Product Manager

Product Manager

Location: Newcastle upon Tyne

Contract: Permanent

As the Product Manager, you will play a key role in driving growth within our International Distributor Markets, a critical growth opportunity for the business!

You will lead local and global project management and support product innovation, delivering work that enables the execution of best-in-class retail strategies. Collaborating closely with local and global teams, you will help bring new products to market while ensuring they align with consumer needs and regional business goals.

The key point of contact for Global Category, NPI and Distributor category marketing you will lead the NPD and EPD execution and on time launch planning for the Distributor business unit.

An experienced product manager with full knowledge and understanding of the NPD Process, Artwork process, support for project feasibilities, competitor research analysis and production of selling decks and training manuals. This role will lead and manage the New Product introduction for Distributor regions.

What you will be doing:

Project Management & Execution

• Manage project timelines and critical paths, ensuring key milestones are met and communicate launch dates and S&OP planning with Distributor Category Managers and Brand leads
• Maintain project trackers for alignment across all Distributor and cross-functional teams.
• Oversee the packaging development process, including writing briefs and tracking approvals in Wrike.
• Coordinate Wrike approvals for product and packaging assets, working with creative, compliance, legal, and NPI teams.
• Provide monthly project updates, tracking statuses, approvals, and next steps.
• Own digital product catalogue, including images, codes, packaging and SKU count by category.
• Work with QA team and Maintain QA files for NPD sharing with Distributor regions

Product Development & Category Strategy

• Support the Distributor product strategy by ensuring product quality meets consumer expectations and aligns with brand standards.
• Assist in developing product line plans using consumer insights, market data, trade, sales, and retailer feedback.
• Complete Global NPD feasibility documents – pricing, volumes, margin tracking, language clusters and packaging information for briefs.
• Drive Regional EPD projects, lead scoping and business case creation and approvals, lead projects with NPI team and ensure on time delivery aligned with business case KPIs
• Contribute to new product ideation, ensuring alignment with brand positioning, and regional channel needs.
• Track financial performance, including revenue, margin, and COGS; pull monthly NPD reports, track new product performance (plan vs. actual), and identify key variances.
• Produce training manuals and FAQs to support internal commercial and regional Distributor training
• Creation of Bi-monthly newsletters for Distributor Partners
• Coordinate samples for external and internal reviews.

Cross-Functional Collaboration & Communication

• Partner with Distributor category, Brand and commercial teams to ensure product viability and successful execution of regional product launches, create sell presentations and support in regional 'playbooks' briefings
• Coordinate cross-functional meetings, ensuring all Distributor stakeholders are aligned on key projects and the implementation requirements
• Assist in preparing presentations and monthly reports.
• Attend NPD project team meetings, actively representing the Distributor region and consumer perspective and filtering key insights back to the global team.

Retail & Market Engagement

• Learn and stay up to date on consumer trends with the category, competitor activity, and retailer needs to support Distributor growth.
• Support trade shows and conferences as required
• Monitor online product reviews, identifying opportunities for product improvements and feed into global teams

What skills and experiences you'll need to ace this job:

• Experience in product management or product development in an FMCG environment.
• Strong organisational and project management skills, able to handle multiple tasks simultaneously.
• Ability to translate data into insights and clear actions while collaborating cross-functionally.
• Detail-oriented with strong communication, negotiation, and presentation skills.
• A self-starter with a proactive, problem-solving mindset, strong storytelling capabilities, and proficiency in PowerPoint and Excel. Experience with project management tools is a plus.
• Passionate about consumer products, retail, or the parent care industry.
• Motivated to grow within the company.
• Knowledge of baby industry is a plus.
• Comfortable in managing stakeholders across different teams and levels.
• Any international experience would be advantageous but is not required.

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