As a technology leader that is rapidly on the move, HARMAN is filled with people who are focused on making life better. Innovation, inclusivity and teamwork are a part of our DNA. When you add that to the challenges we take on and solve together, you’ll discover that at HARMAN you can grow, make a difference and be proud of the work you do every day.
About the Role
The Car Audio Brand Experience Team designs innovative Branded Audio consumer experiences that positively impact lives through advanced products and technologies. This role leads the brand experience vision, develops customer relationships, and manages cross-functional teams to deliver brand experience product bundles with customer partners. Key responsibilities include:
- Leading cross-functional teams to create production-ready experience packages, combining hardware, software, and consumer-focused features, and presenting them as brand and customer proposals.
- Delivering reusable assets for production integration and validation in automotive environments, ensuring speed and quality.
This position acts as the primary technical and business interface for stakeholders worldwide and collaborates with consumer and professional divisions to align technologies and roadmaps. It is critical for expanding the brand experience portfolio across assigned brands and customers.
Your Team
This role reports to the Brand Experience VP and has multiple direct reports, including: Regional Brand Manager, Brand Architect, Project manager, Android Lead, Brand UX Lead, and Product Owner.
What You Will Do
Strategy & Leadership
- Build and lead Brand Experience Strategy.
- Manage a small, nimble, powerful direct brand experience team, plus larger supporting matrix teams.
- Lead the translation of the brand experience vision into a technical vision, feature ideas, and feasible technical path aligned with customer needs
- Coordinate the brand's portfolio strategy and positioning with Consumer and Pro Divisions
- Lead the determination of Commercial/Strategic/Technical Feasibility - Lead PLM Lite Process – risk eval & go/no-go analysis
- Align internal delivery planning with OEM facing customer roadmaps
- Collaborate with other Brand Owners, adjacent stakeholders, internal teams, external partners & vendors to come up with new UI/UX and audio related technologies and best practices.
- Evaluate new ideas coming out of innovation pipeline for potential brand experience inclusion
Customer & Stakeholder Engagement
- Act as Brand Ambassador and “CEO” to Lead the brand experience vision, development, customer relationship, business model, and direct plus cross-functional teams to define, match, and deliver compelling brand experience product bundles with customer partners
- Serve as single point of contact for Customer Account Management Team for the brand – Support the jointly developed customer engagement strategy on pursuits
- Represent & Promote brand and experience both internally and at the customer - build relationships, support tech day events, present brand and customer proposals
- Signoff on production proposals during PLM200 concept freeze and approval
- Overseas Brand Confirmation validation for production vehicles with branded systems
Delivery & Execution
- Manage overall team that builds, tests, and delivers Brand Features to Project Teams, with market leading speed and quality
- Assign business value to objectives during PI Planning. Approves Sprint and Release scope (what/when)
- Oversee the creation of internal documentation for holistic brand experience and/or OEM adaptations through Brand Experience concept freeze and approval (PDM)
- Drive development of demo cars integrating brand experience package and features
Authorities
- Approve production proposals during concept freeze and approval.
- Decide inclusion of new ideas and concepts into roadmap
- Determine delivery plan & roadmap and OEM facing customer roadmaps
Accountabilities
- Brand Experience Strategy
- Concept freeze and approval (business sections).
- Achievement of business goals / outcomes / pursuit success
- Ensure on-time deliveries with project team
Success Measures (KPIs)
- PI predictability and release scope adherence
- Feature acceptance rate
- Customer Satisfaction Score (CSAT): Direct feedback on user satisfaction.
- Net Promoter Score (NPS): Measures customer loyalty and likelihood to recommend.
- Roadmap hit rate
- Net earnings – both value and trend
What You Need
- Bachelor’s degree in Engineering or related demonstrated technical expertise
- 20+ years of combined brand, audio, product, and business-related experience.
- 5+ years in leadership, customer relationship management, and supplier relationships, preferably in automotive and/or luxury audio.
- A mature approach toward leadership and soft skills: building trust and long-term internal team relationships to influence consistent, positive outcomes.
- Functional audio architecture knowledge of automotive infotainment and audio systems.
- Demonstrated acumen in business case development, program management, make/buy, commercial, and product bundling/sales strategy, feature ideation, and consumer validation.
- Ability to communicate advanced and complex concepts and ideas persuasively and concisely to all levels of the business.
- A "whatever-it-takes" attitude using diplomatic leadership skills within a collaborative teamwork environment to accomplish the necessary results.
- Experience leading a team to drive time critical projects to completion.
What is Nice to Have
- A combination of Engineering and Business Degrees (eg. Ba ENG + MBA)
- Strong recommendations from automotive industry colleagues
- Automotive Business & Engineering Landscape Knowledge
- Passion for the power of brand as a unifying concept for bundles of experience products
- Passion for acoustics and sound reproduction
What Makes You Eligible
- Be willing to travel up to 25%, domestic and international travel
- Be willing to work in the Novi
- Successfully complete a background investigation and drug screen as a condition of employment
What We Offer
- Flexible work environment, allowing for full-time remote work globally for positions that can be performed outside a HARMAN or customer location
- Access to employee discounts on world-class Harman and Samsung products (JBL, HARMAN Kardon, AKG, etc.)
- Extensive training opportunities through our own HARMAN University
- Competitive wellness benefits
- Tuition Reimbursement
- Access to HARMAN Campus Fitness Center and Cafeteria
- An inclusive and diverse work environment that fosters and encourages professional and personal development
Salary Ranges:
HARMAN is proud to be an Equal Opportunity / Affirmative Action employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, religion, color, national origin, gender (including pregnancy, childbirth, or related medical conditions), sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression, age, status as a protected veteran, status as an individual with a disability, or other applicable legally protected characteristics.
Skills Required
- Bachelor's degree in Engineering or related field
- 20+ years of combined brand, audio, product, and business-related experience
- 5+ years in leadership and customer relationship management
- Knowledge of automotive infotainment and audio systems
- Ability to communicate complex concepts persuasively
- Experience leading time-critical projects to completion
Harman Compensation & Benefits Highlights
The following summarizes recurring compensation and benefits themes identified from responses generated by popular LLMs to common candidate questions about Harman and has not been reviewed or approved by Harman.
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Healthcare Strength — Healthcare coverage is described as comprehensive, often including medical, dental, and vision plans, with HSAs/FSAs and disability or life insurance also referenced. Wellbeing support such as EAP access and onsite occupational health services is also part of the package in some regions.
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Wellbeing & Lifestyle Benefits — Lifestyle-oriented benefits include employee product discounts and region-specific perks like free fruit deliveries, Cycle to Work schemes, and meal coupons or allowances. Flexible schedules and work-from-home options are also part of the overall offering where roles and projects allow.
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Fair & Transparent Compensation — Pay is repeatedly characterized as solid or market-aligned for many roles, with salary payments described as consistent and on time. Compensation is also tied to performance in some accounts, reinforcing a perception of basic fairness for a portion of employees.
Harman Insights
What We Do
Headquartered in Stamford, Connecticut, HARMAN (harman.com) designs and engineers connected products and solutions for automakers, consumers, and enterprises worldwide, including connected car systems, audio and visual products, enterprise automation solutions; and services supporting the Internet of Things. With leading brands including AKG®, Harman Kardon®, Infinity®, JBL®, Lexicon®, Mark Levinson® and Revel®, HARMAN is admired by audiophiles, musicians and the entertainment venues where they perform around the world. More than 50 million automobiles on the road today are equipped with HARMAN audio and connected car systems. Our software services power billions of mobile devices and systems that are connected, integrated and secure across all platforms, from work and home to car and mobile. HARMAN has a workforce of approximately 30,000 people across the Americas, Europe, and Asia. In March 2017, HARMAN became a wholly-owned subsidiary of Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd. HARMAN is an Equal Opportunity, Affirmative Action employer. Minorities, women, veterans and individuals with disabilities are encouraged to apply. HARMAN offers a great work environment, challenging career opportunities, professional training and competitive compensation. Looking for a challenge where your experience is valued? Come see what you can achieve as a leader with HARMAN!
