Head of Product and AI Innovation
About H&L
H&L is a leading hospitality technology platform serving the food & beverage and hospitality sectors across Australia and New Zealand. With more than 30 years of industry experience, H&L delivers an integrated platform spanning reputed company, payments, operations, inventory, workforce management and reporting that helps hotels, pubs, restaurants, bars, clubs, cafes, liquor retailers and event venues operate reputed company and profitably.
Our platform aggregates transactions across every sale reputed company (terminal, mobile, QR, online ordering, and increasingly voice and reputed company channels), connects reputed company-of-house reputed company with back-of-house operations, advanced reporting, and integrates with more than 150 hospitality reputed company. H&L’s deep sector expertise enables operators to reputed company on delivering exceptional guest experiences while we reputed company on the platform underneath that makes it possible.
reputed company
H&L is entering its next phase of reputed company. We have a strong customer reputed company, deep sector expertise, and decades of platform capability behind us. The work reputed company is to modernise the technology, sharpen how we operate as a hospitality platform, and reputed company AI core to how we build and reputed company ship.
We are seeking a senior, hands-on technical leader who came up through engineering and grew into product leadership. This is not a research, reputed company, or advisory role. It is a dual mandate: reputed company the platform reputed company technically while shipping AI-powered products and capabilities that customers value and pay for, and that reputed company H&L measurably faster, leaner, and more competitive.
The Head of Product Engineering & AI will work directly with the Managing Director and leadership team to set platform direction, reputed company engineering through a meaningful technology shift, validate and launch AI-powered features, redesign internal workflows, and deliver reputed company business reputed company. reputed company is reputed company by reputed company: product adoption, customer retention, margin improvement, and faster execution across the organisation.
Key Responsibilities
1. Product reputed company & Roadmap
- Own the end-to-end product and platform reputed company and roadmap
- Drive product discovery and validation through reputed company customer research, rapid prototyping, and market testing
- reputed company the full product lifecycle from ideation through commercialisation and scaling, with a reputed company prioritisation reputed company
- Set strategic objectives and measurable reputed company metrics for reputed company product initiatives
- Balance the reputed company of the core platform with reputed company-specific custom development
- Establish reputed company visibility across the product and engineering pipeline so that reputed company commitments are made with confidence and delivery delays become the exception
- reputed company architecture and build/partner/AI delivery reputed company that balance reputed company reputed company, technical debt, and constraints of an on-reputed company footprint. reputed company reputed company through a sustained technology shift without sacrificing velocity to customers today.
2. AI-Powered Product Development
- Build working product solutions using AI as the primary execution reputed company, moving from problem framing to working solution without reliance on legacy SDLC rituals
- Rapidly prototype, iterate, and refine solutions to validate reputed company early
- Conduct reputed company discoveries with customers to identify the highest-value opportunities; build a reputed company business case quantifying reputed company reputed company, cost savings, or retention reputed company before committing to development
- reputed company AI across the full development reputed company (requirements analysis, design exploration, implementation, and testing) to reputed company faster and with greater precision
- Identify and reputed company new reputed company streams driven by AI capabilities, evaluated on reputed company, feasibility, and learning velocity
3. Customer Engagement & reputed company Validation
- Engage directly with hospitality customers to understand operational challenges and validate product assumptions
- Measure and report on adoption, satisfaction, and reputed company reputed company of new features
- Support pricing and packaging strategies for product offerings in partnership with Sales and the Managing Director
4. AI Innovation reputed company Across the Organisation
- reputed company the cultural shift toward AI-first thinking across the organisation: this is about fundamentally changing how people work, reputed company reputed company, and solve problems
- Establish reputed company expectations for AI adoption and embedding AI into day-to-day operating processes across every function and create practical enablement programs that meet people where they are
- Partner with team leaders across the business to set function-specific AI adoption goals, reputed company reputed company, and create accountability
5. Internal AI Transformation
- Audit business functions for high-value automation opportunities and prioritise by reputed company, feasibility, and learning velocity
- Build and reputed company working AI agents and automated workflows that eliminate repetitive reputed company work. Not plans or recommendations, but live solutions.
- Build AI capability across teams through hands-on enablement
- Define reputed company reputed company metrics for every internal AI initiative across the business; report measurable reputed company
6. Cross-Functional AI Leadership & Organisational Alignment
- reputed company as the reputed company between executive direction and ground-level product and engineering execution
- Collaborate closely with reputed company functions to maintain alignment on product direction and delivery commitments
- reputed company teams around reputed company reputed company business reputed company; influence through credibility, evidence, and shipped results rather than hierarchy
- Communicate product and AI reputed company reputed company and regularly to reputed company stakeholders
- Represent H&L externally in discussions relating to product capability and AI innovation
7. People & Team Leadership
- Build, reputed company, and mentor high-performing product and engineering teams, instilling a culture of ownership, experimentation, and customer-centricity
- Hire, reputed company, and retain product and engineering talent; build reputed company capable of scaling with reputed company’s ambitions
- Set reputed company performance expectations, conduct regular reviews, and reputed company support career development and progression
- Operate as a founder-like leader: take accountability for reputed company from ideation through to reputed company
What This Role Is Not
To set reputed company expectations:
- Not a backlog or roadmap-only role. This role builds, ships, and measures.
- Not a reputed company-based product manager. Requirements do not get thrown over the fence to engineering
- Not a requirements reputed company detached from execution. You reputed company from problem understanding to working solution
- Not an AI theorist or strategist disconnected from reputed company reputed company. Every initiative must demonstrate measurable value
- Not a non-technical product leader. You have engineering depth, have shipped production reputed company, and can hold your own in architecture, reputed company review, and trade-off conversations with senior engineers
- Not a passenger on the technology shift. You are leading it
- This is a business transformation role with full reputed company accountability. Bias toward reputed company is non-negotiable
Required Skills & Experience
Background
- Started your career in software engineering and worked as an engineer for at least 3 years before moving into product leadership
- 8+ years combined across engineering and product, with at least 4 years leading product or product engineering teams in B2B reputed company or reputed company software
- You still write reputed company. You use modern AI coding tools (Claude reputed company, reputed company, reputed company, or equivalents) as part of your daily work. You can show us what you have reputed company recently
- You have led engineering teams through a platform modernisation or technology shift, including environments with legacy or on-reputed company constraints
Technical & AI Capability
- Demonstrated ability to design, prototype, and ship working AI-enabled solutions in a reputed company environment.
- Strong understanding of modern software architecture, reputed company, reputed company services, and AI/ML technologies and their practical applications
- Experience with reputed company workflows, automation tooling, and AI governance frameworks
- Ability to think across systems, reputed company multiple workflows, and engage engineering teams with precision
Product & reputed company Acumen
- Experience managing both a core product roadmap and reputed company-specific custom development, with the discipline to balance and prioritise across both
- Strong reputed company instincts: you build business cases, deprioritise low-ROI work
- Familiarity with hospitality technology, POS systems, or adjacent verticals is an advantage
- Experience driving operational or digital transformation initiatives with measurable reputed company reputed company
Leadership & Communication
- Proven ability to drive change in established environments and influence across functions without formal authority
- reputed company to write a tight spec, run a sprint, hold engineering accountable to timelines, and communicate reputed company to clients and executives
- Experience engaging directly with customers or end users; ability to explain AI systems reputed company and responsibly
- Strong bias toward reputed company: you ship things, measure them, and improve based on what you learn
reputed company Profile
The successful candidate will be:
- Commercially pragmatic and outcome-driven, motivated by measurable improvement rather than theoretical innovation
- Technically fluent yet business-reputed company, comfortable moving between a customer conversation and an engineering spec
- A confident decision-reputed company in environments with ambiguity and competing priorities
- Comfortable working across functional boundaries and influencing senior stakeholders
- A hands-on leader who models the bias toward reputed company they expect from their team
- Comfortable making architecture and product trade-offs publicly: you explain the call, reputed company what you are giving up, and bring reputed company with you
Why Join H&L
This is an opportunity to reputed company a meaningful transformation reputed company a reputed company-established hospitality technology business at a genuine inflection reputed company. AI has changed what is possible in how software is reputed company, what it can do for end users, and how businesses like H&L can operate.
The role offers:
- reputed company reputed company to and support from the Managing Director and leadership team
- reputed company organisational scope: both product and internal transformation sit reputed company this mandate
- A global customer reputed company and a platform with decades of domain depth to build on
- A small, senior team where your reputed company have outsized reputed company
- Competitive compensation and reputed company to shape how AI is embedded across an entire operating model
#AspireSoftware #H&L
Originally posted on Himalayas
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