Principal Product Line Strategist

About the role

Lead the development and execution of North American business and product strategy for Heat Exchanger (HEX) products. This position integrates customer requirements, product needs, manufacturing capabilities, capacity, cost competitiveness, and investment planning into short- and long-term strategies supporting North American Thermal business objectives. Operates cross-functionally across Engineering, Manufacturing, Business Planning, Sales, and other functions to establish direction, align stakeholders, and drive approved strategies through execution. Serves as subject matter expert for Heat Exchanger business strategy, providing recommendations and regular business updates to Business Unit and executive leadership.

Responsibilities

• Lead and align the North American Heat Exchanger product strategy by gathering internal and external stakeholder requirements, evaluating customer and market needs, and translating business inputs into actionable short- and long-term plans.
• Establish the Heat Exchanger product types, volumes, and capacity requirements needed to support the Annual Sales Plan and longer-term North American customer demand.
• Develop business scenarios and recommendations that balance customer requirements, technical capability, manufacturing feasibility, cost competitiveness, and business objectives.
• Establish and maintain the North American Heat Exchanger manufacturing footprint and capacity strategy based on customer demand, existing manufacturing capabilities, equipment capacity, investment requirements, and competitiveness targets.
• Evaluate product sourcing alternatives across North American manufacturing locations and other regions and determine appropriate sourcing locations within approved business plans.
• Coordinate with Manufacturing Planning and Investment Planning to develop recommendations for new capacity, production-line investment, footprint changes, and future manufacturing requirements.
• Lead Heat Exchanger Cost Planning Activity (CPA) by establishing cost targets and coordinating cross-functional actions necessary to achieve business competitiveness objectives.
• Drive Design and Manufacturing Value Analysis/Value Engineering activities and other cost-improvement initiatives in support of approved CPA targets.
• Benchmark competitive products, technologies, and internal manufacturing performance to identify opportunities to improve technical value, manufacturing efficiency, and overall cost competitiveness.
• Lead cross-functional planning and execution across Engineering, Manufacturing, Business Planning, Sales, and related functions to ensure alignment with approved business and product strategies.
• Coordinate directly with Director-level functional leaders to obtain required inputs, establish priorities, resolve issues, and drive execution of key initiatives.
• Establish detailed cross-functional action plans following strategy approval and conduct ongoing PDCA to ensure progress against agreed objectives.
• Provide direction and coordination to matrixed resources supporting Heat Exchanger business activities while maintaining alignment with their respective functional organizations.
• Maintain accountability for approved Heat Exchanger strategies from planning through execution and achievement of established business targets.
• Monitor progress against key business, cost, capacity, investment, and execution objectives and identify corrective actions when performance is not meeting plan.
• Provide recommendations, business status, risks, and progress updates to Business Unit and executive leadership on a weekly, monthly, quarterly, and annual basis.
• Exercise independent decision-making within approved budgets, strategies, and delegated authority while escalating major strategic direction and investment decisions for executive approval as required.

Qualifications

Required:

• Bachelor’s degree
• 12+ years of related experience
• Demonstrated experience supporting manufacturing, business planning, engineering, quality, sales, or related business functions
• Experience working across multiple functions and organizational levels to develop and execute complex business strategies
• Strong ability to analyze customer, product, manufacturing, and business trends from both technical and commercial perspectives
• Demonstrated ability to develop business scenarios and translate complex information into actionable recommendations
• Strong strategic planning, analytical, and problem-solving capability
• Ability to lead cross-functional activities and influence stakeholders