Position Purpose The Product Lifecycle Manager is the senior professional lead for the ongoing health, performance, manufacturability, supportability, and sustainment of TAIT's hardware products after initial development. The role owns and matures the Technology Market lifecycle management process and ensures lifecycle priorities are translated into coordinated, visible, and measurable action across the product portfolio.
Operating as a subject matter expert, the Product Lifecycle Manager leads a cross-functional Product Lifecycle function through influence rather than direct reporting authority. Contributors may come from Engineering, Manufacturing, Supply Chain, Quality, Service, Support, Assets, Product Strategy, Program Leadership, Innovate, and other capabilities. The role sets lifecycle priorities, clarifies ownership, establishes governance, coordinates dependencies, escalates trade-offs, and drives decisions across organizational boundaries.
The role uses product, field, manufacturing, supply, cost, and support evidence to identify risks, trends, and opportunities and to make strong recommendations on sustainment, improvement, refresh, replacement, and retirement. The Product Lifecycle Manager owns the lifecycle analysis and recommendation; major portfolio investment, refresh, replacement, or retirement decisions are made in partnership with Product Strategy and the appropriate business leaders.
Responsibilities 1. Lifecycle Strategy, Governance & Prioritization
- Own and mature the Product Lifecycle Management process for Technology Market hardware products, including lifecycle intake, prioritization, governance, change control, sustainment planning, obsolescence management, and phase-out planning.
- Set and maintain lifecycle priorities across sustainment, reliability improvement, quality, manufacturability, cost reduction, serviceability, obsolescence, and customer or field needs, using clear decision criteria and business evidence.
- Lead lifecycle scope, schedule and budget coordination, dependencies, risks, and trade-offs for sustainment and improvement work delivered through cross-functional contributors; escalate decisions that exceed approved boundaries with a clear recommendation and rationale.
- Create shared visibility into lifecycle priorities, decisions, ownership, risk, progress, and outcomes through practical governance forums, decision records, dashboards, and regular communication.
- Establish and improve lifecycle standards, decision frameworks, and ways of working so the function becomes more repeatable, data-driven, and effective over time.
2. Portfolio Recommendations & Lifecycle Decisions
- Identify lifecycle risks, trends, and opportunities and develop data-informed recommendations for continued sustainment, improvement, refresh, replacement, or retirement of products and platforms.
- Partner with Product Strategy to align lifecycle recommendations with the Technology Market roadmap, market needs, commercial priorities, and portfolio investment choices.
- Provide the evidence, lifecycle impact assessment, cost and risk perspective, and recommendation needed for major refresh, replacement, or retirement decisions; support Product
- Strategy and business leaders in making the final portfolio decision.
- Partner with Assets to plan sustainment, upgrades, retrofit strategies, spares, and phase-out of rental inventory items in line with portfolio direction and operational needs.
- Proactively manage supplier end-of-life notifications, component obsolescence, supply continuity risks, and related mitigation options.
3. Product Health, Quality & Cost Improvement
- Own the ongoing product-health view for assigned hardware products, integrating reliability, field performance, manufacturability, quality, serviceability, supportability, cost, and supply risk.
- Lead cross-functional improvement initiatives that reduce manufacturing time, production complexity, build cost, recurring defects, service burden, and avoidable product variation while protecting safety, quality, and product intent.
- Partner with Supply Chain, Manufacturing, and Operations on procurement savings, make/buy decisions, stock planning, alternate sourcing, and other actions that improve sustainable product delivery.
- Partner with Support, Service, Quality, Engineering, and triage teams to identify recurring field issues and quality problems; drive root-cause analysis, corrective actions, prevention of recurrence, and verification of effectiveness.
- Capture lifecycle learning and feed it back into Product Strategy, Engineering, Manufacturing, service/support practices, and future product development.
4. Product Change, Configuration & Revision Control
- Ensure lifecycle changes are documented, traceable, risk-assessed, communicated to affected teams, and reflected in manufacturing, service, support, training, asset, and product records.
- Coordinate a clear product revision and configuration strategy covering engineering change requests, product data and BOM updates, part substitutions, firmware or software version impacts, compatibility considerations, release documentation, and effective dates.
- Ensure change decisions preserve a clear link between the underlying problem, approved change, affected product versions, implementation plan, and intended outcome.
- Improve the quality and discipline of lifecycle data so stakeholders can understand product status, supported configurations, open risks, and change history.
5. Senior Cross-Functional Leadership & Influence
- Act as the recognized lifecycle subject matter expert for the Technology Market, advising senior leaders and partners on complex sustainment, reliability, cost, manufacturability, obsolescence, and lifecycle-risk decisions.
- Lead highly visible multidisciplinary lifecycle initiatives involving contributors from multiple capabilities, locations, and technical disciplines without relying on formal authority.
- Negotiate priorities and trade-offs with senior stakeholders, suppliers, and internal partners where lifecycle risk, customer impact, cost, resource constraints, or portfolio direction compete.
- Coach and guide contributors in lifecycle thinking, problem solving, decision quality, and disciplined follow-through; help build stronger lifecycle capability across the organization.
- Represent lifecycle considerations in roadmap, investment, readiness, supplier, and operational discussions so long-term product health is considered alongside near-term delivery needs.
Measures of Success- Lifecycle governance: priorities, ownership, risks, decisions, and progress are visible, current, and understood across the lifecycle function and key stakeholders.
- Manufacturing efficiency and cost: measurable reduction in manufacturing time, production complexity, avoidable cost, supply risk, or inventory exposure while maintaining required quality and reliability.
- Field quality and reliability: reduction in recurring field issues, service incidents, quality problems, support escalations, and repeat corrective actions.
- Product lifespan and sustainment: products remain viable, supported, safe, and commercially useful for their intended lifecycle, with timely recommendations for improvement, refresh, replacement, or retirement.
- Lifecycle execution: sustainment and improvement work is prioritized and delivered within agreed scope, schedule, budget, risk, and change-control boundaries.
- Decision quality: major lifecycle recommendations are evidence-based, clearly communicated, and enable timely Product Strategy and business decisions.
People Management / Leadership Responsibilities:This is a senior individual-contributor role with no direct people-management responsibility. The Product Lifecycle Manager functionally leads the cross-functional Product Lifecycle team/band; contributors retain formal reporting relationships to their home capabilities.
Position Requirements- Typically 12-15+ years of related experience in product lifecycle management, product operations, product management, manufacturing engineering, service engineering, quality, supply chain, hardware/software systems, or a related technical field. An equivalent combination of relevant education and practical experience may be considered.
- Bachelor's degree in engineering, product management, operations, supply chain, business, or a related technical discipline preferred, or equivalent practical experience.
- Relevant advanced study, professional certification, or specialized training in product lifecycle management, quality, reliability, manufacturing, or continuous improvement is beneficial but not required.
- Recognized expertise in lifecycle management for complex engineered or technology products, with demonstrated ability to lead large-scale, multidisciplinary initiatives through influence.
- Demonstrated experience with sustainment, product improvement, reliability, manufacturability, serviceability, cost reduction, obsolescence, end-of-life planning, and product retirement or replacement recommendations.
- Strong working knowledge of engineering change and configuration-control practices, including BOM/product data updates, part substitutions, revision control, firmware/software version impacts, release documentation, and traceability.
- Experience using product, manufacturing, supply, field, quality, service, and cost data to diagnose complex problems, identify systemic patterns, evaluate trade-offs, and influence senior-level decisions.
- Strong business judgment and ability to connect technical lifecycle issues to customer impact, operational risk, product value, investment choices, and portfolio direction.
- Demonstrated ability to negotiate priorities, resolve ambiguity, and build consensus with senior leaders, technical specialists, suppliers, and cross-functional partners.
- Experience designing or maturing governance processes, operating rhythms, metrics, and decision frameworks for a function or complex cross-functional program.
- Strong written and verbal communication skills, including the ability to synthesize complex technical and business information into clear executive recommendations.
TAIT Benefits: - Competitive medical, dental, and vision insurance plans
- Health Savings Account (HSA) with employer contributions (HDHP plans)
- Flexible Spending Accounts (Medical & Dependent Care)
- Employer-paid life insurance with optional supplemental coverage
- Employer-paid Short-term with optional long-term disability insurance
- 401(k) retirement plan with company match
- Paid parental leave
- Employee Assistance Program (EAP)
- Wellness stipends
- Voluntary benefits (e.g., accident, critical illness)
- Paid vacation and 12 holidays
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