Position Summary:
The Vice President of Product Development leads Product Management, Project Management, and Engineering, bringing these functions together to deliver a portfolio of products and support that meet customer needs while maximizing margins and development ROI. This role owns the product development process from opportunity definition and requirements through design, verification, launch, and ongoing improvement. The VP is accountable for delivering approved programs within development budgets, on schedule, at target product cost, and in compliance with agreed technical requirements.
Key Responsibilities:
Product Management & Support
- Lead product planning and lifecycle management, translating customer needs, market opportunities, and company strategy into a prioritized product roadmap.
- Ensure product proposals have clear customer value, business cases, scope, measurable requirements, and commercial objectives before development commitments are made.
- Partner with Sales, Marketing, Operations, and executive leadership to align product priorities, launch plans, and lifecycle decisions.
- Maintain disciplined prioritization across new products, enhancements, sustaining work, and technical investments.
- Develop and maintain a pricing strategy for the entire product portfolio, using market trends, relevant cost information, and business strategy to maximize margins and long term value.
- Ensure that products are robustly supported through comprehensive training options, product support experts, and an overwhelming commitment to customer success
Project Management and Delivery
- Own development program execution against approved scope, budgets, schedules, and technical requirements.
- Establish integrated project plans with clear milestones, resource commitments, dependencies, decision points, and acceptance criteria.
- Lead portfolio and program reviews that provide transparent reporting on progress, spending, forecasts, risks, and corrective actions.
- Resolve cross-functional barriers and resource conflicts, escalating material decisions with clear options and recommendations.
- Control changes to scope, requirements, cost, and schedule through documented impact assessments and approval processes.
Engineering and Technical Delivery
- Lead Engineering in developing robust, reliable, manufacturable, and serviceable products that satisfy approved technical requirements.
- Ensure requirements are translated into sound designs and verified through appropriate analysis, design reviews, testing, and documented results.
- Hands on day-to-day management of software, electrical, mechanical, SQA engineering teams & technical decisions
- Partner with technical leaders to establish architecture, engineering standards, and technology choices that balance performance, cost, risk, and long-term maintainability.
- Ensure technical risks are identified early and addressed through prototypes, feasibility work, and targeted validation before major commitments.
- Coordinate with Operations, Quality, Supply Chain, and Service to achieve production readiness and an effective transition from development to release.
Cost, Schedule, and Requirements Accountability
- Cost: Own development budgets, resource plans, and spending forecasts; ensure designs achieve approved product cost targets in partnership with Operations and Supply Chain.
- Schedule: Commit to realistic delivery dates, track critical milestones, and lead recovery plans when execution deviates from commitments.
- Technical requirements: Ensure products meet agreed functional, performance, quality, reliability, and applicable compliance requirements, supported by objective verification evidence.
- Trade-offs: Make timely, transparent decisions across scope, technical performance, cost, schedule, and risk; obtain approval for changes to established commitments rather than allowing unmanaged drift.
Organizational Leadership
- Build and develop a coordinated leadership team across Product Management, Project Management, and Engineering, with clear responsibilities and decision-making authority.
- Establish a culture of collaboration, accountability, technical rigor, and early communication of risks and issues.
- Align staffing, skills, tools, and external development resources with current commitments and future product needs.
- Continuously improve development processes to increase delivery predictability, reduce rework, and strengthen product quality without unnecessary bureaucracy.
Qualifications:
- Bachelor's degree in engineering or a related technical discipline, or equivalent relevant experience; advanced technical or business education preferred.
- 15+ years of progressive leadership experience in product development, including responsibility for multidisciplinary teams and complex technical products, with a minimum of 5 years in senior management roles.
- Extensive hands-on experience directly managing teams of software, mechanical, and electrical engineers with the ability to operate as a systems engineer, helping to make sound technical decisions across all disciplines.
- Demonstrated ability to deliver products against development budgets, committed schedules, product cost targets, and technical requirements.
- Strong understanding of product management, project management, engineering development, verification, and transition to production.
- Experience managing product portfolios, allocating resources, and making disciplined business and technical trade-offs.
- Strong financial judgment, structured problem-solving skills, and the ability to communicate clearly with technical teams and executive leadership.
- Collaborative leadership style with the ability to build alignment while maintaining clear accountability for results.
Travel Requirements:
This position will require 15 - 20% travel. Some international travel may be required.
Physical Demands:
The physical demands described here are representative of those that must be met by an employee to successfully perform the essential functions of this job. Reasonable accommodations may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform the essential functions.
While performing the duties of this job, the employee is regularly required to talk and hear. The employee is frequently required to stand, walk, sit, and reach. The employee is occasionally required to bend, kneel, squat, climb, lift, and use fine motor skills. The employee must occasionally lift or carry a maximum of 30 lbs.
Benefits Include:
- Competitive salary
- Medical, dental, and vision coverage from day one
- 401(k) retirement plan with company match
- Flexible Spending Accounts and Health Savings Account
- 4 weeks of paid time off (PTO)
- 12 paid holidays
- Short and long-term disability
- Life insurance
- Employee Assistance Program (EAP)
- Tuition reimbursement
- 6 weeks paid parental leave
- Onsite fitness/rec room & locker rooms
- Company-sponsored events
- Outdoor trails and recreational fields within walking distance
