Location: Milwaukee, WI

Position Summary:

Join a rapidly growing and market leading manufacturer as The Vice President of Product.  This product executive is responsible for driving the innovation and development of new and existing products within Company product lines.  As the head product innovator, the VP of Product is responsible for guiding the success of Company products and leading a large cross-functional team. They will define the purpose of product development in the organization, ensuring the continuous growth and success of the organization in the highly competitive industry, with a combination of technical expertise, leadership skills, industry knowledge, and a passion for innovation.

The VP of Product will be responsible for driving the development of the products from engineering through manufacturing, along with quality assurance product acceptance procedures to market release. They will be responsible for building an engineering and product development team by increasing technical competencies, establishing the new product development procedure, being a champion of design quality, product management alignment and design for manufacturing.  The Vice President of Product will also play a leading role in pricing, supply and demand, voice of customer, product research, marketing, forecasting as well as profit and loss. 

Responsibilities:

Product Life Cycle – Lead the product planning and execution through the product life cycle by:

• Analyzing the market and leading the development of future customer offerings to meet and exceed market segment goals.

• Integrating the voice of customer feedback into business and portfolio strategies and product development plans.

• Leading the decision-making process for new product developments or features as well as determining when to obsolete a product.

• Building market requirements documents, and product requirement documents with prioritized features and associated business case justifications that outline the product roadmap, investment needed, and expected returns.

• Collecting feedback from the market to create and maintain a prioritized candidate list of features and risk register of bid commitments to future functionality.  Managing product requirements ensuring strategic fit, financial and technical feasibility, and managing the resulting product roadmap.

• Managing the product launch plan and related milestones.

• Working with software development to develop the product definition including specifications, cost, release date, and product updates.  Oversees prioritization, lead times, schedules, and risk/trade off management details.

• Establishing product configuration rules and monitoring for compliance. 

Market Research – Build an in-depth understanding of customer, market, and technology dynamics by:

• Maintaining a solid understanding of the market, emerging trends, competitive landscape, channel requirements, and consumer insights.

• Conducting market research and competitive analysis

• Collaborating closely with Sales and Marketing to analyze data on market segments, trends, competitors, and emerging markets for our product lines.

• Establishes and executes the strategic objectives and initiatives of the engineering function in alignment with the objectives of the Company strategic plan.

Engineering:

• The establishment and implementation of an accountable engineering management system that consistently meets the goals and priorities for the sustaining, new product development, product quality and reliability engineering functions.

• Establishes and executes the strategic objectives and initiatives of the engineering function in alignment with the objectives of the Company  strategic plan.

• The establishment and implementation of an accountable engineering management system that consistently meets the goals and priorities for the sustaining, new product development, product quality and reliability engineering functions.  

• Creating white papers to aid the market positioning of the product.

• Providing subject matter expert on proposals and bids [including bid pricing authority].

• Engaging with customers in technical discussions as well as product demos.

• Evangelizing and acting as a spokesperson for the product, as needed, at tradeshows, conferences, and customer meetings.

• Creating, conducting and supporting customer demos.

Financial/Operational Performance – Manage financial and operational performance by:

• Aligning sales, finance and marketing to lead development of market requirements, value proposition, positioning and pricing strategy for new products.

• Monitoring, following up, and actively evaluating product performance – both financial and functional – to optimize commercial success.

• Identifying quality, cost improvement, configuration and operational issues/opportunities for improvement and working with other groups to develop and implement plans to address.

• Planning, managing, and overseeing the formulation of all short- and long-term objectives and business plans for their product(s) including meeting: revenue; contribution margin; return on investment; market share; quality]; and customer experience/satisfaction goals.

• Bachelor’s degree in Engineering, Computer Science or Business.  Master’s degree is preferred.

• Minimum 7 years of product management experience.

• Minimum 3 years product marketing experience

• Minimum 2 years product development experience in a food service equipment environment

• Excellent written communication skills with experience producing Market Requirement Documents and Product Requirement Document

• Excellent verbal communication skills with experience conducting customer and executive presentations.

• Proven ability to lead cross-functional teams without formal authority.

• Strong analytical skills with experience in forecasting and pricing.