Product Manager

Job Title: Product Manager

Department: Product Management

Summary:

Walker Products is established as one of the largest privately-owned automotive aftermarket sensor manufacturers in North America. With our global marketing strategy, Walker Products serves all domestic and international markets through three manufacturing facilities and six distribution centers around the world.

Walker Products is seeking a Product Manager to join our team as a crucial member of our Product Development department. The Product Manager works with our Product Development team as a proactive and detailed member, responsible for building and managing several product lines and leveraging market data through investigations and research.

The ideal candidate will have experience in researching and analyzing complex markets, excellent written and verbal communications skills, and a strong familiarity with Microsoft Office tools. Candidates with automotive backgrounds are preferred.

Responsibilities:

• Develop analytical insights to inform and influence product roadmaps and business decisions to help improve the consumer experience. This includes market price modeling, customer research and competitive analysis.


• Build and own new products from ground level and work to continuously scale and evolve current products in the automotive and Othermotive® markets.


• Own the product development process: see projects through from concept and planning to development, launch, and post-launch iterating.


• Partner with the engineering team and other cross-functional teams to define, document, and communicate objectives, requirements and constraints for product initiatives and releases.


• Lead and collaborate with the broader cross-functional team, including Engineering, Purchasing, Quality Control, and Inventory Management to drive results and profitability.


• Manage product life cycle in terms of development, launch, growth, maturity, and phase-out.


• Develop and implement long-term product marketing strategies to support profitable sales growth and market share expansion.


• Plan and implement new product introductions including market penetration strategy, pricing, promotion, training, demonstrations, and literature.


• Assist in the development of product data - attributes, applications, industry standards.


• Understand products, applications, systems, and business needs of potential customers.


• Perform market, industry, and competitor research to fully understand the global competitive landscape.


• Manage projects in conjunction with Sales, Marketing, Engineering, and/or third parties.


• Liaison to factory and overseas marketing personnel to define, justify, and coordinate new product development and product requirements for global markets.


• Coordination with Supply Chain Management on sales forecasts, new product introductions, and product phase-out, to support inventory planning.


• Develop objectives and key results to build short, medium and long-term product roadmaps that take products from conception through launch and expansion.


• Collaborate with cross-functional teams to identify and prioritize product changes to meet customer needs and maintain unrivaled customer satisfaction.


• Continually measure solutions to see if they have solved the problems at hand, via both qualitative and quantitative measures.


• Understand the strategy(ies) or product(s), market(s) and operational structure(s) to be able to draft responses to Executive inquiries where appropriate.


• Prepare content as part of the company's annual Executive conferences and other industry events.


• Work closely with Marketing Representatives, Sales Professionals, and other internal stakeholders to research new product ideas.

Qualifications:

• 5+ years of Product Management experience preferably within the automotive aftermarket or automotive technical industry a plus.


• Research experience utilizing third-party data provider platforms a plus.


• Understanding of key macroeconomic, industry and regulatory trends affecting our business and the potential impacts (or opportunities created) for our strategies.


• Highly resourceful; ability to exercise superior judgment regarding internal requests: to interpret them, ask appropriate questions, seeking guidance and escalating issues as appropriate.


• Excellent communication skills, both written and verbal.


• Ability to interact directly with all internal departments and senior management.


• Excellent Microsoft Office Suite skills for creating and maintaining databases.


• Experience managing multiple projects simultaneously and working collaboratively as part of a team.

Personal Attributes:

• Be highly motivated to succeed and to foster the success of his/her teammates.


• Demonstrate the poise, confidence and professionalism to establish relationships, garner support and engage team members to ensure successful completion of projects.


• Desire to be in a dynamic role with a high level of rigor and where the work may change day-to-day.


• Be a self-starter who originates ideas and identifies and captures opportunities and can push forward on initiatives with limited oversight or guidance.


• Have excellent interpersonal and communication skills (verbal and written) - must show aptitude for explaining technical concepts clearly and simply.


• Possess outstanding attention to detail and superior organizational skills.


• Have strong integrity, professionalism and dedication to excellence.


• Excel in a demanding, fast-paced environment while maintaining the highest quality standards.


• Be a natural problem solver who can independently identify and recommend improvements to enhance productivity and efficiency.