Product Manager

Overview

The product manager is responsible for researching and developing a deep understanding of their designated market and identifying the business opportunities open to the company. The product manager is then responsible for the creation and delivery of value propositions to address those opportunities. The product manager is responsible for the overall strategic direction of their portfolio and will need to drive and champion this both within the company and in the marketplace. This role will report to the Director of Product and will have vital inward and outward facing roles. These will include working with our departments across the business, international travel to regional offices, attend conferences, communicating directly with leading customers, collaborating with colleagues and external partners, updating global channel sales teams, as well as facilitating and developing technology partnerships. The successful candidate will join the Product team, reporting to the Director of Product. This team currently comprises of 4 employees.

Duties and Responsibilities

Strategic Business Management

• Develop, implement and manage a market led propositions strategy for their product set, including service levels and all associated accessories.
• Fully understand the target market and customers’ current and future needs and use this knowledge to guide product development and to plan new product introductions.
• Create value propositions and business cases for all new products that are brought to market.
• Identify new business opportunities through product introductions or bundling of products, ensuring they are relevant to their designated market.
• Support the development of a go-to-market strategy with the marketing manager to support new product introductions and the attainment of financial objectives.
• Manage the product portfolio ensuring costs and returns are in-line with business plans.

Market Understanding

• Have a deep understanding of all factors impacting their designated market: customers; competitors; government or country specific legislation; technology trends; etc.
• Use market knowledge to develop propositions to maximise company’s return from potential market opportunities.
• Engage with end customers, representatives and partners at all levels to improve market understanding
• Support and attend exhibitions, trade shows and conferences when relevant to gain market insight, research competitors and collect customer feedback.
• Understand the customer pain-points and where appropriate drive product development activities to address these needs.

Assisting Channel Partners

• Develop strong relationships with channel partners ensuring regular contact in conjunction with the channel managers to review sales and marketing opportunities.
• Develop and apply company’s best practice standards supporting channel account management, new product introduction, pricing updates, and marketing initiatives.
• Look for mutual opportunities and actively seek to identify joint ventures to grow supplier business through all channels.
• Provide customer benefit level product input for other parts of the business, as needed.

Operational Engagement

• Work with all parts of company to ensure propositions are delivered to market on time and within budget.
• Support the development, implementation and delivery processes, steering product development and providing essential information for decision making on features/functionality, time and cost trade-offs.
• Provide customer benefit level product input for other parts of the business, as needed.Provide necessary documentation for NPD meetings including product definitions, business plans, etc.
• Lead NPD meetings and NPD review meetings.

Daily Product Management

• Determine pricing and ensure planned contribution levels are achieved.
• Monitor the performance of product order intake/revenue/margin and take appropriate action to resolve any shortfalls.
• Supporting sales in business development, product training, strategic customer presentations and meetings.
• Maintaining current ranges, ad hoc changes and price list updates.
• Manage and ensure the production and updating of user manuals, datasheets and other technical documents.
• Conduct early-life product reviews and gather customer feedback.
• Conduct competitor analysis to ensure the business is equipped with resources and information to help retain customers and win new business.
• Provide the customer link to R&D by understanding the customers' requirements and composing them into product definitions.
• Provide necessary documentation for NPD meetings including product definitions, business plans, etc.
• Lead NPD meetings and NPD review meetings.

Requirements and qualifications

• Bachelor's/master’s degree (or equivalent) in Computer Science,
• Engineering, Mathematics, or related field.
• Track record of fostering cross-functional collaboration between engineering, design, marketing, sales and other departments
• A positive attitude with leadership and organisational skills
• Strong communication skills and the ability to work across multiple groups and with different personalities in a flexible and successful manner
• Solid presentation skills
• Technical Understanding: Must be able to work and communicate effectively cross functionally across technical, commercial, product and operational teams. Willing to travel to understand the industry and its needs in detail Market.
• Understanding: In addition, candidates should be experienced in developing their market knowledge to maximise return on potential opportunities. 

Desirable but not essential:

• Experience with Inertial devices (IMUs), GNSS or similar technologies.
• Experience the fields or Automotive Testing, Autonomous Driving, Robotics or Aerospace.
• A business degree / MBA

Please note: Only candidates with the relevant skills and experience will be contacted regarding this position. If you do not hear back from us within 5 days you have unfortunately been unsuccessful in your application for this position, however we may contact you in the future to discuss other opportunities.

Please note:  That no terminology in this advert is intended to discriminate on the grounds of a person's gender, marital status, race, religion, colour, age, disability or sexual orientation. Every candidate will be assessed only in accordance with their merits, qualifications and abilities to perform the duties of the job