Senior Product Manager - Cycling

Destination Sport Experiences, through its global sports travel brands Marathon Tours & Travel, Sportive Breaks, Tri Travel, HYROX Tours and Destination Sport Charity, cater for those who want to participate in the very best cycling, running and triathlon events across the world. All of the brands offer tours, travel packages, and guaranteed entry to marathons, cycling events, long-distance triathlons, HYROX events around the world, together with VIP hospitality access to many of the top professional cycling events as well as managing travel programs for mass participation events on behalf of charities, companies and groups throughout the year.

Our new Senior Product Manager - Cycling will be the product specialist for our cycling programme within the product team, taking ownership of a range of events managing from initial planning through to execution and post event analysis. No two days are the same in this commercial focused role but on a typical day you will:

• Manage, support and develop your team of 3-4 direct reports, under the guidance of the Head of Operations - Cycling. Completing tasks including staff reviews, objective setting, holiday request management, expenses approval and regular one to ones with all direct reports.
• Take full ownership of own number of products and their contents including event strategy, budgeting, operational delivery/requirements, staffing and post event analysis.
• Source, onboard and manage additional external staff for own events - work alongside internal HR team to complete required documentation for onboarding.
• Identify, develop and strengthen 3rd party relationships with our range of both existing and new suppliers including local operators, hotels, transport companies and event organisers.
• Train and develop the team on their products and act as an escalation point, when required.
• Negotiate contracts with suppliers, partners, and vendors to secure favourable terms.
• Using your product and industry knowledge, work alongside the senior leadership team to identify opportunities for new product development.
• Liaise with our internal teams including Marketing, Sales and Digital Content to ensure your product range is communicated appropriately and information is shared to all required parties to ensure the best chance of success.
• Create, manage and adapt budgets per event including ownership of reviewing invoices, adapting to operational changes and completing post event financial analysis.
• Monitor product inventory and performance analysis on our internal system, Trello and take action where required.
• Monitor, review and respond to customer feedback, making operational changes as required.
• Attend events internationally to manage on the ground operations including staff management, customer service, 3rd party liaison and overall event oversight, implementing change where required.

To be successful within this fast paced and commercially focused role, our ideal candidate will:

• Have previous international operational experience within a tour operator (cycling tour specific travel experience is highly desirable but other experience may be considered).
• Demonstrate passion and knowledge of cycling tours is essential (experience operating in our key destinations of France, Italy, Spain and Belgium would be highly advantageous).
• Have extensive product knowledge and experience of planning events (cycling focused is highly desirable).
• Have previous experience in managing and developing a team.
• Be confident in organising logistics for large-scale sports events both domestically and outside of the UK, ensuring smooth operations for participants and attendees.
• Demonstrate the ability to take ownership of own tours, managing deadlines and multitasking products and their changing priorities while still supporting the team.
• Have knowledge of sustainability and health and safety policies/processes for both customers and the operational team.
• Show outstanding planning and event management skills.
• Demonstrate strong negotiation skills with the ability to work closely with suppliers, partners and vendors to secure favourable terms.
• Be a self-starter with a proactive approach to tasks.
• Demonstrate both commercial and financial acumen.
• Possess impeccable communication skills both written and verbal with the ability to communicate to those at all levels of seniority both internal and external to the business.
• Be confident in having full ownership of own tours while still working as part of a wider team.
• Possess strong negotiation skills while still maintaining strong industry relationships.
• Show outstanding customer service skills both over the telephone, email and face to face.
• Be computer literate with strong experience of Microsoft Office packages including Excel, Word and Teams.
• Be able to travel both domestically and internationally for work purposes.

So if you have a passion for sports, and are looking for your next challenge, take a look and get in touch we'd love to hear from you!