Koch Industries

Product Line Manager - Optical Solutions

Koch Industries$150K — $250K *
Telecommunications & Hardware
Less than 5 years of experience
Job Overview by Ladders

Qualifications

  • Bachelor's degree in engineering, physics, or a related scientific field.
  • Technical experience in optical communication and networking technologies.
  • Experience delivering high volume optical communication devices for data centers or telecommunication.
  • Minimum 2 years in product management or a related technical customer-facing role.
  • Proven track record in product development and portfolio management.
  • Experienced in market analysis and technology trend mapping.
  • Strong interpersonal skills for collaboration with teams and stakeholders.

Responsibilities

  • Lead strategic product planning for alignment with market needs.
  • Manage product lines across their full lifecycle from concept to decline.
  • Oversee forecasting and optimize manufacturing processes.
  • Collaborate with support and quality teams to resolve customer issues.
  • Drive initiatives for profitability and ROI enhancement.
  • Align cross-functional teams on shared goals and represent product lines in business reviews.
  • Mentor and develop a team of product managers, promoting continuous improvement.

Benefits

  • Comprehensive medical, dental, and vision plans.
  • Flexible spending and health savings accounts.
  • Life insurance and disability coverage.
  • Retirement plan options.
  • Paid vacation and time off guidelines.
  • Educational assistance for ongoing learning.
  • Potential infertility assistance and paid parental leave options.
Full Job Description
We are looking for a Product Line Manager to help manage advanced optical modules for optical network monitoring to support DWDM systems. The Product Line Manager will lead the strategic direction, development, and commercialization of product lines within the Optical Solutions division. This person will drive growth through portfolio strategy, new product development, and cross-functional alignment, while mentoring a high-performing team of product managers. What You Will Do • Strategic Product Planning: Lead long-term product planning to ensure alignment with market needs and group technology roadmaps. Develop competitive product line roadmaps and conduct ongoing competitive analysis to maintain product relevance and differentiation. • Product Lifecycle Ownership: Manage assigned product lines across the full lifecycle-from concept through growth, maturity, and decline. Drive commercialization strategies and ensure consistent execution across the product management team. • Manufacturing & Forecast Optimization: Oversee product forecasting and streamline manufacturing processes, proactively addressing component obsolescence, supply chain challenges, and cost-efficiency opportunities. • Customer & Quality Collaboration: Partner with Application Support and Quality teams to resolve customer issues, improve service levels, and enhance product reliability. • Profitability & ROI Enhancement • Lead initiatives to improve profitability and return on investment through cost reduction, capacity planning, and quality improvement projects. • Cross-Functional Alignment: Align Sales, Engineering, Finance, Supply Chain, and Quality teams on shared goals related to cost reduction, inventory management, and service-level performance. Represent the product line in quarterly business reviews and annual strategic planning cycles. • Team Leadership & Development: Lead, mentor, and develop a team of product managers, fostering a culture of accountability and continuous improvement through Principle Based Management. Who You Are (Basic Qualifications) • Bachelors degree in engineering, physics or related scientific field • Technical experience in optical communication and optical networking technologies including modules, switches, system architectures • Experience delivering high volume optical communication devices to customers in data center and/or telecommunication • At least 2 years experienced in product management, field application engineering or technical customer facing role • Demonstrated experience in supporting product development and portfolio management. • Experienced in market analysis, technology trends, competitor mapping • Proven experience leading and influencing cross-functional teams • Strong interpersonal skills to collaborate effectively with internal teams and external stakeholders. What will put your ahead • Bilingual in Chinese/Mandarin • At least 10 years of industry experience as a proven Product Line Manager For this role, we anticipate paying $150,000 - $250,000 per year. This role is eligible for variable pay, issued as a monetary bonus or in another form. Any compensation range provided for a role is an estimate determined by available market data. The actual amount may be higher or lower than the range provided considering each candidate's knowledge, skills, abilities, and geographic location. If you have questions, please speak to your recruiter about the flexibility and detail of our compensation philosophy. 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.
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Founded
1940

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