Chief Product Officer

Job Description

The Chief Product Officer (CPO) will define and champion MOTOR's product vision, leading the organization in delivering customer-centric, market-driven, and AI-enabled solutions that accelerate growth across the automotive ecosystem. As the executive owner of both Product Strategy and Product Engineering, the CPO steers the company's innovation agenda-shaping what we build and guiding how we build it-ensuring our SaaS and DaaS platforms remain best-in-class in performance, usability, reliability, and customer value.

This role places significant emphasis on understanding customer needs, market dynamics, competitive pressures, and emerging technologies to inform a forward-thinking product roadmap. The CPO will immerse deeply in customer conversations, translating insights into clear product direction and fostering strong external partnerships that elevate MOTOR's market position.

In parallel, the CPO will lead the technology, engineering, DevOps, and IT teams to ensure that architectural modernization, quality, and operational excellence fully support product strategy and long-term scale. With an AI-first mindset, the CPO will guide MOTOR through a transformative evolution of products, data solutions, and technology platforms.

As a member of the Executive Leadership Team, the CPO will influence enterprise strategy, partner closely with commercial and customer-facing teams, and build a culture of innovation, accountability, and cross-functional collaboration. Their leadership will directly shape MOTOR's future and its ability to consistently deliver high-impact repair and service data solutions to the automotive industry.

Responsibilities

Product Vision, Strategy & Market Leadership

• Establish and clearly articulate a bold, customer-focused product vision aligned with company growth goals and market opportunities.
• Build and maintain a strategic product roadmap grounded in customer insights, market research, competitive analysis, and emerging technology trends.
• Lead a high-performing Product Management team that champions customer needs, drives clarity of requirements, and creates compelling value propositions.
• Operate with a GM mindset-balancing customer value, technical feasibility, and financial impact to deliver profitable product growth.
• Define success metrics, track product performance, and use data to guide prioritization and continuous improvement.

Customer Engagement & Industry Influence

• Build trusting, advisory-level relationships with key automotive customers, understanding their challenges and shaping solutions that address real-world needs.
• Represent MOTOR externally as a product and technology thought leader, strengthening the company's reputation in the automotive and AI ecosystems.
• Provide consultative partnership to customers' technology teams, aligning roadmaps and solving integration or data challenges with authority and clarity.

Engineering & Technology Leadership (Supporting the Product Agenda)

• Lead and inspire Product Engineering, DevOps, Architecture, and IT teams to execute against product vision with excellence, velocity, reliability, and security.
• Modernize the technology stack and architecture, including cloud strategies, automation, and AI-driven capabilities, ensuring scalability and performance.
• Drive quality engineering, strong software development practices, and operational efficiency across all technical teams.
• Oversee design and delivery of technology solutions that are timely, cost-effective, secure, and aligned with customer expectations.
• Ensure cross-functional collaboration between product, engineering, and go-to-market teams to accelerate innovation and maximize impact.

AI-Driven Transformation

• Champion an AI-first approach across all MOTOR product lines, from data leverage to user experience to internal operational workflows.
• Lead AI strategy, identifying areas where machine learning and automation can unlock meaningful product differentiation or operational scale.
• Guide the evolution of future-state architecture to support AI-powered products and data delivery models.

Operational & Organizational Leadership

• Lead the annual capital planning process, secure investment, and measure product and technology ROI with discipline.
• Establish clear frameworks for evaluating product and engineering effectiveness, including productivity, quality, customer adoption, and outcomes.
• Recruit, develop, and retain top talent across Product, Engineering, DevOps, and IT, nurturing a diverse and innovative culture.
• Foster alignment, collaboration, and transparent communication across all teams to support execution of company strategy.
• Stay ahead of emerging technologies, industry trends, and competitive insights to keep MOTOR at the forefront of innovation.

Qualifications

Skills, Experience & Qualifications

• Bachelor's or Master's degree in Computer Science/Engineering, MIS, or related field; MBA preferred.
• 15+ years of Product and Engineering leadership experience in software-driven organizations, ideally including SaaS/DaaS and automotive technology companies.
• Proven track record building and scaling customer-centric product organizations and delivering successful product roadmaps.
• Deep understanding of software architecture, data platforms, development methodologies, and modernization practices.
• Strong experience leading distributed engineering teams using Agile and DevOps practices.
• Demonstrated success collaborating across commercial, customer success, marketing, and finance functions to deliver end-to-end product outcomes.
• Excellent communication skills and executive presence, capable of influencing both internal leaders and large enterprise customers.
• Strong strategic, financial, and analytical thinking with the ability to drive both innovation and operational rigor.
• Ability to build trusted internal and external relationships and inspire teams around a shared vision.
• Experience successfully managing highly distributed teams on-shore/off-shore.

ABOUT MOTOR

MOTOR is the world's premier supplier of automotive data. Since 1903, MOTOR's mission has been to provide accurate, thorough and timely information.

At MOTOR we design information solutions for the vehicle aftermarket from decades of automotive parts, repair and service information. We use the latest technology to deliver these solutions as mobile software applications, web services, data extracts and printed books.

MOTOR data is involved in billions of transactions annually across multiple segments of the industry. If you have ever taken a vehicle in for an oil change, received an estimate for mechanical or collision repair, or purchased a part online or in a store, you've benefitted from MOTOR data. In addition, the fleets of cars and trucks that deliver your goods and services are maintained using MOTOR data.

Headquartered in Troy, Michigan, MOTOR is a Hearst company.


ABOUT HEARST

Hearst is a leading global, diversified media, information and services company with more than 360 businesses. Its major interests include ownership in cable television networks such as A&E, HISTORY, Lifetime and ESPN; global financial services leader Fitch Group; Hearst Health, a group of medical information and services businesses; transportation assets including CAMP Systems International, a major provider of software-as-a-service solutions for managing maintenance of jets and helicopters; 33 television stations such as WCVB-TV in Boston and KCRA-TV in Sacramento, California, which reach a combined 19% of U.S. viewers; newspapers such as the Houston Chronicle, San Francisco Chronicle and Times Union (Albany, New York); more than 300 magazines around the world, including Cosmopolitan, ELLE, Men's Health and Car and Driver, and digital services businesses such as iCrossing and KUBRA; and investments in emerging digital entertainment companies such as Complex Networks.