Position Title:
Head Inflight Product & Design
Reports To:
Chief Customer Experience Officer
Role Level:
CXO-1
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Job Purpose
- Lead the design and develop innovative product offerings for customers including in-flight products (seats, cabin innovation, inflight entertainment, and connectivity) to enhance overall passenger experience.
- This role involves conducting market research, collaborating with stakeholders, overseeing product development lifecycles, and implementing strategies to improve user experience and satisfaction
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Key Accountabilities
Strategic Leadership:
- Develop and drive the vision and strategy for inflight and other products, aligning with Air Indias overall brand and goals.
- Continuously identify market trends, customer preferences, and emerging technologies to make informed design decisions.
- Develop and manage budgets for product design projects, ensuring cost-effective design solutions without compromising Air India s standard and quality.
- Lead sustainability efforts by integrating eco-friendly materials and practices into product design and development processes.
Product Design & Development:
- Oversee the entire product development lifecycle, from concept ideation to final production and launch, for seating, galley cabin interiors, and other products.
- Collaborate with internal stakeholders like engineering, operations, commercial and other teams to define aircraft configurations, including class/seat arrangements and lighting configurations and ensure the feasibility and practicality of designs.
- Stay up to date with aviation regulations and industry standards to ensure that inflight products meet safety and compliance requirements.
- Conduct user research, gather passenger feedback, and conduct usability tests to drive customer-centric design decisions.
- Create designs that enhance comfort, convenience, and enjoyment for passengers during their journey.
- Establish and maintain strong relationships with suppliers, vendors, and partners to source high-quality materials and services for inflight product development.
- Improve and maintain existing cabin products to deliver an exceptional in-flight experience for customers.
- Work on enhancements and modifications based on customer feedback and changing industry trends.
- Overseeing stakeholders overall cabin maintenance schedules for cabin products.
- Collaborate with maintenance teams to ensure timely inspections and updates.
- Formulate and implement strategies for enhancing In-Flight Entertainment, emphasizing user experience and NPS improvement.
- Develop and implement plans to enhance in-flight connectivity, ensuring passengers have reliable access to entertainment and communication services.
- Collaborate with In-flight entertainment & connectivity providers to optimize performance.
Team Management:
- Lead, mentor, and inspire a team of talented product designers, ensuring a collaborative and creative work environment.
- Assign and prioritize design projects and monitor progress to meet deadlines and quality standards.
Any other additional responsibility could be assigned to the role holder from time to time as a standalone project or regular work. The same would be suitably represented in the Primary responsibilities and agreed between the incumbent, reporting officer and HR.
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Skills Required for the role.
Strong Leadership capabilities
Strong Problem-solving skills
Excellent interpersonal and communication skills
Strong time management and prioritization skills
Stakeholder management skills
Excellent Project management and delivery skills
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Key Performance Indicators
Operational Performance Metrics
- On-time delivery
- Number of projects
- Budget Adherence
Product and Service Metrics
- Number of product improvements
Stakeholder Engagement and Risk Management Metrics
- Relationships and communication
- Risk management
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Key Interfaces
Leadership Interfaces
Head Customer Experience
- Provide regular updates on ongoing designs and development projects highlighting issues, adherence to timelines, etc.
Internal Interfaces
Product designers and cross functional teams
- Ensure all design and development activities are on track and drive teams to meet program budget and timelines
External Interfaces
Third Party Vendors
- Managing services / solutions provided by third party service providers ensuring they are meeting SLAs, and other service agreements
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Educational and Experience Requirements
Minimum Education Requirement
- Bachelors Degree with work experience in Product Design
- MBA/PGDM/PGBM is preferred.
- PMP/CAD or equivalent certification preferred
Minimum Requirement
Desired
Experience
- 15+ years of product design experience, gathering requirements, supervising end-to-end design development and production execution, certification, testing, quality management etc by the OEM.
- understanding CAD designs, knowledge and understanding of aircraft interiors OEMs including seats manufacturers, CMF designers and hands-on experience of design to development lifecycle
- At least 10 years of experience in aviation industry
- 17+ years of relevant experience in airline industry of product design, IFEC (inflight entertainment & communication), cabin interiors design
- Understanding of competition, trends, future positioning of different airlines etc. is also preferred with an objective to stay ahead of competition.
