What are the responsibilities and job description for the Product Manager position at WAI Global?
Description
Position Summary
The Product Manager is responsible for implementing product strategy, supporting research, and managing the assignment and release of parts for regional vehicle applications to ensure maximum revenue and compliance with fit, form, and function requirements that meet or exceed OE specifications for assigned product categories.
Essential Duties And Responsibilities
Qualifications (Education, Experience & Skills Required)
Education
Position Summary
The Product Manager is responsible for implementing product strategy, supporting research, and managing the assignment and release of parts for regional vehicle applications to ensure maximum revenue and compliance with fit, form, and function requirements that meet or exceed OE specifications for assigned product categories.
Essential Duties And Responsibilities
- Implement product strategy and develop product platforms to ensure maximum application coverage and revenue using available data sources aligned with market needs for quality, pricing, features, and benefits.
- Conduct OE part number research and prioritize high-potential applications for product expansion.
- Identify sourcing partners and collaborate with sourcing teams to validate sourced parts.
- Partner with MDM and item release teams to establish and maintain new part information.
- Participate in quality assurance and validation testing for product line parts.
- Collaborate with catalog teams to develop product coverage reports and customer communications.
- Conduct periodic business reviews and manage key revenue, coverage, and margin KPIs.
- Maintain an understanding of prevailing market trends within related product categories.
Qualifications (Education, Experience & Skills Required)
Education
- Bachelor's degree in Engineering, Business, or a related field required.
- MBA preferred.
- 10 years of combined experience in product management, engineering, or research, ideally within the automotive aftermarket or industrial distribution industries.
- Proven expertise in reading engineering drawings and BOM documentation.
- Demonstrated success in process improvement, project management, new product releases, and product launches.
- Familiarity with automotive aftermarket, parts distribution, or adjacent sectors such as industrial goods or B2B/B2C eCommerce strongly preferred.
- Knowledge of product and catalog management tools.
- Experience working with data and content across ERP, PIM, ACES/PIES, and TecDoc systems.
- Proficiency with product and project management tools, MDM platforms, and data analytics solutions.
- Strong experience in data governance, master data clean-up, and ownership frameworks.
- Change management experience, particularly transitioning from decentralized to centralized operating models.
- Strong work ethic and self-driven mindset.
- Comfortable with data-driven decision-making, performance scorecards, and KPI management.
- Ability to operate effectively within a fast-paced, matrixed, and remote-first environment.
- Strong interpersonal, communication, and influencing skills across all organizational levels.
- Fluent in English.
- Spanish preferred.