Senior Product Manager

Company Description

Smart People. Smart Ideas. Smart Choice.

A thriving environment for learning, innovation and growth.

Why do so many people join MTS Systems Corporation and stay for a career? Because this is a place where you get to apply your creativity, work with smart people on fascinating projects, and make a positive impact on people’s lives. It is a place where you can learn, innovate and grow professionally.

Transforming what’s possible with cars, aircraft, bridges, wind turbines and space-age materials — this is work we dream about as kids. At MTS, it’s a rewarding career path for talented individuals who are willing to work hard, think hard, and commit to solving complex and critical challenges for our customers around the world, many of whom are leaders in their respective industries.

By joining MTS, you’ll have access to the latest tools and technologies, along with the support of colleagues who are passionate about their work. You’ll discover a dynamic culture of continuous improvement that extends to our people, one that offers numerous ways to expand your knowledge and advance your career. And because we are a global company, your work may also include world travel.

Job Description

Seeking a Sr. Product Manager, who has worked in the testing of automotive design.  Will have an expertise in product management for incremental growth of product line.  This is a cross functional role. 

Manage assigned products to ensure the global success over their entire life cycle.  Ensure the products meet market needs now and, in the future, and by maximizing customer satisfaction while achieving the product goals for growth, profitability, quality, and market share, consistent with business unit's objectives and strategies.

Major Areas of Responsibilities:

1.     Direct product development strategy making decisions on product development, solutions, aftermarket, and service offerings that meet market needs.  Create new product development business cases and justifications.   Define key product benefits and value propositions. Lead the cross-functional creation of the annual product development (R&D) and maintenance (CE) plans, proposals, and budgets. Initiate R&D projects and lead these projects in collaboration with assigned engineers through the MTS development process.

2.     Define market requirements for the product by obtaining customer input, performing competitive analysis, and determining market pricing.  Identify product development targets including market pricing, cost, performance, quality, lead time, serviceability, ability to upgrade, and manufacturability.  Set product performance, cost, and lead time targets to meet customer expectations.  Collaborate with Engineering to develop technical specifications and estimates. Determine the opportunity and need for patent, copyright and trade name considerations, and coordinate with Engineering, Marketing Services and Legal to protect MTS’ intellectual property.

3.     Create and maintain product plans and implement them according to defined product line roadmaps and identified aftermarket strategies over the entire life cycle.   Manage product line performance to achieve business objectives of growth and profitability. Manage the trade-offs between product cost, performance, and quality to optimize the financial potential of the product in the marketplace considering customer requirements, time to market, and value.  Create and maintain product forecasts.  Define expectations and requirements for customer support and customer service.  Collaborate with service operations to implement global service strategy for product line.

4.     Define product launch strategy and set objectives for product launch.  Work with Marketing Services on execution of plans and decisions.  Develop and conduct sales readiness training to prepare channel to support new product introduction and meet launch objectives.  Measure product launch effectiveness.  Define product messaging including target customers and applications, product positioning, and competitive environment.  Work with Marketing Services and Subject Matter Experts to create sales tools (brochures, product specifications, bid specs, specific feature descriptions, application briefs and customer testimonials) to support sales opportunities. 

5.     Develop and implement pricing for product offerings. Develop promotional pricing strategies.  Configure internal pricing tools and systems.  Manage pricing to achieve business objectives over the entire life cycle. Monitor product price performance.

6.     Respond to and solve customer product problems.  Champion customer quality problems.  Monitor customer experiences and advocate on their behalf.  Identify and document global trends in customer feedback and prioritize action plans.  Identify role for key customers in product development and