Hotels and Restaurants - Technical Product Lead

Colonial Group; Dunstable; Hybrid; GBP 60,000 - 65,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Bonus and Benefits

Job summary

Whitbread, in the Hotels & Restaurants Technology team, seeks a Technical Product Lead to own and refine product backlogs for guest-facing and operational hotel tech, including self-service kiosks, keys and access systems, and related security technologies.

You will collaborate with Engineering, QA, Release, Service and Change teams to translate strategy into epics and stories, ensure reliability and resilience, manage dependencies, and drive adoption across hotel operations using data-driven

Qualifications

• Experience working as a Product Lead, Product Owner, Delivery Lead or similar within a technology or digital environment.
• Experience working with kiosks, self-service technology, keys, physical/digital access solutions, security technology or similar customer-facing operational systems.
• A good understanding of access control, security, authentication and the operational considerations associated with guest-facing technology.
• Experience delivering technology into live, operationally critical environments, where reliability, resilience, security and usability are essential.

Responsibilities

• Own and maintain prioritised product backlogs across assigned Hotels & Restaurants technology products.
• Support the delivery and continuous improvement of technology including self-service kiosks, key and access solutions and associated security technologies.
• Translate product strategy and roadmap objectives into clear epics, features, user stories and delivery priorities.
• Act as the day-to-day product lead across Engineering, QA & Release, Service, Operations and Delivery & Change teams.
• Lead product refinement, planning, acceptance and review activities throughout the delivery lifecycle.
• Work with the Technical Product Manager to shape roadmap priorities, sequencing, dependencies and trade-offs.
• Ensure access, security, resilience, service and operational requirements are considered from the outset when delivering guest and hotel technology.
• Collaborate with other Product Leads and Tech Leads to manage dependencies between digital products, physical technology and wider hotel systems.
• Partner with Operations and Business Change to ensure new technology is operationally ready, successfully rolled out and adopted by hotel teams.
• Track product performance, adoption, usage and value following go-live and use insight to drive continuous improvement.
• Manage product risks, issues and dependencies, escalating where appropriate.
• Work with third-party technology suppliers and partners to ensure delivery meets agreed priorities and standards.

Skills

Product Lead experience

Product Owner

Delivery Lead

Stakeholder Management

Backlog Management

Cross-functional Collaboration

Job description

Job Title: Technical Product Lead
Contract Type: Permanent
Location: Whitbread Court | Hybrid Working

Salary: £60-65,000 + Bonus and Benefits

Are you an experienced Product Owner or Product Lead who enjoys turning strategy into action and delivering technology that makes a real difference to guests and operational teams?

At Whitbread, we're looking for a Technical Product Lead to join our Hotels & Restaurants Technology team. You'll take hands-on product ownership across technology supporting our hotel operations and guest journeys, with a particular focus on areas such as self-service kiosks, keys and access solutions, security and other operationally critical hotel technology.

What you'll be doing:

• Own and maintain prioritised product backlogs across assigned Hotels & Restaurants technology products.
• Support the delivery and continuous improvement of technology including self-service kiosks, key and access solutions and associated security technologies.
• Translate product strategy and roadmap objectives into clear epics, features, user stories and delivery priorities.
• Act as the day-to-day product lead across Engineering, QA & Release, Service, Operations and Delivery & Change teams.
• Lead product refinement, planning, acceptance and review activities throughout the delivery lifecycle.
• Work with the Technical Product Manager to shape roadmap priorities, sequencing, dependencies and trade-offs.
• Ensure access, security, resilience, service and operational requirements are considered from the outset when delivering guest and hotel technology.
• Collaborate with other Product Leads and Tech Leads to manage dependencies between digital products, physical technology and wider hotel systems.
• Partner with Operations and Business Change to ensure new technology is operationally ready, successfully rolled out and adopted by hotel teams.
• Track product performance, adoption, usage and value following go-live and use insight to drive continuous improvement.
• Manage product risks, issues and dependencies, escalating where appropriate.
• Work with third-party technology suppliers and partners to ensure delivery meets agreed priorities and standards.

What you'll need:

• Experience working as a Product Lead, Product Owner, Business Analyst, Delivery Lead or similar within a technology or digital environment.
• Experience working with kiosks, self-service technology, keys, physical/digital access solutions, security technology or similar customer-facing operational systems.
• A good understanding of access control, security, authentication and the operational considerations associated with guest-facing technology.
• Experience delivering technology into live, operationally critical environments, where reliability, resilience, security and usability are essential.
• Strong experience managing and prioritising product backlogs and translating business outcomes into actionable delivery requirements.
• Experience breaking roadmap objectives into epics, features, stories and acceptance criteria.
• Experience working closely with Engineering, QA, Release, Service and Change teams.
• Strong stakeholder management skills with the confidence to challenge, influence and align different teams and priorities.
• The ability to balance customer value, operational impact, security, risk, cost and technical complexity when making product decisions.
• Strong planning, organisational and problem-solving skills, with the ability to manage multiple priorities and dependencies.
• A data-led approach, using product performance, adoption and user insight to inform decisions and improvements.

It would be great if you also have:

• Experience within hotels, hospitality, restaurants, retail, travel or another multi-site customer-facing environment.
• Experience delivering kiosk, key/access, security or other technology that combines physical hardware with digital platforms and services.
• Experience supporting large-scale technology transformation or multi-year product roadmaps.
• Experience working across complex environments with multiple platforms, integrations and operational dependencies.
• Experience working with third-party technology suppliers, hardware providers, partners or system integrators.

If you're a hands-on product professional who understands the challenges of delivering secure, reliable guest-facing technology into live operational environments, and you're passionate about improving experiences through products such as kiosks, keys and access solutions, we'd love to hear from you.