Koch Industries

Product Line Director - Optical Transceivers

Koch Industries$90K — $150K *
Aerospace & Defense
5 - 7 years of experience
Job Overview by Ladders

Qualifications

  • Bachelor's degree from an accredited institution
  • Proven track record of managing product line P&L
  • Experience in product management within high-reliability markets like aerospace or defense
  • Familiarity with electrical and optical systems for mission-critical applications
  • Strong cross-functional collaboration skills across diverse teams
  • Willingness to travel up to 50%, domestically and internationally

Responsibilities

  • Own the product line P&L, ensuring revenue and margin growth
  • Define and execute product line strategy that aligns with market opportunities
  • Develop product roadmaps and go-to-market strategies
  • Identify growth and application opportunities in aerospace and defense sectors
  • Lead competitive intelligence to inform investment decisions
  • Manage the product lifecycle from concept to end of life
  • Collaborate with Sales and Marketing on product positioning and sales tools
  • Mentor and develop a global PLM team to enhance capability

Benefits

  • Medical, dental, and vision insurance
  • Flexible spending and health savings accounts
  • Life insurance and disability coverage
  • Retirement plan options
  • Paid vacation and time off
  • Educational assistance programs
  • Support for infertility issues, parental leave, and adoption assistance
Full Job Description
Your Job

Smiths Interconnect, a Molex company, is seeking a Global Director of Product Line Management (PLM) to lead a high-performing global team responsible for rugged embedded fiber optic transceiver product lines serving aerospace, defense, and space markets. This role has full ownership of product line strategy and P&L performance and plays a critical role in driving profitable growth, technology leadership, and long-term value creation across mission-critical optical communications portfolios.

Our Team

You will lead a distributed Product Line Management organization and partner closely with Engineering, Sales, Operations, Finance, and Marketing to align strategy, execution, and customer value across global markets.

What You Will Do
• Own full product line P&L accountability, delivering revenue growth, gross margin expansion, and operating income targets
• Define and execute global product line strategy aligned with business objectives and long-term market opportunities
• Develop and maintain product roadmaps, business plans, and go-to-market strategies for current and next-generation products
• Identify and evaluate growth opportunities across aerospace, defense, and space segments, including new applications and adjacencies
• Lead market, customer, and competitive intelligence to guide portfolio optimization and investment decisions
• Translate customer and market requirements into differentiated, ruggedized optical solutions in partnership with Engineering
• Actively manage the full product lifecycle, from concept through launch, production, and end-of-life decisions
• Partner with Sales and Marketing to develop product positioning, messaging, pricing strategies, and sales enablement tools
• Engage directly with key customers and strategic prospects, serving as the voice of the customer across the organization
• Lead, develop, and mentor a global PLM team while strengthening organizational capability and succession
• Collaborate cross-functionally to improve execution, operational alignment, and customer outcomes
• Support strategic initiatives, including partnerships, acquisitions, and other inorganic growth opportunities

Who You Are (Basic Qualifications)
• Bachelor's degree from an accredited institution
• Experience owning and managing product line P&L responsibility
• Experience leading product management or product line teams in aerospace, defense, space, or other high-reliability markets
• Working knowledge of electrical and/or optical systems used in complex, mission-critical applications
• Experience collaborating across Engineering, Sales, Operations, and Marketing to deliver business results
• Ability to travel domestically and internationally, up to 50%

What Will Put You Ahead
• MBA and/or technical degree
• Experience with ruggedized fiber optic transceivers or optical communications technologies
• Demonstrated success developing and executing global product strategies and roadmaps
• Experience with value-based pricing and commercial strategy in engineered products
• Established customer relationships within aerospace, defense, or space markets
• Experience leading teams through growth, change, or integration following acquisitions

For this role, we anticipate paying $90,000 - $150,000 per year. This role is eligible for variable pay, issued as a monetary bonus or in another form.

Our Benefits

Our goal is for each employee, and their families, to live fulfilling and healthy lives. We provide essential resources and support to build and maintain physical, financial, and emotional strength - focusing on overall wellbeing so you can focus on what matters most. Our benefits plan includes - medical, dental, vision, flexible spending and health savings accounts, life insurance, ADD, disability, retirement, paid vacation/time off, educational assistance, and may also include infertility assistance, paid parental leave and adoption assistance. Specific eligibility criteria is set by the applicable Summary Plan Description, policy or guideline and benefits may vary by geographic region. If you have questions on what benefits apply to you, please speak to your recruiter.

Additionally, everyone has individual work and personal needs. We seek to enable the best work environment that helps you and the business work together to produce superior results.

About Koch Industries

Koch Industries, Inc. is an American privately-held multinational conglomerate corporation based in Wichita, Kansas. Its subsidiaries are involved in the manufacturing, refining, and distribution of petroleum, chemicals, energy, fiber, intermediates and polymers, minerals, fertilizers, pulp and paper, chemical technology equipment, ranching, finance, commodities trading, and investing. Koch owns Infor, Invista, Georgia-Pacific, Molex, Flint Hills Resources, Koch Pipeline, Koch Fertilizer, Koch Minerals, Matador Cattle Company, i360, and Guardian Industries. The firm employs 120,000 people in 60 countries, with about half of its business in the United States. The company is the largest non-Canadian landowner in the Athabasca oil sands. With annual revenues of $110 billion by 2014, the company is the largest privately held company in the United States. In 2007, it was ranked as the largest privately held company. If Koch Industries had been a public company in 2013, it would have ranked 17th in the Fortune 500. The company was founded by its namesake, Fred C. Koch, in 1940 after he developed an innovative crude oil refining process. Fred C. Koch died in 1967 and his majority interest in the company was split amongst his four sons. In June 1983, after a bitter legal and boardroom battle, the stakes of Frederick R. Koch and William "Bill" Koch were bought out for $1.1 billion and Charles Koch and David Koch became majority owners in the company. Charles owns 42% of the company; trusts for the benefit of Elaine Tettemer Marshall and Elaine's children, Preston Marshall and E. Pierce Marshall Jr., own 16% of the company. The heirs of David Koch, who died on August 23, 2019, own the balance, 42%, of the corporation.
Learn more about Koch Industries
Industry
Founded
1940

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