Commercial Product Manager

Illinois Tool Works Inc. (NYSE: ITW) is a Fortune 200 global multi-industry manufacturing leader with revenue of $16 billion in 2025. The company’s seven industry-leading segments leverage the unique ITW Business Model to drive solid growth with best-in-class margins and returns. ITW’s approximately 45,000 dedicated colleagues thrive in a decentralized and entrepreneurial culture. Traulsen, with gross revenues near $250 million, is the premier name in refrigeration for the foodservice market, providing professional expertise and high-quality equipment since 1938. Every Traulsen product is engineered, fabricated, assembled, and tested at facilities in Fort Worth, Texas.

Immigration sponsorship will not be provided for this position.

About the Role

The product manager is responsible for leading market-driven innovation and growth by translating customer insights and market trends into product opportunities, developing and executing product and vertical marketing strategies, and guiding go-to-market initiatives. The role supports the innovation pipeline, contributes to stage-gate product development, and provides strategic market analysis to identify growth opportunities, expand into new markets, and drive revenue, share, and profitability for the division.

This position collaborates closely with the one-FEG sales team, Traulsen colleagues (engineering, operations, finance, quality, and customer service), and external stakeholders including customers, independent sales representatives, end-users, dealers, and specifiers/consultants. The role reports to the Director of Marketing, North America Refrigeration.

Responsibilities

• Innovation Process:
  • Serve as division expert on market dynamics, industry trends, competitors, and customers’ current and future needs.
  • Capture and translate Voice of Customer (VOC) and market trends into incremental, differentiated product commercialization opportunities.
  • Build customer confidence in Traulsen’s ability to be the partner of choice.
  • Identify serial innovation opportunities addressing market needs to generate sustainable and profitable growth aligned with division strategy.
  • Drive innovation pipeline with division leadership using a screened opportunity list.
  • Act as a key team member in the innovation stage-gate process, working with engineering and core project teams to deliver marketing requirements for each stage.
• Strategy Development and Execution:
  • Develop and execute vertical marketing strategies using market insights aligned with division growth objectives.
  • Lead product line strategies aligned with market segment strategies, identifying and validating value propositions for each sub-segment.
  • Develop business cases for new target markets, product innovations, services, or customers.
  • Execute go-to-market strategy for the product portfolio with division commercial leadership.
  • Drive the deploy stage of product launch, including participation in product launches.
• Market Segment Leadership:
  • Provide strategic leadership to size markets and determine attractiveness of adjacent markets.
  • Deliver strategic insights, analysis, and directional input to drive key growth and sales initiatives.
  • Execute segmentation and market research (primary and secondary) to identify growth opportunities and articulate Traulsen’s capitalization strategy.
  • Report on customer and market segment results for assigned portfolio, including revenue, growth rates, share gain, and profitability metrics, explaining key drivers of change.

Requirements

• Bachelor’s degree in Marketing, Engineering, or Business (required).
• MBA (preferred).
• 5+ years of progressive business experience, including 2+ years in strategic marketing, sales development, pricing, or product management.
• 2+ years of big three consulting experience (preferred).
• Proven record of delivering business growth with an aggressive growth mindset.
• Highly effective cross-functional leader and influencer with excellent collaboration, communication, and presentation skills.
• Strong ability to navigate complex market reach, bring focus, and simplify strategically.
• Experience deploying marketing research methods and translating end-user requirements into successful B2B solutions.
• Excellent analytical skills, pricing strategy experience, and financial acumen; P&L management experience a plus.
• Up to 30% travel.

Benefits

Our total rewards package is broad and offers comprehensive support from health and wellness to retirement and financial stability. For more details, visit ITW Benefits & Compensation.

Schedule

• Monday – Friday, 8 hours per day with flexible starting times.
• Infrequent weekend work based on business needs.

Work Environment

• Primarily in a climate-controlled office environment.
• Occasional exposure to factory and warehouse environments.
• Regular use of office equipment (PC, phone, copier, printer, fax).
• Frequent interaction with employees and agency representatives.
• Occasional lifting of less than 20 pounds.