SUMMARY OF POSITION:
The Senior Product Line Manager position owns the end-to-end strategy and execution for a portfolio of mouthguards, padded apparel and protective gear for Team Sports athletes under the Shock Doctor, McDavid and co-branded Under Armour brands. This role combines consumer-driven product vision with strong business acumen. The Senior Product Line Manager serves as the voice of the athlete, translating their needs, market trends, and competitive insights into compelling product strategies that deliver meaningful differentiation and profitable growth.
ESSENTIAL FUNCTIONS:- Consumer Insights & Unmet Needs: Obsess over understanding the target consumer. Research and engage with athletes to identify unmet needs and motivations, gathering deep insights into what inspires them about their sport and products. Use consumer insights and data to drive product opportunities and ensure the product line is built around real consumer needs.
- Market & Competitive Analysis: Analyze market trends and the competitive landscape to uncover gaps and opportunities for new products. Lead efforts (in partnership with marketing) to conduct comprehensive industry analysis, market research and competitor benchmarking, keeping the product line ahead of emerging trends and ensuring strong competitive positioning.
- Product Brief Development: Translate research findings into clear and compelling product briefs that define the vision and the problem to solve for each new product collection. Outline the target consumer profile, key benefits or experiences that product will deliver. Use the brief as blueprint for design and development, articulating what job the product must do to delight the consumer.
- Business Case & Line Planning: Develop robust business case as part of product brief and line plan. Ensure pricing strategy, target cost, revenue forecast, channel are aligned to competitive market and business goals. Balance innovation and business objectives - including right mix of products, SKUs & profitability target.
- Design & Development Collaboration: Work together with product designers & developers to bring the product concept to life. Provide a clear brief that defines what and why of the product, while empowering them to determine how to execute the solution. Engage in integrative process ensuring product meets the brief's goals.
- Product Development & Go-to-Market Ownership: Drive the product development and Go-to-Market (GTM) stage/gate process from concept to final product. Manage product timelines and key millstone meeting (GTM meetings). Own the product game plan - coordinating the efforts of Design and Development, Marketing, Sales, and Supply Chain.
- Cross-Functional Launch Coordination: Coordinate with all cross-functional partners in Marketing, Sales, Supply Chain and Ops to ensure a successful product launch and smooth go-to-market execution. Support customer line reviews as key presenter.
- Product Lifecyle Management: Oversee the product performance through its life cycle to maximize its success and longevity. Work with teams to manage the product's life span - from initial sell-in through growth and phase-out.
- Other duties as assigned.
POSITION SPECIFICS:- This is a full-time position
- Typical work hours and days are Monday - Friday, 8:30 a.m. to 5:00 p.m.
- This position is based out of the Fountain Valley, CA office
- This position is expected to travel approximately 25%. Some international travel may occur.
- This position requires in-office attendance at least 4 days per week (subject to increase in future).
PAY TRANSPARENCY:- The Company is committed to fair, equitable, and transparent compensation. Final compensation will be determined by various factors such as your relevant work experience, education, certifications, skills, and geographic location.
- The salary range for this role in Costa Mesa, CA is $140,000 - $160,000.
- In addition, you may be eligible for additional compensation, such as a bonus. Employees may also be eligible for a wide range of other benefits, including health & wellness benefits, retirement, time off, employee discounts, and others.
SUPERVISORY RESPONSIBILITIES:- Direct supervision of assigned staff.
- Recruit, train, lead, develop, evaluate and retain staff associated with related functions.
- Responsible for quarterly reviews of direct reports and ensuring all staff has outlined performance objectives.
- Work with Human Resources for coaching & performance counseling.
REQUIRED EDUCATION & EXPERIENCE:- 5+ years sales, product or marketing experience in wholesale, retail or direct businesses.
- Proven track record of Product Line Management for Consumer Brands, Products or Categories. Experience with Sporting Goods brands/categories a plus.
- Experience across different channels (sporting goods and online/DTC a plus), CPG categories (related category/products preferred), company sizes (large CPG and smaller company or division)
- Knowledge of product development process, merchandising and assortment planning.
- Extreme attention to detail and the ability to establish and maintain schedules.
- Ability to manage ambiguity and make decisions with incomplete or qualitative data.
- Strong interpersonal skills and ability to lead a collaborative results-oriented team
- A bachelor's degree (or Master's degree) in related field highly desired.
- Strong communication skills, adaptable communication style for all settings, including the ability to confidently present to large groups.
- Exceptional time management and organizational skills for planning and executing both large and small projects and initiatives.
- Intermediate/Advanced experience with Excel, including the ability to apply formulas to analyze data and trends.
- Intermediate/Advanced experience with the Microsoft Suite including Outlook, Word, PowerPoint, & Teams.
PHYSICAL DEMANDS/WORK ENVIRONMENT:Candidate must be able to successfully perform the essential functions of this job with ability to: be in a stationary position 50% of the time; occasionally move about inside the office to access fine cabinets, office machinery (such as a calculator, copy machine, printer, etc.); constantly operate a computer; occasionally ascend/descend stairs; constantly position self to maintain files in file cabinets; the ability to communicate information and ideas so others will understand; must be able to exchange accurate information in these situations; the ability to observe details at close range (within a few feed of the observer); and frequently move boxes weighing up to 15 pounds across office for various needs. Ability to work in outdoor weather conditions if projects/opportunities arise. The noise level in the work environment is usually moderate.
This job specification should not be construed to imply that these requirements are the exclusive standards of the position. Incumbents will follow any other instructions and perform any other related duties as may be required by their supervisor. Reasonable accommodations may be offered to enable individuals with disabilities to perform the essential functions. The requirements listed are representative of the knowledge, skill, and/or ability required.
