entrepreneurial drive and spirit; enjoys working in a fast-paced environment