LHH Recruitment Solutions is working with a manufacturing company in the west Chicago suburbs with a new opening for a Product Development Manager. This role will be instrumental in helping to define the product strategy and drive product development in the delivery of new products.
We’re looking for someone who is highly collaborative, works well with others, able and willing to jump in wherever needed to work towards a common goal of delivering innovative products to the market.
This is an on-site role working 5 days in Warrenville, IL.
Travel: Monthly travel to WI; 4-5 domestic tradeshows/annually; possible 1-2 trips overseas.
Desired Skills/Experience:
- Bachelor’s degree in marketing or related field.
- 4-5 years of product management/product development experience in an industrial manufacturing environment. (working with metals is a big plus!)
- Strong critical thinker, collaborator, and communicator.
- Strong sense of industrial design is a plus, but not required.
- Able to project manage effectively, prioritizing and managing multiple projects or program elements simultaneously.
Responsibilities:
- Identify new product opportunities for your assigned category, defining market potential and product positions.
- Lead product development projects through a stage gate process to launch new products.
- Work with external vendors and internal teams to develop products that meet customer needs, cost targets, schedules, quality levels, and manufacturability requirements.
- Develop and maintain competitive landscape intelligence including market trends, key players, existing products, new product opportunities, competitive pricing, and marketing strategies.
- Collaborate with cross-functional teams across sourcing, engineering, marketing, and creative.
- Generate and implement comprehensive marketing plans, promotional programs, and product positioning and messaging to differentiate and strengthen sales of existing key product lines.
- Obtain product specs, copy ideas and shipping details from vendors; draft new product ads and promotional materials, prepare new product information for catalogs and websites.
- Optimize ongoing vendor relationships, managing products and lead time, identifying potential problem areas, and addressing quality-related issues that may arise.
- Ensure existing products content is updated and reflects current dimensions, materials, and manufacturing processes.
- Create and deliver product training programs and sales tools for Customer Service and Sales teams.
- Attend tradeshows to network with vendors and identify new suppliers.
- Travel as needed to vendors (domestic or international), as well as local travel to factory in Wisconsin to visit with the engineering team.
Benefits include: medical, dental, vision, PTO and holidays.
