Global Product Owner Smart Manufacturing & Performance

About the role

Now hiring! Global Product Owner Smart Manufacturing & Performance – positions available in Research Triangle Park, NC; Sparks, GA; Hannibal, MO; or Beaumont, TX. We are looking for a Global Product Owner - Smart Manufacturing & Performance to join our Agricultural Solutions team for our BASF Operations Digital Business Platform organization. This position can be performed from one of our 4 main locations: Research Triangle Park, NC; Sparks, GA; Hannibal, MO; or Beaumont, TX. As Global Product Owner Smart Manufacturing & Performance, you own the digital agenda for how our plants produce across active ingredients (TGAI), formulation, filling and packaging (FFP) and biologicals, leading one global product family covering manufacturing operations, lean production, shift management, shopfloor collaboration and manufacturing performance management.

Responsibilities

• Translating the manufacturing strategies of TGAI, FFP and Biologicals into one digital vision and roadmap for the Manufacturing product family, deciding where one global standard applies and stopping one-off local solutions.
• Owning the end-to-end digital vision for the product family, aligned to the business strategy, and making plant performance data trusted and comparable across sites together with the Operations Data Domain.
• Building and prioritizing a pipeline of smart manufacturing use cases (process optimization, predictive quality, advanced process control, digital twins), turning AI and automation opportunities into business cases and scaling proven solutions across sites.
• Owning and prioritizing the product backlog with your Digital Product Owner, setting and tracking product OKRs, managing the product budget, and preparing input for the quarterly business review (QBR).
• Acting as the execution and adoption contact for the TGAI, FFP and Biologicals Technology units, and managing interfaces with Industrial Automation, Quality, Filling & Packaging, Maintenance, Site Logistics, and the ERP, Supply Chain, Data and Infrastructure platforms.
• Anticipating business and technology change to keep the product family fit for the future, flagging dependencies and technical debt early, and deciding whether to retain, consolidate or retire linked applications.
• Securing functional capacity and SME commitments for the product team, leading the cross-functional product team together with the Digital Product Owner, and supporting delivery, documentation and adoption teams as functional expert and business voice.

Requirements

• Hold a degree in Engineering, Chemistry, Biotechnology, Information Technology, or a related field.
• Bring 8+ years of manufacturing experience in chemical, formulation, or biotechnology production environments.
• Have hands-on experience in manufacturing performance management, Lean Manufacturing, or Operational Excellence.
• Possess a strong understanding of MES, plant data, process information systems, and the application of advanced analytics and AI in manufacturing.
• Have experience with product ownership or agile delivery, including vision, roadmap development, backlog management, OKRs, and prioritization.
• Demonstrate the ability to build business cases and drive value realization.

Skills

• Excel at stakeholder management across business