Head Of Product, Mobile/Social

About Us Hostelworld Group, the global hostel‑focussed online booking platform, inspires adventurous minds to meet the world and come back with life‑changing stories to tell. Our customers are not your average tourists, they crave cultural connection and unique experiences that we make possible by providing an unbeatable selection of hostels in unmissable locations – all in the palm of their hand. It is the social nature and community feel of hostels and their environment, that enable travellers to embrace journeys of discovery, adventure and meaning. We have more than 13 million reviews across 17,800 hostels in more than 179 countries, making the brand the leading online hub for social travel. The website operates in 19 different languages and our mobile app in 13 languages. Founded in 1999 and headquartered in Dublin, Hostelworld has a growing, high‑calibre team of 230 people within Technology, Product, Global Markets, HR, Finance & Legal and Marketing Teams across our Dublin, London, Porto, Shanghai and Sydney offices. Hostelworld is listed on the London Stock Exchange and Dublin Euronext. You can read more about our story here. LOCATION We are expecting this role to be based either in Portugal, Ireland or the UK. We have offices in Porto, Portugal and in Dublin, Ireland, so if you are based in either the Porto or Dublin regions, you could work on a hybrid basis. If you are based outside of these locations, you could work on a remote basis with occasional travel to meet with your teams. Who You’ll Work With The Mobile/Social team owns the iOS and Android apps and Hostelworld's unique social network. We design and deliver seamless, high‑performing mobile experiences that inspire travellers to book, connect and share their journeys. Our team is responsible for the full mobile product lifecycle—from strategy and design to experimentation, analytics and continuous optimisation. We build features that enable travellers to discover destinations, join local events, and connect with like‑minded adventurers in real time. Leveraging data insights, personalisation and emerging technologies like GenAI, we craft experiences that feel intuitive and social by design. We partner closely with Growth, Marketing, and Data Science to drive engagement, retention and revenue through innovative mobile solutions. Our mission is to make Hostelworld the go‑to platform for social travel, putting community and connection at the heart of every trip. What You’ll Do In a nutshell, you will own the end‑to‑end mobile product strategy and execution— leading a team that is focussed on accelerating growth, elevating our in‑trip social experience, and shipping reliable, high‑performing apps that travellers love. Domain Ownership Define and own the Mobile/Social product vision, strategy and roadmap, aligned to company OKRs; prioritise for customer impact and commercial outcomes. Own the P&L levers for Mobile/Social (acquisition, activation, engagement, retention, monetisation) and partner with Finance to forecast, scenario‑plan and track ROI. Champion in‑trip social experiences (community, discovery, messaging, activities) that build network effects and meaningful connections between travellers. Elevate app quality and performance: crash‑free sessions, app start time, ANR rate, bundle size, offline resilience, accessibility and privacy by design. Partner with Data/AI to apply GenAI and on‑device ML (e.g., intelligent trip planning, content personalisation, relevance/ranking, safety/moderation, multilingual support). Ensure instrumentation, analytics and telemetry are first‑class: event taxonomy, self‑serve dashboards, causal and cohort analysis to inform decisions. Collaborate with Lifecycle/CRM on push, in‑app messaging and notifications – contextual, timely and respectful of user preferences and local regulations. Own the Mobile surface of our brand: work with Design/Research on design systems, usability, and inclusive experiences for a global audience. Partner with Growth Marketing on ASO (App Store/Play optimisation), ratings/reviews strategy and creative experimentation. Communicate clearly and often—from PRDs and decision memos to ELT‑ready updates; simplify complexity and create alignment across stakeholders. People Management & Leadership Lead a high‑performing Mobile/Social team—set clear goals, establish operating rituals, coach managers/ICs, and hire for excellence and diversity of thought. Encourage a collaborative, innovative, data‑driven culture focused on continuous improvement and achieving goals. Effectively execute any people manager activities, including Recruitment, Performance, Development & Reward initiatives. Inspire and guide the team to achieve their professional goals, creating a sense of purpose and pride in their work. Be a responsible advocate for the team, ensuring their voices are heard, and their contributions are recognised and rewarded. What We’re Looking For Knowledge & Skills: Visionary yet hands‑on product leader who can articulate a compelling strategy and translate it into shipped value at pace. Deep understanding of Mobile growth loops, network effects, and what makes travellers choose and stay loyal to one app over another. Mastery of experimentation and product analytics (hypothesis design, power, guardrails, causal methods) and the judgment to know when to test vs. ship. Strong product sense and UX craft for mobile; familiarity with platform conventions and inclusive design. Comfortable working at the intersection of AI and product, framing problems where GenAI/ML truly add value – and setting the right safety and quality bars. Excellent communicator and storyteller; able to align executives and energise teams. Essential Experience & Qualifications: 7+ years in consumer product management with significant impact on iOS/Android apps. 4+ years leading managers/teams. Proven track record scaling mobile products through activation, engagement and retention, not just feature shipping. Experience owning outcomes for a product line or 'P&L levers' and partnering with Finance on forecasting and ROI. Demonstrated leadership of experimentation programmes and data‑driven decision‑making. Fluency with modern mobile analytics and tooling (e.g., Firebase/GA4, Amplitude/Mixpanel, feature‑flag/experimentation platforms). Working knowledge of the mobile stack and delivery practices (Swift/Kotlin fundamentals, CI/CD, crash/ANR monitoring), enabling strong partnership with Engineering. Nice To Have Experience applying GenAI/LLMs in mobile contexts (e.g., content generation/summarisation, conversational assistance, semantic search, safety/moderation). Background in marketplaces, travel/OTA, social or community products. App Store/Play ASO experience and ratings/reviews strategy. Exposure to privacy‑centric measurement (ATT, SKAdNetwork) and international data/privacy regulations. Entrepreneurial or 0→1 product experience. What We Offer Competitive salary & benefits Enhanced annual leave plus 3 Wellbeing Days per year Paid family leave (maternity, paternity, surrogacy & adoption) Agile working (plus a Working from Abroad Policy) Support for your ongoing growth & development Inclusive people policies (sickness, menopause, compassionate and fertility leave) A chance to give back to your local community with 5 paid volunteering days OUR BEHAVIOURS Grow others - We fundamentally believe that investing in growing others benefits everyone, whether it's helping them develop hard or soft skills. We want learning and growing to be part of our DNA to help makes us a better team, together. Master it - We are obsessed with our area of expertise and enjoy developing our skills. We rarely take things at face value; we investigate, interrogate, and always look for 'the why,' and wherever possible, we use data to find the best solution. Collaborate - We are in it together, for the tough stuff and the celebrations too. To achieve the best results, we need expertise from all areas of the organisation, and we wholeheartedly welcome diverse thinking. Adapt - We work fluidly, adapting to new information and the evolving environment while staying committed to our goals. Innovation and experimentation fuel our projects and we're never afraid to pivot. Deliver - Our focus is always on the end result; we value outcomes over activity. We collaborate to deliver work at speed without dropping any of our other behaviours. We believe in talented and diverse teams that reflect the diversity of our customers and the communities in which we operate. Everyone brings different perspectives and experiences. We lay out the above requirements to guide applicants to the experiences that we believe will allow you to be successful in the role. If you don't meet them all, please consider applying if you think you can still perform the role as described. Our vision is to be the world's leading social travel platform. We are on a mission to help travellers find their people and create unforgettable moments together. Connections matter as much as destinations, and we are building a global ecosystem to enable them. Since the launch of our social network in the hostelling category in 2022, Hostelworld has experienced transformational growth. We have successfully welcomed over 2.6 million social members to our platform, proving the strong demand for connection in travel. This vibrant community is not just booking trips; they are actively engaging, co‑creating, and becoming our most powerful brand advocates. The platform is rich with user‑generated content, including a rapidly growing volume of customer testimonials and authentic travel stories that provide powerful social proof. The growth in engagement is remarkable: the number of messages sent between travellers has grown significantly faster than the number of trips booked by social members, demonstrating the deep social utility of our platform. This momentum is reflected in our robust financial health, underscored by a strong balance sheet powered by an asset‑light, cash‑generative business model. We are not just another Online Travel Agent (OTA); we have created a new category of travel altogether: Social Travel. Our singular focus on helping travellers find people to hang out with is the foundation of our strategy. It has allowed us to build a powerful and defensible market position, which attracts highly valuable customers and shifts more of our business onto our mobile‑native apps. While our app and social features create a sticky user experience, our true competitive moat stems from the incredibly rich, proprietary data set generated by our social network. As our community grows, so does the value of this data, creating a compounding network effect that is nearly impossible to replicate. This "social flywheel" allows us to understand traveller behaviour, predict needs, and personalise experiences in ways that generalist OTAs cannot match. It is the engine that will power our long‑term, differentiated growth and solidify our position as the sole player in the Social Travel category we created. #J-18808-Ljbffr