Perkbox appoints Shahid Naveed as Chief Product Officer

Perkbox has appointed Shahid Naveed as chief product and technology officer. He joins the employee benefits platform from Freetrade.

Naveed will join Perkbox's executive leadership team and lead a technology division of about 70 people across product, engineering, IT, cyber security, data, analytics and insight.

His brief includes improving how employees discover and use workplace benefits through the Perkbox platform, while helping employers assess the return on their spending on benefits programmes.

A central part of the role will be to explore how artificial intelligence could be used in the platform's tools for HR and reward teams. This will include looking at ways to help employers spot underused benefits and identify actions that could raise staff engagement.

The appointment brings in an executive with more than two decades of experience across fintech, marketplaces, software and large technology groups. Most recently, Naveed was chief product and technology officer at Freetrade, where he led product, engineering, data, information security and workplace technology for the investment platform.

During his time there, he was part of the leadership team that took the business through its acquisition by IG Group. He led technology due diligence from the seller side and later worked on growth initiatives after the deal.

Earlier in his career, Naveed helped Auction Technology Group through its IPO and led globally distributed engineering teams at Amazon. There, he oversaw the migration of billions of customer records from older systems to distributed services without disrupting customers.

Perkbox serves more than 7,500 organisations and nearly 4 million employees worldwide, according to the company. Its customer base includes more than 80% of the NHS.

AI focus

The group's focus on AI reflects a broader push across workplace software providers to make HR systems more action-oriented rather than purely analytical. At Perkbox, that includes using benefits data to highlight where employee uptake is weak and suggest practical interventions.

Doug Butler, chief executive officer at Perkbox, said: "I am delighted that a professional of Shahid's experience and stature has agreed to join Perkbox to guide our product and technology strategy into its next phase. With thousands of clients and millions of users relying on our technology and products to deliver impactful employee benefits, in this rapidly changing environment, Shahid is the perfect individual to shape, innovate and secure our solutions and platform."

Naveed said he was drawn by the business's maturity as well as its internal culture.

He said: "What attracted me to Perkbox is not only the culture and team I'll be working with, but also that it's an established, vibrant business. A favourite Perkbox phrase is 'used and useful', and we are working towards a better understanding of technology impacts and outcomes for employers and employees. AI can also help HR teams take action rather than just look at dashboards, with minimal effort. This could include finding a group of employees underusing a helpful benefit, then recommending relevant outreach."