Product Innovation Manager Jobs in Ohio (NOW HIRING)

Description

JOB SUMMARY:

The Product Manager is responsible for driving 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 that product lines meet customer needs, achieve financial targets, and maintain a competitive position across retail, distribution, dealer, engine builder and e-commerce channels.

The Product Manager leads market research, competitive analysis, portfolio planning, pricing, and new product introductions (NPI). Working closely with Sales, Engineering, Supply Chain, and Marketing, this position defines product roadmaps, optimizes SKU performance, and supports go-to-market execution to grow revenue, market share, and profitability. This role will have high visibility within the organization and be a strategic partner in executing the company's vision.

ESSENTIAL DUTIES AND RESPONSIBILITIES:

Product Development Strategy

o Create product strategy documents that describe business cases, high-level use cases, technical requirements, revenue, and ROI.

o Conduct market research to create products that customers will want and assess current competitor offerings, seeking opportunities for differentiation.

o Evaluate resource capacity and anticipate future needs to drive product innovation, and execute product improvement and productivity initiatives, in close collaboration with Engineering.

o Foster a culture that ensures an entrepreneurial and disruptive approach to innovation.

Product Lifecycle Management

o Drive the execution of all product lifecycle processes from conception through release and obsolescence including product research, market research, competitive analysis, planning, positioning, roadmap, development requirements, and product launch.

o Review and support forecast optimization to maintain product availability while balancing inventory costs.

o Evaluate product performance through margin analysis, SKU optimization, warranty tracking, and quality feedback.

o Lead rationalization efforts by pruning low-value SKUs and expanding high-value segments.

o Create 24 month rolling annual and new product release forecasts.

Product Data

o Create and maintain all product data including product fitment, which requires an extensive knowledge of Microsoft Excel.

o Support product information management team and maintain website data.

o Support Sales for distributing product data and customer load sheets to ensure products and product lines are listed appropriately in channel partner catalogues and websites

Product Releases

o Coordinate new product releases with R&D, Sales, and Operations (manufacturing and supply chain). Drive continuous improvement of the new product development process (agile/scrum methodology).

o Work closely with the Supply Chain and Quality Teams to ensure new products are delivered on-time and to specification.

o Ensure that all essential tasks and responsibilities for new formulations, product change requests, pilot production, and trial product production to support the pipeline, international businesses and strategic accounts are done in accordance with internal requirements and in close collaboration with cross-functional colleagues.

o Work with the Sales Team and customers to ensure understanding of the products and their benefits. Training for internal team and external customers (B2B).

Sales 

o Support the development of sales strategies to meet product objectives.

o Collaborate on sales channel management, technical support resource development and implementation of product improvements for best in industry customer experience.

Customer Feedback

o Conduct customer surveys and other outreach to collect customer feedback and make recommendations to improve product performance and customer experiences.

Marketing

o Define product marketing communication objectives.

Provide management with analysis and reports as needed.

Some travel required.

Key Competencies:

Lead the product development process for Wiseco Automotive as projects in the pipeline for 2026 and beyond are executed.

Work alongside the product development team as they support the 3-year innovation pipelines.

Develop 7-10-year product development innovation strategy, in collaboration and consultation with Head of R&D, and Head of Category Management.

Strategic thinker with strong commercial judgment.

Highly collaborative and able to influence without authority.

Customer-centric mindset with passion for the automotive industry.

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 with the ability to tailor messaging to technical, commercial, and executive audiences.

Proficiency with Excel, ERP systems, product information tools, and analytics platforms.

Requirements

Education:

Bachelor's degree in business, Marketing, related field, or equivalent experience.

Experience:

4+ years product management experience

Certificates, Licenses, Registrations:

Not applicable.

Computer   Skills:

Ability to fully utilize MS Office programs such as Excel, Outlook, Word, PowerPoint.  Previous software and web development experience.

Communication   Skills:

Excellent communication skills (both verbal and written). Must be able to communicate with both management and non-management associates.

Other Skills (Technical or Other Special Knowledge and Abilities)

Technical knowledge of engine products and accessories.

Travel:

Some travel required.