Director: Product Management (Product Growth, AI & User Interfaces)

We Are Setting The Pace Clickatell , founded in Cape Town in 2000 , was the first company to connect businesses with consumers via SMS using just four lines of code. Today, it powers AI-driven chat commerce for leading global brands across industries like banking, retail, telecoms, and healthcare . Over 25 years , Clickatell has led multiple industry firsts through its award-winning AI Chat Commerce Platform , enabling brands to connect, interact, and transact with customers seamlessly. Purpose We are seeking a Product Director - Product Growth, UX & AI to drive Clickatell's product growth initiatives, customer experience across self-serve and key platform journeys, and the application of AI within the product portfolio. Reporting to the VP Products, this Director-level role has end-to-end ownership of a defined product domain, accountable for business outcomes and not only roadmap delivery. The role exists to drive acquisition, activation, conversion, retention, and expansion through product; improve customer-facing experiences; and ensure that AI capabilities are translated into measurable customer and commercial value. The Director will lead a small team of Product Managers and work cross-functionally with Software Development, Data, GTM, Sales, and Support. This person will drive prioritisation within their area, contribute to investment decisions, recommend success measures, and help ensure that Clickatell's product growth, UX, and AI investments deliver strong customer and commercial outcomes. We Do The Right Things Responsibilities of the Role Product Growth & Commercial Outcomes o Drive Clickatell's product growth roadmap and execution across the self-serve customer lifecycle, in line with the broader growth strategy set with the VP. o Drive product outcomes across acquisition, activation, conversion, retention, and expansion. o Define and optimise the self-serve funnel, including onboarding, trial experience, feature adoption, upgrade mechanics, and product-qualified lead signals where relevant. o Contribute to pricing, packaging, upgrade paths, and expansion levers in partnership with the relevant stakeholders, ensuring product and commercial design work together. o Ensure the product growth motion is instrumented, measurable, and continuously improved based on evidence. UX, Customer Journey & Interface Ownership o Drive customer-facing product experiences across the assigned Clickatell surfaces, including onboarding, activation, in-product guidance, workflow design, and key conversion journeys. o Uphold the quality bar for usability, clarity, accessibility, consistency, and recovery across customer journeys. o Partner closely with Design to ensure experience decisions support both customer outcomes and commercial outcomes. o Drive friction reduction across critical flows, improving time-to-value and reducing unnecessary complexity for users. o Ensure self-serve and managed experiences are coherent, scalable, and aligned to Clickatell’s product standards. AI Product Strategy & Application o Drive the application of AI within the relevant product area, ensuring AI is applied where it creates meaningful customer and business value. o Translate customer problems and market opportunities into AI-enabled product capabilities. o Prioritise AI investments based on value, feasibility, risk, defensibility, and commercial return. o Ensure AI capabilities are integrated into the product in ways that improve adoption, experience quality, efficiency, and differentiation. o Contribute to AI-related positioning, packaging, and go-to-market inputs in partnership with Product Marketing and commercial leaders. Area Prioritisation & Decision-Making o Lead prioritisation across the product growth, UX, and AI initiatives within the scope of the role. o Make deliberate trade-off decisions across usability, growth, risk, technical constraints, compliance, and commercial return. o Recommend product direction, ensure requirements quality, and confirm launch readiness within the area, aligning with the VP on key decisions. o Ensure every major initiative has clear ownership, success measures, dependencies, and escalation paths. o Escalate constraints, risks, and delivery blockers early when capacity, authority, or cross-functional dependencies threaten outcomes. People Leadership & Product Management Excellence o Lead, coach, and develop the assigned Product Manager(s). o Set expectations for product thinking, discovery quality, execution discipline, stakeholder management, and outcome accountability. o Consistently drive role clarity to delivery on the agreed roadmap and strategy. o Contribute to product operating rhythms across discovery, roadmap review, launch readiness, decision logging, and post-launch inspection. o Help raise the overall quality of the product management discipline. Cross-Functional Collaboration o Work effectively with Engineering, Data, GTM, and commercial counterparts to align on priorities and outcomes. o Drive alignment through clear problem statements, well-formed requirements, measurable success criteria, and transparent trade-off decisions. o Support the VP in senior leadership conversations relating to growth, customer experience, AI investment, and roadmap priorities, and represent the area when called on. o Support strategic customer, partner, and leadership engagements where product direction, credibility, and commercial value need to be articulated clearly. o Inform decisions within and adjacent to the product team through strong judgment, structured communication, and a clear point of view. Metrics, Performance & Accountability o Define and track success measures for product growth, UX, and AI initiatives, including both leading and lagging indicators. o Maintain dashboards and review cadences to inspect funnel performance, product adoption, customer outcomes, and commercial impact. o Hold teams accountable to outcomes, not activity. o Make evidence-based decisions on iteration, reinvestment, deprecation, and sequencing. o Report performance, insights, risks, and recommendations to leadership with clarity and appropriate commercial context. Responsibilities (summary list) o Drive Clickatell's self-serve growth outcomes in support of the product growth strategy. o Drive UX and customer journey quality across assigned platform experiences. o Drive AI product application within the relevant product area. o Prioritise and recommend decisions across product growth, UX, and AI initiatives within scope. o Lead and develop the assigned Product Manager(s). o Drive measurable business outcomes through product. We Are On A Learning Journey Requirements of the Role o Bachelor’s degree in Business, Computer Science, Engineering, or a related discipline. o An advanced business or technical qualification is advantageous. Work Experience o Solid product management experience in SaaS, platform, or technology-led businesses, including some experience leading or mentoring other Product Managers. o Leverage AI-native tools and workflows to accelerate product discovery, ideation, solution design, experimentation, and rapid prototyping. o Proven experience leading and developing Product Managers. o Demonstrated focus on business outcomes, not only feature delivery. o Experience in product growth, self-serve product models, onboarding, activation, conversion, retention, or related growth disciplines. o Experience shaping customer-facing UX, digital journeys, or product experience strategy in partnership with Design. o Experience building or driving AI-enabled, data-driven, or intelligent product capabilities in a B2B SaaS or platform context. o Experience working across Engineering, Data, Product Marketing, Sales, and Support in complex cross-functional environments. o Experience operating in fast-paced environments with ambiguity, competing priorities, and executive visibility. o Messaging, communications, telecoms, commerce, or conversational platform experience is advantageous. Knowledge and Abilities o Strong product judgment and commercial thinking. o Strong analytical skills and confidence working with metrics, funnels, and performance signals. o Ability to connect customer needs, product strategy, business value, and execution trade-offs. o Strong written, verbal, and presentation communication skills. o Technically credible, with the ability to work effectively with Engineering and Data teams. o Strong understanding of modern SaaS product management, growth mechanics, and AI product application. o Ability to make clear decisions, create alignment, and drive accountability across functions. o High standards for clarity, quality, and execution discipline. A Bit About Behavioural competency requirements of a Trailblaze r: o Leading Possibility: Leads a high-performance and learning culture focused on building future capacity and developing people to do more and better over time. o Striving Optimizer: Continuously improves the organisation, team, and product environment to scale for growth. o Expert Advisor: Brings informed judgment, best-practice thinking, and strong perspective to complex decisions. o Balancing Risk: Applies sound judgment and manages risk proactively while enabling progress. o Collab Coach: Creates strong cross-functional collaboration and reduces silo behaviour. o Awareness and Empathy: Leads with self-awareness, maturity, and thoughtful judgment under pressure. o Blueprint Generator: Creates clear strategies, plans, and objectives that translate vision into execution. o Aligned Performer: Creates clarity on priorities, ownership, timing, and direction. o Change Driver: Leads change with intent, pace, and practical execution. o Driving Results: Takes responsibility for team performance and business outcomes. Why You Should Join Working with a world-class, award-winning, international team with strong values and a meaningful ambition. You can expect work that will stretch you, grow you, and allow you to shape products and experiences that matter. We are building with intent, learning continuously, and creating real impact. Benefits include: o Medical Aid contribution o Pension fund contribution o Quarterly performance incentive bonus o Risk benefit company contributions o Reimbursable communications allowance for internet and mobile phone bills o Half-day off on your birthday o 5 personal days leave a year, over and above your annual leave + ½ day off on your birthday o Flexible working conditions (remote & in person) with access to office hubs as required * current policy o Home office set-up with laptop, monitor and other related items. Stronger Together Clickatell is committed to Diversity, Inclusion, and Belonging. We believe we are stronger together and that different perspectives make us better. Our platform is for everyone, and so is our workplace. We are committed to creating an environment where people feel respected, supported, and able to do their best work.