Sales and Product Development Manager

For over 50 years KENT OUTDOORS has been the ultimate destination for outdoor enthusiasts, offering a curated collection of industry-leading brands driven by the pure pursuit of adventure.

KENT Outdoors is a collection of brands all obsessively focused on building the most innovative and reliable equipment for use in our most revered natural playgrounds. We relentlessly dream, build, and offer products that empower the very best days outside. We’re a collection of outdoor fanatics, product geeks, marketing mavens, and entrepreneurs all focused on pushing through boundaries, both on land, and in the water.

Holding true to our roots while evolving for the future, the family of KENT brands today includes Absolute Outdoors, Arctic Shield, Aquaglide, Arbor Snowboards, Barefoot International, BOTE, Connelly, FatSac, Freedom Foil, Full Throttle, HO Sports, Hyperlite, KENT, Liquid Force, Margaritaville, O’Brien, and Onyx.

Your Impact

O’Brien is seeking a unique leader to join our team and manage sales and product development. This role is primarily focused on the future of our product line: identifying market needs, generating product ideas, coordinating on-the-water testing, and driving development for our next generation of wakeboards, surfers, skis, tubes, and vests.

What You’ll Do

Product Development, Innovation & Testing

• Market Research & Ideas: Keep a pulse on the watersports industry to identify market trends, rider needs, and gaps in our current product lineup. Bring fresh concepts and ideas to the table for future lines.
• Product Testing: Coordinate and actively participate in on-the-water testing for prototypes. Gather feedback from team riders, reps, and customers to evaluate performance, durability, and ride characteristics.
• Development Collaboration: Work closely with the brand leadership, engineering, and manufacturing teams to transition products from the initial concept and shape phase through to final production, including a coordinated launch achieving gross margin targets.
• Brand Aesthetic: Collaborate with the O’Brien leadership to ensure product and marketing graphics and visuals support the vibe and legacy of the O'Brien brand.
  
  

Sales

• Account Maintenance: Manage the day-to-day operations of the direct O’Brien wholesale account, including with Amazon (Vendor Central), focusing on catalog uploads and vendor compliance.
• Listing Optimization: Create and maintain high-quality product listings, ensuring accurate titles, bullet points, descriptions, and A content to protect the brand's premium image online.
• Marketing Support: Plan and execute basic Amazon Advertising campaigns (PPC) to maintain healthy sales velocity for core products and support new product launches.
• Marketplace Surveillance: Utilize tracking software to monitor for Minimum Advertised Price (MAP) violations across all online sellers.
• Policy Enforcement: Universally and diplomatically enforce MAP guidelines with Amazon and authorized dealers to safeguard product margins and protect brand value.
• Rogue Seller Elimination: Identify and aggressively work to remove unauthorized third-party sellers who hijack listings and disrupt the marketplace.
• Sales Team Alignment: Act as a bridge to the US sales force, helping representatives protect their local brick-and-mortar dealers from unfair online competition.
  
  

What You’ve Accomplished

• Watersports Background: Deep passion for and knowledge of the watersports industry (wakeboarding, waterskiing, wakesurfing). The ability to evaluate product performance on the water is a must.
• Product Savvy: Experience or strong aptitude in hands-on product development and evaluation.
• E-commerce Literacy: Hands-on experience navigating Amazon and other digital marketplace platforms (Vendor Central/Seller Central) and utilizing Brand Registry tools.
• Firm & Diplomatic Communicator: Ability to collaborate creatively on product design while being comfortable playing "sheriff" when enforcing MAP policies with dealers.
  
  

How You Thrive

You go “all out.”  You tend to approach everything you do with velocity.  From your next exhilarating outdoor adventure to scaling meaningful peaks at work, you act with speed, direction, ethics, and forethought. Your efficiency is rooted in the knowledge that resources are not infinite. You are goal-oriented and focused on outcomes. When you see a challenge or obstacle to overcome, you jump in collaboratively to find a solution; team achievements should be celebrated more than individual performance. You are compelled to share your perspective because it is rooted in experience and synthesis thinking - you know that healthy debate yields better decisions. You are humble despite your impressive past accomplishments. Your communication style is honest and forthright, yet empathetic, with everyone. 

KENT Outdoors is proud to be an Equal Opportunity Employer.