Product Manager

*Equal Opportunity Employer Veterans/Disabled*

The Product Manager (PM) role strategically and operationally supports PEI’s North American Sales Team by promotes products and services that support customer need while delivering ROI and profitability that fulfill the business’s objective. The Product Manager is responsible for both product planning and product marketing. This includes managing the product throughout the product lifecycle, gathering and prioritizing product and customer requirements, defining the product vision, and working closely with sales, engineering, marketing, and training to deliver winning products. The PM must have expert knowledge of the products, the markets where the products are sold, the applications it is used in, and the pricing and capabilities of competitive products. The PM assembles and assesses market intelligence, establishes appropriate pricing structures, and supports the PEI sales teams in growing business. The PM is also responsible for establishing and maintaining close relationships with suppliers to identify new opportunities, achieve lower inventory purchase costs and differentiate PEI from other distributors. The PM must have strong communication and negotiating skills, as well as the ability to work well across functional lines.

*Previous electronic interconnect experience is highly preferred*

EDUCATION/EXPERIENCE:

• Bachelor’s degree and/or advanced relevant experience preferred.
• 5 years related experience and/or training; or equivalent combination of education and experience.
• In depth knowledge in the industrial/military interconnect markets and products
• Experience in a manufacturing environment or company preferred.
• Demonstrated ability to manage a product portfolio profitably.

ESSENTIAL TASKS AND RESPONSIBILITIES:

• Responsible for business success of product line
• Identify customer and/or market need and larger business objectives that a product portfolio will fulfill.
• Responsible for go to market strategy of product line & articulates what success looks like
• Collaborate with marketing, training, engineering, & sales to drive success of the line
• Develop a deep understanding of technical details and uses for assigned products
• Develop strong relations with peers in the supplier organizations
• Work closely with and support the sales organization to meet sales and profitability goals and close significant opportunities
• Maximize the ROI of inventory by meeting financial and operating goals including product budgets, inventory turns, obsolescence, slow moving and excess inventory, and customer service levels
• Manage their team’s day-to-day activities including pricing, system setup, and bill of material creation
• Ensure the integrity of system information including part setup, approval, cost, resale, packaging information, descriptions, and other part data maintenance.
• Determine appropriate values and composition and manage initial stock packages.
• Monitor quotation activity, conduct periodic win/loss analyses, and make adjustments as needed to incrementally improve close ratio
• Work with the Marketing Department to develop programs to educate and inform PEI salespeople through the use of training, Sales Branch visits, web-cast training sessions, Press Releases, and other means.
• Assess competitive products and other distributors offering the same or similar products and seek to improve PEI’s competitive position
• Communicate important supplier information to management that have the potential to impact PEI’s overall business or performance.
• Drive continuous improvement in PEI product processes

TECHNICAL/MANAGERIAL COMPETENCIES:

• Effective communication and negotiation skills (written and verbal)
• Ability to quickly learn products, processes, and technically complex systems.
• Experience planning, buying and/or pricing products with Bills of Materials.
• Experience with an ERP/MRP system such as Oracle, SAP, Peoplesoft or other.
• Experience in marketing and developing marketing materials and training
• Organization & Task Management skills
• Microsoft Excel – advanced spreadsheet skills
• Microsoft Outlook & Word
• Customer centric mindset

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