What are the responsibilities and job description for the Product Manager position at MTS Systems?
Primary Objective
The Software and Controls Product Manager owns the product lifecycle and development roadmap for MTS’ best-in-class Materials Testing application software and controls hardware. This role ensures products meet current and future market needs by synthesizing customer insights, market trends, and competitive intelligence — maximizing customer satisfaction while delivering against innovation, growth, profitability, quality, and market share objectives consistent with overall business strategy.
Major Areas of Accountability
· Conduct market research and competitive analysis and gather customer insights to identify market needs and opportunities; benchmark leading competitors and emerging technologies.
· Define and communicate the software and controls product vision, strategy, and roadmap, aligned with the overall product portfolio.
· Provide perspective on key market trends to support annual and long-range planning activity.
· Develop business cases to prioritize and justify new product development investments.
· Create key product benefits and value propositions for new products.
· Partner with Marketing Communications to develop launch materials and customer-facing product communications.
· Develop and maintain product plans, executing against roadmaps and aftermarket strategies across the full product lifecycle.
· Evaluate system-level value of software and controls offerings and set pricing strategy accordingly.
· Develop sales readiness training and enablement tools to prepare the channel for new product introductions and launch objectives.
· Partner with Sales to shape strategy for key account pursuits.
· Support lead-generation initiatives and demand-generation programs.
· Partner with Engineering to translate customer requirements and company objectives into product specifications.
· Work closely with Engineering to ensure seamless hardware-software integration, addressing compatibility issues and optimizing system performance.
Education, Experience & Skill Qualifications
Minimum Job Requirements
· Bachelor’s degree in Engineering, Marketing, Business, or a related discipline; technical background strongly preferred.
· Minimum of 3 years of experience in Technical Product Management or a related role.
· Occasional travel required (domestic and/or international)
Skills
· Demonstrated ability to engage directly with customers, translating pain points and insights into product requirements and solutions through cross-functional development teams.
· Strong communication skills and a demonstrated ability to work effectively across functions (engineering, sales, marketing, operations, finance, etc.).
· Proven understanding of electrical, mechanical, hardware, and software technologies and frameworks, along with systems integration principles.
· Proficiency navigating business systems (e.g., SAP, Salesforce) to gather and synthesize data into actionable market and product insights.
· Experience with licensed products business models.
· Strong growth mindset, with the willingness and capacity to learn and adopt emerging trends and technologies.
· Strong organizational skills, attention to detail, and a proactive approach to problem-solving.
· Demonstrated ability to influence and lead cross-functionally across large-scale, multidivisional organizations.
Salary : $105,000 - $130,000