Chief Product Officer (CPO)

Booking Experts France; Enschede; Hybrid; EUR 150,000 - 190,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Hybrid work

MacBook + large screen

Cycle-to-work

25 days annual leave

Lunch with team

Job summary

Booking Experts, a fast-growing hospitality tech company, seeks a Chief Product Officer to lead strategy and execution across Europe. You will chair the MT, partner with the CTO, and align a scalable product organization including PMs, designers, and copywriters.

You will drive AI-powered features, revenue opportunities, and market localization for the UK, France, Spain, Denmark, and the DACH region. Your leadership will shape the product roadmap, balance innovation with stability, and build a

Qualifications

• Proven experience leading product organizations in fast-growing SaaS/scale-up environments.
• Strong strategic thinking with ability to translate insights into action.
• Experience shaping AI features and integrating AI into platforms.

Responsibilities

• Define and own the product vision and roadmap at MT level.
• Lead and scale the product team (Head of Product, PMs, Designers, Copywriters).
• Collaborate with CTO on architecture and with CEO/COO/CTO/CMO/ CFO on strategy and execution.
• Drive AI initiatives and new revenue opportunities (e.g., Activity Management System).
• Ensure market localization and MVP alignment across Europe with realistic costs/returns.

Skills

Strategic leadership

Product vision

AI in software

Team leadership

English communication

Job description

We are at an exciting crossroads. Hundreds of holiday parks and hospitality businesses across Europe rely on our platform daily. Our foundation is rock-solid, and now is the time to accelerate our growth. The market is moving fast, particularly around AI, and international markets demand a truly localised approach. As CPO, you will bring strategic focus and a crystal-clear product vision that the entire company can rally behind. Together, we are aiming for long-term results.

What You Will Be Doing

As CPO, you are the driving force behind our product’s success. You will give Product a full, strategic voice at the Management Team (MT) table, ensuring a balanced partnership with Engineering. You define the 'what' and 'why'; together with our CTO, you ensure the 'how' aligns seamlessly. You will lead a growing product team consisting of a Head of Product, Product Managers, Product Designers, and Product Copywriters, building the structure required to truly scale up.

• Vision and roadmap that provide clarity: You formulate a product vision that is rock-solid, both internally and externally towards (potential) users. You decisively steer major strategic projects towards a successful launch.
• Leading the AI revolution: You don’t wait to see where AI goes; you determine where we go with AI. From smart automations for park managers to tools providing instant answers to guests, you turn AI into a core pillar of our platform, not just a side feature.
• Conquering Europe, not just translating it: We are successfully expanding into the UK, France, Spain, Denmark, and the DACH region. You don’t just say we need market fit; you ensure we know exactly what that means. You dissect what is truly different per market: legislation, local habits, and expectations. You align an MVP with the right stakeholders, map it out with sharp attention to detail, and set realistic expectations regarding costs and returns. This turns new markets into an actionable plan rather than a wishlist.
• Tapping into new revenue streams: You identify commercial opportunities and translate them into features that actively generate revenue, such as our own Activity Management System. You work closely with the commercial team to achieve this.
• Setting up Innovation Squads: Alongside the core team safeguarding stability, you create space for small, agile teams to quickly validate and build new ideas. Speed where possible, diligence where required.
• From insight to solution: You ensure that great ideas and user insights don't remain abstract. You translate them into sharply defined, validated solutions so that engineering can build with confidence and every feature hits the mark before the first line of code is written.
• Optimal focus for Engineering: Through clear prioritisation and strong preparation, engineering knows exactly where the focus lies. You ensure a predictable, strategic backlog that provides clarity and a foundation the entire organisation can build upon.

Your team and collaboration

You will head up a talented product team. The Head of Product is the operational engine of the team; you provide the structure, frameworks, and room for growth to elevate their work.

With the CTO, you form a crucial tandem: you determine the what and why, while the CTO safeguards the technical architecture, stability, and scalability. Together with the CEO, COO, CTO, CCO, and CFO, you form an MT that is balanced across all levels: commerce, execution, finance, tech, and product innovation.

What you can expect from us

• A key position within the MT of one of Europe’s fastest-growing hospitality tech companies
• A competitive C-level salary + 10% salary allowance
• The freedom to leave your mark on both our product and our international expansion
• An ambitious, informal working atmosphere with short lines of communication and a high degree of ownership
• MacBook + large screen, sit-stand desk, and a cycle-to-work scheme
• Hybrid working from our offices in Enschede and/or Zwolle
• Daily joint lunch with the team
• 25 days of annual leave

About Booking Experts

Booking Experts is an international software platform that helps hospitality and recreation businesses automate and improve their entire operations. With our products BEX PMS, CMS, and smart tools and integrations, we offer a complete cloud-based ecosystem that supports holiday parks, campsites, hotels, and rental organisations in their administrative, operational, and financial management.

We are active in the Netherlands, the UK, France, Spain, Denmark, and the DACH region, and over the coming years, we aim to secure the same leading position across Europe that we already hold in the Netherlands.

About You

You are an experienced product leader who thinks strategically and is comfortable making decisive calls. You feel just as at home in an MT discussion about growth and market positioning as you do in a working session with designers and engineers. You understand what a healthy product-engineering relationship looks like and how to build one.

• Proven experience as a CPO, VP of Product, or a similar role within a fast-growing SaaS or scale-up environment (experience in hospitality or fintech is a plus)
• A track record of building and scaling product teams (Product Management, Product Design, and Copy)
• An international mindset: you know how to scale and localise a product for markets like France, Spain, the UK, and the DACH region without fragmenting the roadmap
• A strong vision on the role of AI in software and concrete experience bringing AI features to production
• Strategic and decisive: you bring structure and scalability to a dynamic, fast-growing scale-up environment, know how to separate main priorities from side issues, and provide engineering with a crystal-clear, prioritised backlog
• A natural leader who inspires talent, helps teams scale, and empowers individuals
• You make decisions based on both data and customer contact, refusing to compromise on either
• Excellent command of English; knowledge of Dutch is an advantage
• You live within reasonable travelling distance of Enschede (preferred) or Zwolle, and are willing to travel to our international markets periodically

Our origins lie with Expert Webdesign, where we developed websites for all kinds of companies, including recreation entrepreneurs. We repeatedly encountered the same problem: the websites were far ahead of the market and competition, but lacked the ability to book a vacation directly through the website. Customers had to contact the reception desk by phone or switch to external booking platforms. We thought this could be done better and more easily.

That's why we sat down with all kinds of parties, such as receptionists, park managers, technical services, cleaners, barrier operators, and management, to identify the bottlenecks from various perspectives. The result was the development of an innovative reservation system that integrates all the essentials for recreation companies. That's how Booking Experts came into being in 2011. Our booking platform has grown to become the go-to platform for holiday parks, campsites, and hotels in various countries.

To meet growing demand, we established our marketing agency Booking Boosters in 2017. This enables us to help our customers increase their online sales and stimulate their growth. Through effective and performance-based marketing techniques, such as SEO, SEA, Affiliate Marketing, and Social Media, we help holiday parks grow and flourish!