Automotive Product Manager (Wiseco)

About the Role

The Product Manager drives the strategy, development, and full lifecycle management of products within the automotive aftermarket portfolio. This role combines technical insight, commercial acumen, and strong cross-functional leadership to ensure product lines meet customer needs, achieve financial targets, and maintain a competitive position across retail, distribution, dealer, engine builder, and e-commerce channels.

Responsibilities

• Product Development Strategy
  • Create product strategy documents outlining business cases, high-level use cases, technical requirements, revenue, and ROI.
  • Conduct market research to develop products customers want and assess competitor offerings for differentiation opportunities.
  • Evaluate resource capacity and anticipate future needs to drive product innovation and improvement initiatives in collaboration with Engineering.
  • Foster an entrepreneurial and disruptive approach to innovation.
• Product Lifecycle Management
  • Drive execution of all product lifecycle processes from conception through release and obsolescence, including research, planning, positioning, roadmaps, development requirements, and launch.
  • Review and support forecast optimization to maintain product availability while balancing inventory costs.
  • Evaluate product performance through margin analysis, SKU optimization, warranty tracking, and quality feedback.
  • Lead rationalization efforts by pruning low-value SKUs and expanding high-value segments.
  • Create 24-month rolling annual and new product release forecasts.
• Product Data
  • Create and maintain all product data, including product fitment, using Microsoft Excel.
  • Support the product information management team and maintain website data.
  • Support Sales in distributing product data and customer load sheets to ensure accurate listing in channel partner catalogues and websites.
• Product Releases
  • Coordinate new product releases with R&D, Sales, and Operations (manufacturing and supply chain).
  • Drive continuous improvement of the new product development process using agile/scrum methodology.
  • Work closely with Supply Chain and Quality Teams to ensure new products are delivered on-time and to specification.
  • Ensure all essential tasks for new formulations, product change requests, pilot production, and trial product production are completed in accordance with internal requirements.
  • Collaborate with the Sales Team and customers to ensure understanding of products and their benefits, including training for internal teams and external customers (B2B).
• Sales Support
  • Support the development of sales strategies to meet product objectives.
  • Collaborate on sales channel management, technical support resource development, and product improvements for best-in-industry customer experience.
• Customer Feedback
  • Conduct customer surveys and outreach to collect feedback and make recommendations for improving product performance and customer experiences.
• Marketing
  • Define product marketing communication objectives.
  • Provide management with analysis and reports as needed.

Requirements

• Education: Bachelor’s degree in Business, Marketing, or related field, or equivalent experience.
• Experience: 4+ years of product management experience.
• Skills:
  • Strategic thinker with strong commercial judgment and a customer-centric mindset.
  • Highly collaborative with the ability to influence without authority.
  • Driven by results, data, and continuous improvement.
  • Strong analytical skills with the ability to interpret market data, financial metrics, and product performance indicators.
  • Excellent project management skills with experience leading cross-functional initiatives.
  • Strong communication skills, able to tailor messaging to technical, commercial, and executive audiences.
  • Proficiency with Excel, ERP systems, product information tools, and analytics platforms.
  • Technical knowledge of engine products and accessories.
• Computer Skills: Ability to fully utilize MS Office programs (Excel, Outlook, Word, PowerPoint); previous software and web development experience.
• Travel: Some travel required.

Key Competencies

• Lead the product development process for projects in the pipeline for 2026 and beyond.
• Work alongside the product development team to support the 3-year innovation pipeline.
• Develop a 7-10-year product development innovation strategy in collaboration with the Head of R&D and Head of Category Management.