The Director, Product Management owns the "what and why" of Velan's engineered product portfolio: which products we make, for which markets, at what price structure, and when we stop making them. The role turns 75 years of accumulated product breadth into a focused core of products that Velan can sell and manufacture profitably, while protecting Velan's premium position in nuclear, power, severe service, defense/navy and MRO/aftermarket against low-cost competition.
This is a portfolio-strategy role with a clear mandate: rationalize, sharpen value-based positioning, and make product economics a leading input to roadmap, engineering and commercial decisions. The Director leads the line-level Product Managers and works through influence with Engineering, Commercial, Quality, Operations and the regional business units.
ResponsibilitiesPortfolio Strategy & Rationalization
- Lead a systematic rationalization of the catalog: SKU consolidation, good/better/best tiering, standardization of designs and variants, and cannibalization risk assessment, concentrating volume and engineering and manufacturing effort on a focused core
- Own product line lifecycle decisions (introduction, sustaining investment, value engineering, end-of-life/retirement) using a transparent, fact-based framework: margin contribution, strategic fit, installed-base obligations, manufacturing complexity and certification burden
- Define and prioritize the product roadmap by vertical (Nuclear, Power, Severe Service, Navy/Defense, Oil & Gas/Refining/Petrochemical, Mining, MRO/Distribution), balancing growth, engineering capacity and margin
Product Economics & Pricing Architecture
- Set pricing structure for each product line: value-based pricing that quantifies total cost of ownership and the reliability premium, list-price architecture, tiering logic, and aftermarket parts pricing guardrails
- Partner with Commercial, which owns price integrity within pricing systems, customer discount structures and deal-level pricing, to ensure the architecture is applied consistently in market
- Partner with Engineering, Procurement and Finance on design-to-cost and value engineering; use cost models and win/loss data to target products where Velan is uncompetitive on cost
- Track realized margin against architecture and feed leakage and competitiveness findings back into the roadmap
Market Intelligence & Customer Insight
- Run competitive intelligence and win/loss analysis by vertical and region, with particular attention to low-cost competitors; translate findings into roadmap, positioning and pricing inputs
- Maintain market size, growth and share views for each key target market, and a rolling multi-year view of where each product line should play
- Bring voice-of-customer and installed-base insight (upgrade, retrofit, spares) into the roadmap with Commercial and Aftermarket
Positioning & Go-to-Market Input
- Own product positioning and value propositions across the portfolio; Commercial's marketing function owns marketing communications, brochures and campaign execution, with the Director ensuring technical content is accurate and on-strategy
- Support product launches with positioning, technical substantiation and sales enablement inputs; Commercial leads execution
Development Pipeline & Cross-Functional Integration
- Receive validated opportunities from Innovation & Technology and take commercial ownership: business case, roadmap placement and launch readiness, within the stage-gate process owned by the Manager, Product Development Process
- Define requirements and manage cost/performance/certification trade-offs with the VP, Engineering; align roadmap priorities with engineering capacity
- Collaborate with Global Quality on design-for-quality, qualification and certification impacts of portfolio changes
- Collaborate with the Program Manager, PLM so product data, configuration and variants support rationalization and the new PLM platform
- Work with regional BU leaders on regional product offerings and local-for-local requirements (e.g., India, China, EMEA, KSA localization)
Team Leadership
- Lead, develop and set priorities for the Product Managers (by vertical or product line) and the product analyst; establish consistent practices for roadmaps, business cases and portfolio reviews
- Build a Product Management function that is technically credible with Engineering and commercially credible with Sales
Qualifications- 10+ years in product management, strategy or related commercial/technical roles, with at least 5 years in a leadership role, ideally in industrial or engineered capital equipment (valves, flow control or similar)
- Demonstrated success leading portfolio rationalization, SKU reduction or product line simplification, with measurable margin and complexity outcomes
- Strong pricing and margin analytics background; experience building value-based pricing and TCO arguments for premium products against low-cost competitors
- Experience in highly customized, engineered-to-order environments with large variant counts
- Familiarity with regulated or certified markets (nuclear, defense, ASME/API-governed products) strongly preferred
- Proven ability to influence without line authority across Engineering, Commercial, Quality and Operations in a global matrix
- Comfort with data, cost models and emerging AI/digital tools
- Engineering or technical degree required; MBA or equivalent business credential an asset
- Bilingual (English/French) an asset; additional languages valued
If you recognize yourself in this profile and are excited about this opportunity, we would be delighted to learn more about you!
