Principal Product Manager - Search, Discovery & Personalisation

MRJ Recruitment Limited; Manchester; Hybrid; GBP 108,000 - 132,000; Full time

Job summary

MRJ Recruitment Limited seeks a Principal Product Manager to own the strategy and evolution of Search, Discovery and Personalisation for a leading eCommerce marketplace in Manchester. You will drive AI-powered experiences, from semantic search to personalised journeys, owning ranking, relevance and recommendations to optimise conversion and revenue.

You will partner with Data Science and Engineering to deploy ML models, establish experimentation cultures with rapid testing, and align

Qualifications

• Significant product management experience in large-scale digital businesses.
• Experience owning Search, Discovery & Personalisation domains.
• Understanding of ranking, relevance and recommendation systems.
• Experience delivering AI/ML powered products (semantic search, LLMs, personalised journeys).
• Commercial focus with ability to influence conversion, revenue and profitability.

Responsibilities

• Own the multi-year strategy and roadmap for Search, Discovery and Personalisation.
• Lead AI-powered innovation: semantic search, LLM-powered reranking, generative AI and personalised recommendations.
• Improve commercial performance: boost conversion, revenue, AOV and marketplace profitability.
• Define ranking and relevance frameworks and metrics for success.
• Collaborate with Data Science & Engineering to deploy ML models powering search and recommendations.
• Foster experimentation with A/B testing and data-driven decision making.
• Align search strategies with pricing, trading and customer experience objectives.
• Set a compelling long-term vision while managing delivery and performance.

Skills

Product Management

Search & Discovery

Personalisation

AI/ML literacy

Job description

Principal Product Manager – Search, Discovery & Personalisation

Location: Manchester (3 days per week in the office)

Salary: to £120k base + bonus

The way customers search, discover and purchase products online is changing rapidly. Traditional keyword searches and static product listings are giving way to intelligent, personalised and AI-powered experiences that understand customer intent, anticipate needs and make finding the right product easier than ever.

We're partnering with a leading social and circular eCommerce marketplace that is investing heavily in transforming its digital customer experience, using AI, machine learning and advanced personalisation to redefine how millions of customers discover, explore and purchase products.

We're looking for a Principal Product Manager (Search, Discovery & Personalisation) to lead the strategy and evolution of one of the most commercially important areas of the business. You'll own the end-to-end product strategy for search and discovery, from ranking, relevance and recommendations through to AI-powered experiences including semantic search, LLM reranking, intelligent product recommendations and personalised customer journeys.

Search and discovery sit at the heart of the marketplace experience. The products customers see, the order in which they appear and how effectively they match customer intent have a direct impact on conversion, revenue, customer engagement and profitability.

Your challenge will be to transform these capabilities into a genuinely intelligent, commercially optimised and personalised experience.

What You’ll Do

• Own the Product Strategy: Define and deliver the multi-year product vision and roadmap for Search, Discovery and Personalisation, spanning ranking, relevance, recommendations, retrieval and AI-native experiences.
• Drive AI-Powered Innovation: Lead the evolution towards intelligent search experiences, incorporating semantic search, LLM-powered reranking, generative AI, conversational search and personalised recommendations.
• Optimise Commercial Performance: Take ownership of the commercial impact of search and discovery, improving conversion rates, revenue, customer engagement, average order value and marketplace profitability.
• Transform Ranking & Relevance: Develop sophisticated approaches to product ranking and selection, balancing customer relevance, personalisation, commercial priorities and marketplace dynamics.
• Partner with Data Science & Engineering: Work closely with ML Engineers, Data Scientists and Engineering Leaders to develop, deploy and continuously optimise machine learning models that power search, ranking and recommendations.
• Champion Experimentation: Establish a culture of rapid experimentation, using A/B testing, causal analysis and customer behaviour insights to validate hypotheses and accelerate product improvements.
• Connect Search, Pricing & Personalisation: Work across commercial, pricing, trading and customer experience teams to ensure search and discovery strategies are aligned with wider business objectives.
• Own Search Quality: Define the frameworks, metrics and evaluation methodologies that measure search relevance, customer satisfaction, personalisation effectiveness and commercial outcomes.
• Lead Cross-Functional Strategy: Navigate complex stakeholder environments, align competing priorities and communicate product trade-offs and strategic decisions at executive level.
• Influence & Develop Product Teams: Provide strategic direction, coaching and mentorship to Product Managers, helping establish high standards of product thinking, experimentation and delivery.
• Accelerate Delivery: Balance long-term platform investment with the need to deliver measurable customer and commercial improvements at pace.

Who You Are

• You have extensive Product Management experience, including significant ownership of Search, Discovery & Personalisation within a large-scale digital business.
• You've worked in a complex eCommerce, online marketplace, retail or consumer technology environment, where customer experience and commercial performance are closely connected.
• You understand the technology behind modern search and recommendation systems, including ranking algorithms, retrieval strategies, relevance optimisation and machine learning models.
• You have experience delivering AI/ML-powered products, ideally involving semantic search, recommendation engines, LLMs, generative AI or intelligent personalisation.
• You're commercially minded and understand how product decisions influence conversion, revenue, customer lifetime value, profitability and overall marketplace performance.
• You have a strong track record of partnering with Data Science and Engineering teams to translate complex models and technical capabilities into meaningful customer and business outcomes.
• You're passionate about experimentation, using hypotheses, A/B testing, data analysis and measurable outcomes to inform product decisions.
• You understand the relationship between search relevance, ranking, pricing, promotions, customer behaviour and commercial optimisation.
• You're comfortable operating at both strategic and technical levels, setting a compelling long-term vision while getting into the detail of product performance and delivery.
• You can influence senior stakeholders, challenge existing thinking and communicate complex technical concepts through clear, commercially focused narratives.
• You thrive in fast-moving environments, embrace new technologies and have the ambition to challenge traditional approaches to digital product development.
• You bring experience influencing multiple Product, Engineering and Data Science teams, with the ability to lead through collaboration rather than relying solely on direct reporting lines.