Global Product Manager

Littelfuse is one of America’s Best Mid-Sized Companies (Forbes) and has been named one of the Best Places to Work in Illinois (Best Companies Group) for 11 consecutive years. With its global headquarters in Chicago, Illinois, USA, Littelfuse is a leading, global manufacturer of electronic components serving more than 100,000 end customers across industrial, transportation, and electronics end markets. We have more than 17,000 employees with operations in 15 countries. From semiconductors to sensors… switches to fuses and more… we produce billions of electronic components that help our customers empower a sustainable, connected, and safer world. In 2021, Littelfuse had net sales of $2.1 billion.

We are currently seeking a Global Product Manager to lead the strategic direction of our key product line, which is crucial to the business unit's future. The Global Product Manager monitors and manages the profitability of the product line and ensures that it aligns with Littelfuse's strategy. This role involves identifying customer needs, market gaps, and the viability of product line features and ideas from a global perspective. The Global Product Manager is responsible for maintaining a competitive position in the marketplace.

About the job:

Product Financial and Operating Performance 

• Define pricing strategy for assigned products to support pricing and revenue goals

• Review performance regularly and define and implement actions as necessary to drive top-line growth and/or return product margins to required levels

• Support and lead product rationalization, as required by profit profitability, product strategy, and supplier strategy

• Work with sales & customers to assess future demand forecast and provide this input to Operations (for capacity and demand management); also, as needed, set safety stock requirements, and manage inventory obsolescence

• Coordinate and ensure that product development /change requests are implemented according to required processes and customer notification/responses are tracked

• Actively drive and participate in cost-reduction initiatives

Market Analysis & Strategy 

• Own and drive the product strategy for assigned product lines

• Create and maintain a product roadmap with input from Internal sources (Sales, Engineering) and external (customers, competition, technology trends)

• Identify & stay abreast of technology trends that impact product development space (opportunistic and erosive) and update management of the impact on an as-needed basis

• Support the creation/evolution of market models and other mechanisms that help illustrate the market (size, growth, assess the competitive position, and opportunities)

• New Product Development / Product Revision: 

• Drive engineering and sales in the development of new products according to the Product Roadmap and company strategy.

• Understand needs, opportunities, and capabilities to create product requirement documentation and integrate it into the product development process

• Work with Sales, Engineering and Marcom to ensure that emerging and new products have sufficient product support material, prototypes, early samples, and documentation to commensurate with the opportunity and stage in product development

• Create product readiness checklists for each new product and drive this to completion with each new product release

• Support and participate in the sales release process in a timely manner

Sales Support

• Participate in Sales activities on an as-needed basis, including Customer visits

• Support sales in responding to quotes and requests for proposals

• Participate in trade shows, technology forums, and other events, as needed

• Customer Support

• Provide 2nd level (tier 2) product support and answers to customers on product-related topics: work with Sales, QA, Engineering, and Operations to help ensure that a sufficient level of support is available to customers commensurate with the need/opportunity

About you:

• Bachelor’s degree in a technical field. MBA a plus

• 10+ years’ experience working within the electronics component market

• Initiative-taker, ability to team effectively with all levels and departments of an organization, and a bias for action.

• Strong critical thinking, analytical skills, and decision-making

• PC tools including PowerPoint & Excel, familiarity with SAP/BW a plus

• Effective communication skills and presentation skills: must be able to communicate effectively both verbally and in a well-written form

• Evidence of good organizational skills with a history of handling multiple tasks within a rapid-paced environment

• Global Experience a plus

• High attention to detail

• Self-starter, ability to team effectively with all levels and departments of an organization, and a bias for action.

Littelfuse strives to empower associate growth and development in a culture of ongoing collaboration and respect for diverse global perspectives and expertise. Our Core Values – Respect, Customer Focus, Agility, and Collaboration – support us on our mission to improve the safety, reliability, efficiency, and performance of our customers’ products and systems.

We are an equal opportunity employer that takes pride in giving every associate the means and courage to make a difference – everywhere, every day.

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