Product Line Director, UK & IOM in Buckley

Location: Deeside. Frequent travel required (25%-35% of their time)

Position Summary

The Product Line Director (PLD) reports to the Vice President of Sales & Marketing and is designed to be a forward, customer-facing role. The PLD is responsible for the Profit & Loss (P&L) and maximizing both the revenue and EBITDA. This includes growing the business faster than the served market. Therefore, the majority of the PLD's time (80%) is spent on customer-facing activities and includes building customer relationships, market-based value pricing, contract review and negotiations, new business development, and business unit bookings and sales.

Major Accountabilities

• Leader of a cross-functional Product line team consisting of Sales, Operations, and Engineering (amongst other functions).
• Ability to focus on forward, customer-facing responsibilities is highly dependent on a high-functioning, collaborative, results-oriented Product line team.
• The Product line team must have dedicated members that are 100% co-located.
• The Product line team organization is key value creation strategy.
• Owner of the Product line team agenda, priorities, and due dates with the team goal of exceeding customer expectations and maximizing value.
• The PLD is the voice of the Product line team and must communicate openly and honestly any issues with senior management.
• The PLD promotes the culture and exhibits solid leadership skills by creating a collective sense of purpose, establishing clear and consistent team expectations and goals, empowerment, and high accountability.
• Sets the tone of the Product line team by exhibiting a bias for action and a high sense of urgency.
• Promotes open and honest communication and has excellent interpersonal skills.
• May or may not have direct reports.
• The Sales team can include Customer Account Managers, Customer Service, or Contract Administrators who are empowered to act as the liaison between the team and the customer on sustaining business issues.
• The Sales team may also include Sales Engineers who report to the VP of Sales and Marketing and, along with the PLD, focus on New Business across multiple product lines.
• Leads and includes the Product line team in the creation and execution of a New Business growth strategy.
• The PLD tracks New Business bookings through a Taxi and Takeoff list.
• The PLD, along with the VP of Sales, maintains a Time & Territory plan to support New Business objectives.
• The PLD leads the Go-No Go team activity including a detailed, data-driven New Business Model and commitment of engineering resources to support the New Business activity.
• The PLD leads the Product line team to ensure the cost objectives and customer needs are effectively met with new business awards.
• The PLD provides the product cost target and monitors the progress the team makes towards those cost targets.
• The PLD is responsible for leading the PLT in establishing the quarterly/monthly Bookings, Sales, and EBITDA targets as set forth in the Annual Plan.
• Bookings – Bookings are often referred to as ‘filling the bucket’ for which the PLD, along with the Sales team, is responsible.
• The PLD sets bookings targets for the Sales team and tracks progress.
• The PLD, along with the VP of Sales, trains the team on quoting and negotiating in accordance with Product line policy, customer relations, customer order acceptance and entry, and customer management skills.
• Backlog - The Sales team is responsible for maintaining an orderly and timely backlog, anticipating customer needs to ensure the backlog is full and lead-times are enforced, communicating customer expectations to the Team, and working with Ops if needed to ensure the customer needs are met.
• Sales and EBITDA - The PLD leads the PLT in establishing and meeting the Sales and EBITDA plan and Outlook.
• Shipping quality product, on time, is the foundation of creation.
• To be clear, the planning and management of factory and supply chain activities to get shipments out the door, or ‘emptying the bucket’ to hit the Sales target is the responsibility of Operations.
• The Sales team assists by collaborating with Operations and customer needs.
• The scope of this position includes Profit and Loss accountability and leadership of a cross functional Product Line Team (consisting of Sales, Operations and Engineering).
• This is a key development position for promotion to senior leadership positions.

Responsibilities

• Responsible for achieving Bookings, Sales, and EBITDA objectives.
• Drive consistent value creation through market-based pricing, profitable new business, and productivity.
• Develop and execute a Product line strategy resulting in yearly growth, faster than the underlying market.
• Lead a cross-functional Product line Team.
• Implement initiatives to continuously improve team responsiveness to customer/business needs.
• Prepare and execute a comprehensive Annual Business Unit Plan.
• Develop and present Quarterly business reviews to executive management.
• Develop positive relationships with customers.
• Responsible for contract review and negotiations.
• Develop a performance-oriented work environment with high accountability.
• Perform other duties as may be assigned.

Education and Experience

• Bachelor degree or higher from an accredited university/college. Technical degree preferred.
• 5 years total experience which includes roles of increasing responsibility.
• Experience leading direct reports preferred.
• Experience leading a cross functional team preferred.
• Ability to travel 25% - 35%.

Desired Characteristics

• Self-starter that excels in an entrepreneurial ownership culture.
• Results oriented.
• Drives Performance to achieve both short and long term goals.
• Bias for action; exhibits a sense of urgency.
• Critical thinking and problem-solving skills.
• Data-driven with strong attention to detail.
• Ability to manage and prioritize multiple items.
• Exhibits leadership abilities, including high accountability.
• Exhibits solid business acumen.
• Effective open and honest communicator with solid interpersonal skills.

For clarity, the PLD Role Does Not include the following

• The PLD does not get involved in the details of Manufacturing or Materials productivity. This activity is owned by the Operations teams.
• There is no engineering in the PLD role.
• The PLD ensures we understand the product specification/ requirements, and the engineering team owns the responsibility of meeting those needs.
• There is no management of factory and supply chain activities to get shipments out the door. This is owned by the Operations teams.