At a Glance
- Tasks: Lead the Sales API, driving market expansion and enhancing customer integrations.
- Company: Join Alliance Automotive Group, a top distributor in the automotive aftermarket across Europe.
- Benefits: Enjoy competitive salary, flexible working options, and opportunities for professional growth.
- Other info: Dynamic work environment with a focus on innovation and continuous improvement.
- Why this job: Make a real impact in a leading tech role within the automotive industry.
- Qualifications: Experience with APIs, strong technical skills, and a knack for collaboration.
Alliance Automotive Group (AAG) is a leading distributor of passenger and commercial vehicle parts to the independent automotive aftermarket in Europe. It operates in France, the U.K., Ireland, Germany, the Netherlands, Belgium, Spain, Portugal, Poland, Hungary and Romania. AAG’s network serves thousands of customers across Europe supported by a logistics infrastructure of 75 Distribution Centres, approximately 2,550 Stores and thousands of vehicle repairers, body shops and auto-centres. AAG has a revenue of 3.4 billion euros with over 17,000 employees.
AAG UK & Ireland are scaling our Sales API, a headless interface that allows customers and partner platforms to integrate directly with our catalogue and order management systems. To support our growth ambition, we are recruiting a Digital Product Owner to be responsible for market expansion, competitive enhancement and continuous improvement of our Sales API.
The Sales API is an established REST interface that enables customers and third-party systems to:
- Access our product catalogue programmatically
- Place and manage orders
- Check stock and pricing in real-time
- Integrate with garage management systems and other partner platforms
- Build custom interfaces to our systems
You'll take strategic ownership of the Sales API, strengthening our market position, driving adoption with new customers and partners, and acting as technical consultant to integrators. This means defining the roadmap, prioritising features based on commercial value, and working directly with Key Account customers to enable successful integrations.
This role represents true product ownership with meaningful technical depth. The successful candidate will need a strong understanding of API architecture, design principles, and underlying system process flows, combined with a solid grasp of solution implementation and associated business processes.
You must be comfortable engaging in detailed technical discussions with developers and integration partners, confidently translating requirements into viable solution options. The role requires close collaboration with engineering teams to deliver enhancements, partnership with Commercial teams to support business tenders, and direct engagement with customers to guide and support successful implementation.
Reporting to the B2B Digital Portfolio Manager, this role combines strategic product thinking, technical consulting, and commercial impact in a market-leading automotive organisation. The Sales API is a crucial product that enables customers and partners to integrate directly with our systems. Done well, it drives adoption, reduces manual process overhead, and creates competitive advantage.
Product Ownership & Strategy
- Own the Sales API roadmap, prioritising features based on competitive positioning, commercial value, customer demand, and engineering capacity
- Make informed trade‑off decisions balancing customer requests, competitive differentiation, and technical constraints
- Monitor the competitive landscape and define enhancements that strengthen market position
- Drive API adoption and growth, onboarding new customers and third‑party integrators at scale
- Define success metrics and track API performance, adoption, and commercial impact
- Partner with commercial teams to understand customer needs and translate them into product priorities
- Communicate roadmap updates, releases, and progress to internal and external stakeholders
Technical Consulting & Customer Engagement
- Act as a technical consultant to customers and third‑party partners integrating with the API
- Work directly with Key Account customers to understand integration requirements and guide successful implementation
- Provide expert guidance on API architecture, endpoints, authentication mechanisms, request/response structures, error handling, and best practices
- Support pre‑sales conversations where API capability is critical to the commercial proposition
- Troubleshoot integration issues and collaborate with engineering to resolve technical blockers
- Support integration testing and User Acceptance Testing (UAT), including defect identification and validation
Product Delivery, Quality & Governance
- Manage the product backlog and set sprint priorities aligned to strategic objectives
- Write detailed user stories and acceptance criteria covering API behaviour, endpoint specifications, data validation rules, and error scenarios
- Define API requirements including endpoints, payload structures (JSON/XML), authentication, and business rules
- Work closely with engineering to translate business and customer requirements into technical solutions
- Participate in Agile ceremonies (stand‑ups, sprint reviews, retrospectives)
- Define and execute test scenarios to validate API functionality, data accuracy, and business logic
- Review and validate API payloads to ensure compliance with documented requirements
- Use SQL to query and validate relational data, confirming correct processing of orders, pricing, inventory, and customer information
- Perform data reconciliation to ensure consistency across integrated systems
- Ensure API documentation (e.g., Swagger/OpenAPI) is accurate, clear, and useful for integrators
Essential Requirements
- Proven experience owning or managing API products or technical integrations in a commercial environment
- Strong technical understanding of RESTful APIs, authentication, data structures (JSON/XML), and integration patterns
- Working knowledge of SQL and relational databases - you can query data to validate outcomes and troubleshoot issues
- Ability to act as technical consultant - credible in conversations with developers, partners, and technical customers
- Experience working in Agile/Scrum environments with engineering teams
- Track record translating business and customer needs into detailed technical requirements
- Strong stakeholder management skills across commercial, technical, and customer-facing contexts
- Commercial awareness - you understand how APIs drive business value and adoption
- Familiarity with API documentation tools (Swagger/OpenAPI) and API testing tools (Postman, etc.)
Highly Desirable Qualities
- Experience with e-commerce platforms, order management systems, or catalogue APIs
- Experience supporting third-party integrations or partner onboarding at scale
- Understanding of competitive API offerings in B2B or automotive sectors
- Exposure to data validation, reconciliation, or business intelligence
- Experience working with Key Account customers or enterprise integrations
Personal Attributes
- Technically credible but commercially minded - you balance technical quality with business outcomes
- Comfortable working directly with customers and partners in a consulting capacity
- Analytical and detail-oriented - you care about data accuracy and technical correctness
- Collaborative across commercial and technical teams
- Problem-solver with a bias toward practical solutions
- Continuous improvement mindset – establishing “why” not just “how”
Alliance Automotive Group is an equal opportunities employer.
Product Owner (SalesAPI) in Birmingham employer: Genuine Parts Company
Genuine Parts Company is an excellent employer, offering a supportive work culture that prioritises employee growth and development. Located in Leicester, our delivery drivers benefit from exclusive retailer discounts, access to health and financial tools, and clear pathways for career progression within a global leader in automotive parts.
StudySmarter Expert Advice🤫
We think this is how you could land Product Owner (SalesAPI) in Birmingham
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We think you need these skills to ace Product Owner (SalesAPI) in Birmingham
Some tips for your application 🫡
Show Off Your Product Passion:When applying for a product management role like Product Owner (SalesAPI), let your passion for developing products shine through in your cover letter. Share specific examples of products you've managed, how you solved user needs, and any successful outcomes you've achieved. This is your chance to showcase your understanding of the product lifecycle!
Highlight Your Cross-Functional Skills:Product management isn't just about understanding the product; it’s about collaborating with different teams! Make sure to emphasise your experience working with developers, designers, and marketers. Use your CV to showcase your ability to bridge gaps between these areas, and include relevant experiences that demonstrate your communication and leadership skills!
Include Your Metrics and Achievements:In a full-time product management application, data speaks volumes! Quantify your achievements wherever possible. Did you increase user retention by a certain percentage? Launch a product ahead of schedule? Include these metrics in your CV to paint a picture of your impact and effectiveness in previous roles.
Tailor Your CV to the Role:Make sure your CV is tailored for the Product Owner (SalesAPI) position at Genuine Parts Company. Use keywords from the job description and ensure your relevant experiences are front and centre. Highlight any certifications or relevant training you’ve completed that will make you stand out as a strong candidate for the role. And remember, we’re excited to see your application on our website!
How to prepare for a job interview at Genuine Parts Company
✨Understand the Product Life Cycle
As a product management candidate, we need to get our head around the complete product life cycle. Be prepared to discuss real-world examples of how you’ve managed product development from ideation to launch. Bring specific insights on tools like JIRA or Trello that can help streamline these processes.
✨Showcase Your Cross-Functional Skills
Product management is all about collaboration. We should be ready to highlight how we’ve worked across teams—think marketing, engineering, and design. Prepare to discuss scenarios where you had to mediate differing opinions and how you got everyone on board with a shared vision.
✨Prepare for Case Studies
In a full-time role, we can expect to encounter case study questions during our interviews. Practise solving hypothetical product problems on the spot, such as prioritising features for a new app or improving user engagement metrics. This will show our analytical thinking and decision-making skills.
✨Know Your Metrics
Let’s face it, numbers are our best friends in product management. We should prepare to discuss key performance indicators (KPIs) and how we've used analytics to inform product decisions. Dive into examples where data has driven our strategy for improvements or justified product changes.
