Product Director - Distribution

Department: Product

Location: Remote - UK

DescriptionRole Overview: The Product Director for Distribution owns the performance, growth and strategic evolution of Defaqto’s distribution‑focused propositions, including ratings, awards, reviews and consultancy designed to help investment managers successfully distribute their funds to financial advisers. This role is accountable for both Operate and Grow outcomes — ensuring today’s propositions deliver against commercial, customer and brand expectations, while identifying and validating future opportunities that materially improve how relevant and valuable Defaqto is to investment providers — not just as a data or ratings business, but as a partner that genuinely helps them distribute more effectively in an increasingly competitive adviser market. Essential Requirements Include:

• Senior product or commercial leadership experience, ideally within investment management, asset servicing, financial research or B2B financial services.
• Strong understanding of how investment managers market funds to advisers and influence fund selection.

What you'll doOperate (driving performance today)

• Own revenue performance across ratings, awards, reviews and consultancy, measured against budget.
• Analyse sales performance, pipeline health and conversion in partnership with Commercial teams.
• Assess the pricing model (price to value), customer satisfaction, renewal and churn, identifying where propositions are not delivering sufficient perceived value.
• Evaluate the effectiveness of different proposition types (e.g. ratings vs awards vs sponsored content vs speaking opportunities) in helping investment managers achieve their distribution goals, potentially consolidating disparate propositions from acquired entities into a smaller number of more coherent offerings
• Work with Insight, Sales, Marketing and Customer Success to identify and execute improvement initiatives where propositions underperform.
• Ensure that propositions remain commercially compelling, credible and differentiated in a competitive market.

Grow (shaping what comes next)

• Develop a deep understanding of how investment managers market funds to advisers, including:
  • Adviser segmentation and targeting strategies
  • The role of ratings, awards and independent validation in fund selection
  • The effectiveness of thought leadership, insight, events and consultancy
• Maintain strong awareness of competitor approaches, emerging distribution models and regulatory or behavioural trends.
• Identify opportunities to:
  • Improve the effectiveness of existing propositions
  • Introduce new distribution‑focused offerings
  • Help providers better target the right firms and advisers, not just more of them
• Lead structured discovery and validation to test which propositions resonate most strongly with investment managers and advisers.
• Build clear, evidence‑based investment cases outlining customer value, commercial upside, delivery cost and strategic fit.

Strategic Leadership & Alignment

• Set a clear strategic vision for the Distribution portfolio, aligned to Defaqto’s broader growth objectives.
• Act as the senior product authority for distribution‑focused propositions.
• Ownership of strategy, roadmap definition and delivery execution.
• Work through matrix‑managed teams across Product, Insight, Commercial, Marketing and Customer Success.
• Represent Distribution performance, risks and opportunities at senior leadership forums.

What you'll need to succeed: We’re looking for a senior product leader with strong commercial instincts and deep understanding of investment‑manager distribution. Essential requirements:

• Senior product or commercial leadership experience, ideally within investment management, asset servicing, financial research or B2B financial services.
• Strong understanding of how investment managers market funds to advisers and influence fund selection.
• Experience evaluating the effectiveness of ratings, awards, content, insight and events as distribution tools.
• Proven ability to own revenue performance, budgets and growth targets.
• Experience building and securing approval for investment cases.
• Confidence leading cross‑functional teams through influence rather than authority.

Your approach to work:

• Clear, persuasive communication backed by strong analytical thinking.
• Delivery-focused
• Comfortable working at pace

Important to know:Location: Ideally, we'd like the successful candidate to be within a couple of hours of either our Haddenham or London offices so that some in-person collaboration can take place relatively easily. However, this is only a desirable location and we're fully open to considering candidates at other UK locations. Right to Work: Applicants must already hold a legal right to work in the UK without time restrictions and without the need for future sponsorship. We are unable to provide Skilled Worker visa sponsorship. Fintel plc and all the businesses within it adopt a zero-tolerance approach to discrimination on any of the protected grounds in the Equality Act 2010. We are committed to providing equal opportunities to all current and prospective employees regardless of age, disability, sex, sexual orientation, pregnancy and maternity, race or ethnicity, religion or belief, gender identity, or marriage and civil partnership. We aspire to have a diverse workforce because, in our view, diversity enables better business outcomes. We also believe that a more inclusive workplace, where people of different backgrounds work together, ensures better outcomes for all staff. From application to interview, we place inclusion at the heart of all we do.