Sr. Product Manager

Digital Control Incorporated (DCI) is the world’s leading supplier of underground locating and steering products for the horizontal directional drilling (HDD) industry. Since the introduction of this revolutionary technology 30 years ago, Digital Control has been at the forefront of trenchless technologies that enable the efficient installation of underground utilities such as fiber optic, telecom, gas, and water lines world-wide. DCI’s products are valued for their durable design, ease of use and uncompromising commitment to customer service.

DCI is seeking a Sr. Product Manager to drive global product strategy, partner with R&D in achieving New Product Development (NPD) and assure market success for products assigned. This highly collaborative role requires an understanding of applicable technology, knowledge of relevant DCI industries and markets, ability to uncovering unmet customer needs, and to applying modern practices for sales enablement. Working with a team of product managers, engineering project managers, engineering team architects and leaders in the organization, you'll apply your knowledge of NPD and industrial applications to shape our product ecosystem's strategic product roadmap. Managing key product lines, you will ensure seamless integration with our broader product suite while delivering customer value and driving requirements that consider the needs across global markets.

Responsibilities

This position requires tight partnership with the R&D and (Outbound) Marketing teams.

Perform Industry and Market Research

• New products and businesses: Identify new products and/or new business opportunities consistent with the corporate strategy. Research opportunities sufficiently well to justify investments to stakeholders.

• Industry: Become the resident expert on the competitors and competitive offerings for your assigned product area and/or industry or market segment.
• Market: Become the resident expert on the customers and customer needs for your product area and/or market segment.
• Visit customers: Research will require both paper studies and travel to understand customers and those who have chosen to purchase competitive products.

Create New Product Strategies

• Product Strategy: Define a winning product strategy for your assigned product area and/or market segment that also considers other elements of the DCI ecosystem (hardware and software) and aids a winning overall ecosystem. For a winning ecosystem, product managers must align with each other on key decisions, features and requirements.
• Project Portfolio Management: Prior to product roadmaps, work with other product managers and the R&D team to propose (for the Leadership Team) an investment plan in new products that accounts for and balances risk/payback, new/old markets, high margin/price-sensitive markets, high growth/low growth markets, etc. Allow this to feed decisions on the product roadmap.
• Product Roadmap: Working with other product managers and the R&D team, develop a roadmap proposal (for the Leadership Team) that is financially justifiable as the best use of funds, and accounting for the balance accepted for Project Portfolio Management.
• Acquisition Strategy: Consistent with the DCI corporate strategy and your product strategy, propose (to the Leadership Team) acquisition opportunities. Justify them in terms of strategic alignment, synergies and financials.
• Diversification Strategy: Consistent with the DCI corporate strategy and aligned with other guidance given by the Leadership Team, propose (to the Leadership Team) diversification opportunities. Justify them in terms of strategic alignment, synergies and financials.
• New product launch Strategy: Work with the (Outbound) Marketing team to develop the strategy for launching new products, including key areas on which to focus messaging.

New Product Details and Justification

• Project Financial Valuation: At various points in in the New Product Introduction (NPI) process, perform (or refresh) Project Financial Valuation (using approved tools and methods) to justify new product and/or new business opportunities.
• Product Requirements (with R&D): During the “fuzzy front end” of the NPI Process (prior to the “Development” phase) work with R&D leaders to create and refine Product Requirements Documents (PRDs). Requirements must focus on winning user experience as well as the internal needs of all functional areas (customer service, manufacturing, etc.). They must also align with the needs of the entire DCI product ecosystem.
• Projections for Financial Impact of New Products: Aid in creating a full financial projection of the impact of New Product plans to demonstrate how revenue and profit will be impacted by these plans.

Lifecycle Management

• Current product issues: Various issues may arise with current products. For those product areas assigned to you, consider these current issues of the highest priority since they may have a direct impact on a customer or on a potential sale. Typical needs include decisions on how or whether to deploy software defect corrections, ROI for hardware compliance in a new country, and redesign vs. life-time-buy decisions.
• EoX: The responsibility for decisions and coordination for End-of-Sale, End-of-Life, End-of-Support also fall on this position.

Communication

• Exceptional writing skills are required for this position. Communication will be required to various internal partners, key stakeholders and field employees. You must be able to craft compelling, concise, consistent messages that inspire trust and drives alignment.
• Will be required to influence senior stakeholders.

Miscellaneous

• Process Improvement: As always, continuous improvement is essential. Participate in NPI Implementation Retrospectives and own/drive post-launch Market Retrospectives.
• Autonomy: Must operate with a high degree of autonomy and handle complex, high-impact, and highly visible products. Must be able to handle high levels of ambiguity.
• Mentoring: May be required to mentor other Product Managers.
• Travel: Up to 25% travel may be required.

• Bachelor’s degree in engineering, science or a related field, or equivalent experience
• 7+ years of experience in Product Management or similar roles
• Experience in manufacturing companies
• Experience in market and industry research
• Experience in developing product strategy and roadmap planning
• Experience with customer-centric solutions and product definitions
• Experience working with engineering teams.
• Ability to navigate construction sites and other potentially hazardous environments.
• Strong ability to communicate technical concepts, make trade-offs, and evaluate new ideas.
• Exceptional business writing skills with the ability to explain complex ideas to varied audiences.

Desired Skills and Knowledge

• Bachelor’s or Master’s degree in business
• Experience with electronic measurement devices, systems and/or products.
• Industry experience in manufacturing, construction, tools, or other heavy industries involving technical products in diverse environments.
• Experience with Voice of the Customer (VOC) or similar processes
• Experience with Project Financial Valuation tools and metrics
• Experience in working with UX design, mechanical, electrical, and software engineering teams.
• Experience with common project management methodologies.
• Working knowledge of Lean, Agile, and Scrum methodologies.
• Experience with Project Portfolio Management.
• Experience as a designer in New Product Development (NPD).
• Proficiency with tools like scheduling tools (like MS Project and Asana), bug tracking tools (like Jira) and documentation sharing tools (like Confluence and SharePoint).

• Unparalleled health benefits (PPO plan with no deductibles, no co-pays, DCI covers 99% of costs)
• Quarterly bonuses: we all share in the success of the company
• Professional development
• 401k match (3% match from DCI regardless of participation, 5% maximum match, 100% vested immediately)
• 22 days PTO
• Parental leave
• Company covers 100% of payroll taxes for state family medical leave
• 11 annual paid holidays plus 1 floating holiday
• Winter break (we are closed the last week of each year)
• See more benefits information here.

Compensation:

• DCI is proud to offer comprehensive compensation packages including competitive base pay and discretionary quarterly profit sharing bonuses to all part-time and full-time team members. Base pay is reviewed at a minimum on an annual basis.
• Pay range: $148,200 - $172,400 per year. To ensure equity, our compensation philosophy is to bring people into new roles in the range of the mid-point of that role. Factors considered for pay include the level of skill, experience, training, external market factors, and internal value.
• Profit sharing bonus: Over the last 3 years, quarterly bonuses ranged between 11% and 17%. Future bonuses could be higher or lower depending on company profits.

Why DCI?

Work hard, play often... DCI employees are innovative and creative. Our open (forest-like) work environment creates free flowing conversations across all functions. We have gaming days; Lego challenges and ping pong matches to build on our creativity when one hits a roadblock. If that is not enough, our employees bring their four-legged companions (dogs) to work and can take them for a walk around the Green River trail.

DCI takes pride in caring a lot about our employees. We believe that employees should not be burdened with benefits expenses, so we provide lucrative health care plans unmatched in most other companies. We also like to eat at DCI and find any excuse to celebrate the most random holidays (Pi Day, Chocolate Ice Cream Day, etc.) We have monthly catered lunches, a fully stocked snack area, sporting tickets, wellness competitions, and most importantly a team of people who will tell you that DCI is the best place they've ever worked. This is evident by our long service team and low turnover.

We Celebrate Inclusion:

DCI is an equal opportunity employer. Employment at DCI is based solely on a person's merit and qualifications directly related to professional competence. DCI does not discriminate against any employee or applicant because of race, creed, color, religion, gender, sexual orientation, gender identity/expression, national origin, disability, age, genetic information, veteran status, marital status, pregnancy or related condition (including breastfeeding), or any other basis protected by law.

It is DCI’s policy to comply with all applicable national, state and local laws pertaining to nondiscrimination and equal opportunity. The Company's EEO policy includes the full & complete support of the Company and all levels of leadership. Because it's just the right thing to do. We hope you think so too.