Director, Cargo Products

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The Director, Cargo Products is the senior product leader for Air Canada’s Cargo portfolio, responsible for shaping and executing the digital strategy to enable the company’s long-term cargo growth ambitions. This role is a critical member of the IDD leadership team and will work in close partnership with the Air Canada Cargo executive team to ensure business priorities are translated into innovative, scalable, and value-generating technology solutions.

A primary mandate for this role will be to lead the successful delivery of Air Canada’s Cargo Management System (CMS) replacement, a major multi-year transformation program spanning Commercial, Operations, and Revenue Accounting, with a later phase focused on Revenue Management. The CMS program will modernize Air Canada Cargo’s commercial processes, operational execution, and financial reconciliation, laying the foundation for greater efficiency, agility, and customer responsiveness.

The Director will be accountable for the full Cargo product portfolio, including the product roadmap, vendor and partner relationships, investment planning, and program execution. This leader will balance immediate transformation demands with a long-term vision for Cargo’s digital future. The role requires exceptional strategic thinking, delivery leadership, and stakeholder management skills, and will be recognized as a trusted advisor to senior business executives and a key driver of enterprise value creation through technology.

Responsibilities:

1. Strategic Leadership & Business Partnership

• Serve as the primary technology leader and strategic advisor for the Air Canada Cargo business unit, building and maintaining strong relationships with executive stakeholders.
• Partner with the Cargo leadership team to define and continuously evolve the digital strategy and technology roadmap, ensuring alignment with business growth objectives and market opportunities.
• Champion technology innovation to deliver competitive advantage in Cargo operations, commercial processes, and customer experience.
• Advocate for Cargo priorities within the Technology, Digital & AI organization, ensuring appropriate resources, funding, and executive sponsorship.

2. CMS Replacement Program Leadership

• Act as the accountable executive for the Cargo Management System (CMS) replacement program, ensuring successful delivery of scope, schedule, and benefits realization.
• Oversee program governance, risk management, and stakeholder engagement across the Commercial, Operations, and Revenue Accounting workstreams.
• Manage relationships with technology vendors, system integrators, and consulting partners, ensuring contract performance and delivery quality.
• Coordinate with internal teams to ensure business readiness, including process redesign, training, change management, and adoption planning.
• Prepare for and lead future transformation phases, including the Revenue Management implementation, ensuring seamless integration with CMS capabilities.

3. Product & Portfolio Management

• Own the end-to-end Cargo product portfolio, ensuring that products and systems are reliable, secure, scalable, and continuously optimized for business value.
• Oversee lifecycle management of Cargo products, including strategy, design, development, testing, deployment, and retirement.
• Align product investments with business priorities, managing trade-offs between short-term operational needs and long-term strategic initiatives.
• Ensure integration of Cargo systems with broader Air Canada enterprise platforms and data architecture to enable seamless end-to-end processes.

4. Stakeholder Engagement & Communication

• Serve as a visible advocate for transformation within the Cargo business and across the broader enterprise.
• Develop and deliver executive-level communications, program updates, and strategic briefings to the Air Canada leadership team and, when required, to Board-level committees.
• Facilitate cross-functional alignment between Cargo, IT, Finance, Operations, and other business units to ensure coordinated delivery and value realization.

5. Governance, Risk, and Performance Management

• Establish robust governance structures to oversee program delivery, operational performance, and technology investments within the Cargo portfolio.
• Identify and manage risks proactively, developing mitigation strategies to ensure successful delivery and operational stability.
• Ensure compliance with corporate policies, industry regulations, and cybersecurity standards.
• Monitor and report on performance metrics, ensuring that technology solutions deliver intended business outcomes and continuous improvement opportunities are captured.

6. Leadership & Team Development

• Build and lead a high-performing team of product managers, program managers, business analysts, and technical leads, fostering a culture of accountability, collaboration, and innovation.
• Mentor and develop future leaders within the organization, ensuring strong succession planning for key roles.
• Promote agile ways of working and a product mindset across the Cargo technology function.

Qualifications

• 10+ years of progressive experience in product leadership roles
• Demonstrated success leading complex transformation programs across multiple functional areas.
• Deep expertise in budget management, vendor management and product management lifecycle
• Experience leading cross-functional delivery teams and managing full product lifecycle and vendor performance.
• Exceptional stakeholder engagement and communication skills, with a track record of influencing senior leaders.
• Strong facilitation, problem-solving, and change management capabilities.
• Proven ability to manage ambiguity and drive results in a dynamic environment.
• Familiarity with Cargo systems and best practices in Cargo Operations an asset.
• Demonstrate punctuality and dependability to support overall team success in a fast-paced environment.
• Bachelor’s degree required

Conditions of Employment:

Candidates must be eligible to work in the country of interest at the time any offer of employment is made and are responsible for obtaining any required work permits, visas, or other authorizations necessary for employment. Prior to their start date, candidates will also need to provide proof of their eligibility to work in the country of interest.

Linguistic Requirements

Based on equal qualifications, preference will be given to bilingual candidates.

Diversity and Inclusion

Air Canada is strongly committed to Diversity and Inclusion and aims to create a healthy, accessible and rewarding work environment which highlights employees’ unique contributions to our company’s success.

As an equal opportunity employer, we welcome applications from all to help us build a diverse workforce which reflects the diversity of our customers, and communities, in which we live and serve.

Air Canada thanks all candidates for their interest; however only those selected to continue in the process will be contacted.