Head of Product (Subscription & Growth)

Job Posted: 30 March 2026
Job Closing: 13 April 2026
Seniority: Director 
Location: London, UK 
Relocation from certain countries to the UK is available for this role subject to visa approvals. 
Gay Times is a certified visa sponsor.
Reports to: Managing Director
Key Stakeholders: Board, Managing Director, Social & Editorial, Partnerships

The Context

Gay Times has been a leading voice in LGBTQ+ media for over 40 years, a legacy built on cultivating conversation and amplifying community voices. 

Continually adapting to the shifting media landscape, Gay Times pivoted to a social and digital-first strategy in the early 2020s, becoming the first LGBTQ+ media brand to surpass 1M followers on Instagram. Today, we command a global reach of over 70M. However, as the market evolves, so does our strategy. 

Over the next 24 months, our ambition is clear: to become the world’s leading LGBTQ+ journalism brand with the largest number of subscribers of any LGBTQ+ media company. With the roadmap set and the groundwork laid, the brand is primed to scale its subscription product, building deeper audience affinity and long-term loyalty through robust editorial output.

The Role

As the Head of Product, you will lead the evolution of our digital platform during a critical phase of growth. Your primary objective is to design, build, and optimise a world-class subscriber experience that mirrors the quality of our content. You will own the product lifecycle from concept to launch, ensuring our technology serves as a seamless bridge between our product offering and our customers.

This is a hands-on leadership role. You will be accountable for ensuring our content is delivered to audiences in an appealing, intuitive manner that drives subscriber acquisition. You will bring significant experience in subscription growth, using your expertise to activate a compelling acquisition strategy within a short GTM window. By balancing creative delivery with rigorous commercial logic, you will ensure our platform is not just a repository for content, but a high-performing engine for growth.

The Opportunity

This is a rare chance to shape the future of one of the world’s preeminent and longest-running diverse media brands. Working alongside the Editorial Director, you will have the autonomy to build a modern product that serves a global community, underpinned by a sustainable, subscriber-first business model.

Core Responsibilities

  1. Product Strategy & Roadmap
  • Vision & Execution: Develop and execute a multi-year product roadmap that aligns with business goals for subscriber growth and retention.
  • Audience Intelligence: Identify audience profiles, content trends, and user needs to prioritise features that drive high engagement and long-term loyalty.
  • Format Innovation: Experiment with diverse formats (Email, Social, Digital, Paywalls) to ensure our content is amplified in ways that genuinely appeal to our target audiences.
  • Technical Strategy: Strategically balance the "Build vs. Buy" approach for third-party integrations and our end-to-end Monetisation/Ad-experience.
  1. Subscription & Growth Engineering
  • The Funnel: Own the entire conversion funnel, optimising the paywall, checkout flow, and user experience to minimise friction and maximise conversion.
  • Retention: Implement product-led retention strategies, such as personalised emailers and engagement triggers, to reduce churn.
  • Product Marketing: Implement "test and learn" marketing cycles through both organic and paid content/ads to find the most efficient routes to market.
  • Commercial Analytics: Establish a culture of rigorous A/B testing and data-driven decision-making. Monitor and report on key metrics including LTV, CAC, and Churn.
  1. Stakeholder Collaboration
  • Editorial Alignment: Work in close partnership with the Editorial Director to ensure the platform enhances the storytelling experience and provides the editorial team with the tools they need to succeed.
  • Hands-on Engineering: Lead the technical development of the product with a "Player-Coach" mentality, possessing the ability and interest to execute changes yourself when necessary.
  • Executive Leadership: Translate technical milestones and product data into clear business outcomes for the board and stakeholders.
  • Champion our Subscribers: You represent the needs of our subscribers internally. You will be responsible for balancing audience needs, business growth objectives, and editorial priorities to deliver impactful product outcomes

The Ideal Candidate

You are a curious and driven self-starter who is comfortable launching and iterating strategic initiatives independently. You bring strong leadership, communication, and stakeholder management skills, with a proven ability to evaluate and prioritise competing demands effectively.

  • Experience: 7+ years in Product Management, with a proven track record in a subscription-based model (Digital Media, or Premium Apps).
  • Analytical Prowess: Expert-level understanding of subscription metrics and experience using data visualisation tools (e.g., Mixpanel, Amplitude, or Google Analytics 4).
  • User-Centric Design: A strong eye for UX/UI and an obsession with removing "points of pain" in the user journey.
  • Technical Communication: Ability to translate complex business requirements into clear technical specifications for engineers.
  • Entrepreneurial Spirit: Comfortable working in a fast-paced, scaling environment where agility is key.
  • Team Leadership: Experience in managing people and building teams, you will be responsible for the long term built out of the product team

Success Metrics 

  • Subscriber Conversion Rate (CVR): Increase in the percentage of visitors converting to paid tiers.
  • Customer Lifetime Value (LTV): Increasing the LTV of a customer through successful implementation of upsells, annual plan migrations, and premium tiers.
  • Churn Reduction: Decrease in both voluntary (user-initiated) and involuntary (payment failure) churn.
  • User Satisfaction: Maintaining high product sentiment scores across our community.

This is not a "maintenance" role. You will have the autonomy to shape the architecture of our growth and play a pivotal role in how our audience consumes and interacts with our content and offerings

How to Apply

To apply — send a cover note and CV to careers@gaytimes.com

Applicants will be invited to a 20 minute pre-screening interview to assess eligibility.

Following this, successful candidates will be invited to a 60-90 minute interview with members of the leadership team. You will be asked to prepare some materials before this interview. 

After this, you will have a final 60-90 minute interview with the board.