Senior Business Product Management – Defense

We are seeking a dynamic and experienced Senior Business Product Manager to join our team, with a specific focus on the Defense sector, to join the Special Projects team in the Mobile Networks MW&CSN BU, for a challenging experience addressing 4G, 5G, Small Cells, Femto RAN custom solutions for various Defense projects and customers in Europe and the rest of the World.

Customers and partners will range from Ministries of Defense, Defense integrators, Non-Terrestrial Networks actors, DAS, TETRA and Legacy customers.
The Special Projects Product Management team is located mainly in the US (Naperville alongside the R&D team and in Murray Hill) and in France (where we are growing an R&D team), supporting customers globally in the US, in Europe, in Japan.

 

Primary Responsibilities (Business-Focused)

1. Market Analysis and Customer Engagement:
   • Conduct in-depth market analysis to identify key trends, opportunities, and challenges in the Defense sector related to RAN technology.
   • Cultivate and maintain strong relationships with Defense industry stakeholders, understanding their needs, and translating them into requirements.
   • Visit customers to support the sales team in presenting solutions, addressing queries, and actively participating in the signing of new contracts. Comfortable interfacing and standing in front of the customer at all levels of the organization.
2. Participation in RFP/RFQ/RFI Responses:
   • Ensure opportunities’ generation working closely with the Sales / BD team on both existing and new customers through organizing workshops, customer visits, executive visits with the objective to influence tenders.
   • Actively participate in the response to Requests for Proposals (RFPs), Requests for Quotations (RFQs), and Requests for Information (RFIs) for Defense projects.
   • Collaborate with sales, technical, and legal teams to ensure comprehensive and competitive proposals.
3. Collaboration and Leadership:
   • Work closely with TPM (Technical Product Management), R&D engineering, sales, pre-sales, marketing, and other teams to ensure a cohesive and effective go-to-market strategy.
   • Provide leadership and guidance to cross-functional teams working on Defense-focused RAN projects.
4. Product Lifecycle Management and Forecasting:
   • Oversee the entire product lifecycle from concept to end-of-life, ensuring successful product launches and continuous improvement.
   • Develop and maintain accurate product forecasts, considering market demand, production capacity, and other relevant factors.
   • Keep track of the R&D budget, ensuring efficient allocation of resources for innovation and development.
5. Business and P&L Management:
   • Take ownership of the projects full Profit & Loss (P&L) performance, actively driving project profitability, revenue growth, and cost optimization.
   • Conduct rigorous financial analysis to assess the economic viability of Defense-focused RAN projects.
   • Build robust business cases for new initiatives, presenting clear value propositions and return on investment. Support effort estimate computation done by R&D and help translate into Business Case / pricing.
   • Create and manage financial forecasts, including revenue projections and expense budgets.
   • Alongside the Technical Product Management, develop and articulate a comprehensive product strategy for Defense applications, aligned with overall business objectives.

 

Contributor Responsibilities (Technical Emphasis):

1. Roadmap:
   • Contribute to the development of the product roadmap with TPM and validate it ensuring alignment with business objectives and market demands.
   • Collaborate with technical teams to translate business requirements into technical specifications.
2. Regulatory Compliance:
   • Stay abreast of regulatory requirements in the Defense sector and ensure that RAN projects adhere to relevant standards.

• Minimum 10-12 years’ work experience
• Proven experience in business-driven product management, with a focus on RAN technology and Defense applications.
• Excellent financial acumen and experience with P&L management.
• Demonstrated ability to build comprehensive business cases for new initiatives.
• Strategic thinking and the ability to translate market insights into actionable product plans.
• Experience in actively participating in the response to RFPs, RFQs, and RFIs.
• Good understanding of Nokia RAN portfolio and technology: e.g. 5G, O