Director of Product Management & Applications Engineering

Location: Twinsburg, OH Overview Director of Product Management & Applications Engineering will lead the company's product strategy, product portfolio, and applications engineering organization. This role serves as the critical connection between Customers, Sales & Marketing, Product Management, Applications Engineering, Engineering, Operations, and executive leadership. The Director will be responsible for understanding market and customer needs, translating those needs into compelling product strategies, managing the product portfolio throughout its lifecycle, and ensuring Bird's technical solutions effectively solve customer applications. The ideal candidate combines strong product management skills with a solid technical background and customer-facing applications engineering experience. This person should be commercially oriented, technically credible, analytical, and capable of moving products from market opportunity through development, launch, growth, and eventual retirement. Responsibilities Product Strategy & Portfolio Management Develop and maintain clients overall product strategy and roadmap.Establish product priorities based on customer needs, market opportunities, competitive positioning, profitability, and company strategy.Manage the complete product lifecycle from concept through development, launch, growth, and end-of-life.Develop product roadmaps with clear objectives, milestones, resources, and financial targets.Identify gaps in product portfolio and recommend new product development, acquisition, partnership, or discontinuation opportunities.Establish product-level business cases, including market size, revenue opportunity, pricing, margins, investment requirements, and expected return.Regularly review product performance and make recommendations regarding investment and resource allocation.Ensure product strategies support Bird's long-term growth objectives. Market & Customer Intelligence Develop a deep understanding of the client's target markets, customers, applications, and competitive environment.Establish a structured process for gathering and analyzing customer and market feedback.Work closely with Sales and Marketing to identify emerging customer requirements and market trends.Conduct competitive analysis and develop recommendations for product differentiation.Participate in customer visits, industry events, trade shows, and strategic account meetings.Translate customer problems and market requirements into clearly defined product opportunities. Applications Engineering Leadership Lead and develop the Applications Engineering organization.Establish Applications Engineering as a strategic customer-facing technical resource.Ensure applications engineers understand client's products, technologies, markets, and customer applications.Support Sales with technical expertise during customer engagements, proposals, demonstrations, and design opportunities.Develop application-specific solutions that leverage client's existing products and technologies.Identify recurring customer application requirements that could become new products or product enhancements.Establish processes for capturing application knowledge and sharing it across Sales, Product Management, and Engineering.Ensure timely technical support for key customers and strategic opportunities.Develop application notes, technical guides, reference designs, demonstrations, and other technical sales tools. New Product Development Lead the product-management portion of the new product development process.Define product requirements, customer requirements, market requirements, and product specifications.Work with Engineering to establish development priorities and schedules.Ensure engineering projects remain aligned with customer and market requirements.Establish clear product requirements before development begins.Participate in design reviews, prototype evaluations, customer validation, and product qualification.Coordinate beta testing and customer validation programs.Ensure new products are commercially ready before launch. Product Launch & Commercialization Develop and lead product launch plans in partnership with Sales and Marketing.Establish product positioning, value propositions, target customers, pricing strategy, and competitive differentiation.Provide Sales with training, presentations, demonstrations, technical documentation, and competitive information.Coordinate product launch activities across Product Management, Marketing, Sales, Engineering, Operations, and Applications Engineering.Establish launch metrics and monitor post-launch performance.Drive adoption of new products within the sales organization and customer base. Pricing & Profitability Develop product pricing strategies in collaboration with Sales and Finance.Monitor product margins and profitability.Establish pricing based on customer value, competitive positioning, costs, and strategic objectives.Identify opportunities to improve product margins through pricing, product design, sourcing, or cost reduction.Recommend product investments based on expected financial return. Sales & Customer Support Partner closely with the VP of Sales and Marketing and the sales organization.Provide technical and product leadership for major opportunities and strategic accounts.Support key customer presentations and executive-level customer meetings.Establish a structured process for converting customer/application opportunities into product-development opportunities. Leadership Responsibilities Recruit, develop, coach, and retain high-performing Product Management and Applications Engineering personnel.Establish clear goals, responsibilities, and performance expectations.Create a culture of accountability, customer focus, technical excellence, and commercial thinking.Develop product managers and applications engineers into strong business leaders and customer advocates.Establish regular product portfolio reviews and application engineering reviews. Qualifications Bachelor’s degree in engineering, Business, or a related technical field.10+ years of experience in product management, applications engineering, technical sales, engineering, or a combination of these disciplines.Demonstrated experience managing technical products in a B2B environment.Strong understanding of product lifecycle management and new product development.Strong customer-facing and communication skills.Ability to understand complex technical products and translate technical capabilities into customer value.Demonstrated leadership and cross-functional management experience.Strong analytical, financial, and business-planning skills.Experience in RF, microwave, wireless communications, electronic test equipment, power measurement, or related technologies.Experience working with industrial, defense, aerospace, or electronics customers.Experience managing a technical product portfolio.MBA or advanced technical degree. The client offers a competitive salary package that is dependent on qualifications and experience, as well as a strong benefit package, plus participation in a company-wide bonus plan. For immediate consideration and faster response, please forward current resume to: sb@scientificsearch.com. Please include job #20079 in subject line. Please note that all candidates applying must be a US Citizen or Permanent Resident. Client will NOT sponsor.