Navigator – London (Hybrid)
Chief Product Officer
Executive | Full-time | Reports to CEO
Where We Are and Where We're Going
Navigator is a performance media agency specialising in travel. We run campaigns globally across paid social, Google Ads, and programmatic for travel brands and agencies. We have scaled the business, work with some of the biggest brands and agencies in the world, and have partnerships with more than 20 of the world's largest travel booking platforms.
We are transforming into the first, and only, true commerce media network in travel—a standalone network at the scale of Uber Advertising, built on first-party data that no one else has. Our ambition is to move from a service business that manually activates campaigns to a programmatic-first network that operates autonomously at scale for both endemic and non-endemic advertisers around the world.
The two biggest challenges in commerce media today are fragmentation and standardisation. Navigator is being built to solve both by creating a unified network with consistent data, measurement, and activation across every channel, powered by more than two billion first-party data signals. We are at an exciting inflection point. The network is in its early stages, our machine learning foundations are being established, and advertising spend is already live. This is an opportunity to build something unique, leave a lasting impact on global advertising, and lead the product strategy behind a business that is already embracing agentic media buying.
The Role
The Chief Product Officer has a dual mandate. The first responsibility is to harness AI and agentic automation to increase productivity, output, and value across the existing agency operation, enabling the team to execute campaigns at a level and scale that would otherwise require a much larger workforce. The second responsibility is to build Navigator's AI-native, programmatic-first commerce media network. Both objectives must progress simultaneously. The current agency business must not be left behind; instead, it will be automated, evolved, and ultimately absorbed into the network. The CPO will own this transformation from end to end.
Product Philosophy
Navigator's product philosophy is based on an agent-to-tools architecture comprising foundational machine learning and a curated ecosystem of AI technologies. The first layer is an AI-native media workflow and orchestration platform capable of planning, activating, pacing, and optimising campaigns across DSPs, SSPs, RTB, Meta, TikTok, and other channels with minimal manual intervention. The second layer is an intelligence engine that continuously optimises campaigns, delivers real-time insights, and extracts value from more than two billion first-party data signals to create the most valuable audience and data products available to brands seeking to reach travellers.
Key Responsibilities
The immediate priority is automating the existing agency operation across Meta, TikTok, and Google Ads. The Chief Product Officer will identify friction throughout campaign workflows, including briefing, setup, trafficking, optimisation, and reporting, and implement AI-powered agentic workflows that reduce manual effort while increasing scale, speed, consistency, and accuracy. They will improve the client experience through faster reporting and richer performance insights without increasing operational overhead. They will also design an automation architecture based on an MCP-first approach that allows tools to be replaced easily, new agents to be introduced rapidly, and the platform to evolve with changing technology.
The CPO will own Navigator's agentic media buying roadmap, building on existing partnerships with Scope3 and Kargo's Kera platform to transform early innovation into a scalable, differentiated product. They will define the balance between internally developed capabilities and partner technologies, creating an integrated agent-to-tools ecosystem. They will lead development towards fully autonomous campaign planning, activation, pacing, and optimisation while establishing the machine learning foundations required for audience segmentation, bid optimisation, frequency management, and predictive performance modelling. This capability will become a compelling client proposition that clearly differentiates Navigator from platforms, agencies, and holding companies.
The role also includes leading the company's transition from predominantly paid social activation to a programmatic-first commerce media network. While Meta and TikTok will remain core revenue channels, the Chief Product Officer will scale Navigator's DSP, SSP, and RTB infrastructure into the network's primary activation capability. They will develop a unified activation layer that provides a consistent data model and buying interface across paid social and programmatic environments while managing strategic technical partnerships, API integrations, certifications, and evolving industry standards.
Navigator's first-party data represents its competitive advantage. The Chief Product Officer will own the strategy, architecture, and commercial development of this data estate, ensuring it is structured, governed, and optimised for commercial value. They will oversee clean room integrations with partners to create a unified, privacy-safe view of traveller behaviour, enabling advanced audience modelling and targeting. They will build continuous campaign data feedback loops that ingest live performance data, improve optimisation models, and generate actionable client insights. They will also ensure privacy-by-design, regulatory compliance, and strong data governance are embedded throughout the platform.
Measurement remains platform-agnostic. Navigator currently supports whichever measurement solutions clients or agencies require, and the Chief Product Officer will ensure seamless integration with third-party measurement providers while positioning the business to expand its own measurement capabilities as the network matures.
Leadership
The Chief Product Officer will build and lead the product and engineering organisation, recruiting and structuring teams capable of delivering the platform at scale. They will own the product roadmap, balancing priorities across agency automation, agentic media buying, programmatic infrastructure, and the data platform while making clear trade-off decisions. They will work closely with commercial teams to ensure product capabilities translate into compelling client propositions, support sales opportunities, and deliver measurable business outcomes. The role also includes managing AI and technology partnerships, evaluating new capabilities that strengthen the ecosystem, and representing product and technology strategy at board level by communicating architecture decisions, platform maturity, and build-versus-buy recommendations clearly to executives, investors, and stakeholders.
About You
The ideal candidate has significant product leadership experience within ad technology and has built or scaled programmatic infrastructure such as DSPs, SSPs, DMPs, or data marketplaces. They possess deep expertise in performance marketing across Meta and TikTok and understand campaign architecture, audience strategy, optimisation, and how to systematise media operations at scale.
They have worked closely with machine learning and data science teams to deliver production AI models and understand where agentic AI can safely automate workflows and where human oversight remains essential. They have experience operating live service businesses while simultaneously building technology platforms and understand how to balance operational excellence with long-term product development.
The successful candidate also has substantial experience working with first-party data and clean room technologies, including platforms such as AWS Clean Rooms, Snowflake, InfoSum, Habu, or equivalent solutions. They are a builder who is equally comfortable making architectural decisions and defining product roadmaps while operating in fast-moving environments with imperfect information.
Commercial awareness is essential. The Chief Product Officer understands how product strategy influences revenue growth, customer retention, pricing, and market differentiation. They are also an excellent communicator who can present complex technical concepts clearly and confidently to boards, investors, clients, partners, and senior executives.
Nice to Have
Experience within a commerce media network, travel technology platform, or vertical data marketplace would be advantageous. Familiarity with agentic AI platforms such as Scope3, Kargo Kera, LangChain, AutoGen, or similar technologies would also be valuable, together with a clear perspective on their application to media workflow automation. An engineering background, including direct leadership of engineering teams, is desirable, as is experience guiding a business through the transition from founder-led product development to the more structured processes typically associated with Series A to Series B growth.