Sr. Director, Product Manager (m/f/d)

HARMAN’s engineers and designers are creative, purposeful and agile. As part of this team, you’ll combine your technical expertise with innovative ideas to help drive cutting-edge solutions in the car, enterprise and connected ecosystem.

Every day, you will push the boundaries of creative design, and HARMAN is committed to providing you with the opportunities, innovative technologies and resources to build a successful career.

A Career at HARMAN

As a technology leader that is rapidly on the move, HARMAN is filled with people who are focused on making life better. Innovation, inclusivity and teamwork are a part of our DNA.

When you add that to the challenges we take on and solve together, you’ll discover that at HARMAN you can grow, make a difference and be proud of the work you do everyday.

About the Role

As the Space 5 Business Lead, you will join the Car Audio Business Unit within the Automotive Division at HARMAN International.

You will partner with a team that is dedicated to defining, designing, and developing emerging sound experiences.

Vehicle sound systems are increasingly used for conversation, communication, prompts, alerts, and noise management, as well as immersive audio from native and brought-in consumer devices.

These consumer behaviors have accelerated the need for the automotive industry to focus on holistic sound-based experiences, which work with and augment traditional branded audio reproduction.

You will work in a fast-paced environment, in conjunction with Harman’s EPIC innovation & technology team, HUEMEN research & UX design team, and our world-class Engineering, Purchasing, Sales, and Marketing teams.

You will define the brand promise, strategy, and product families for future generations of Harman branded sound systems, across our entire house of automotive brands, matched to our OEM partners and future pursuits.

You will use these outcomes to support component-level product managers in their roles defining and driving component product strategies and roadmaps for our global markets.

In this role, you will be responsible for consumer-centric, OEM partner empathic, branded sound system definition, and roadmaps across our entire car global audio brand portfolio.

You will be required to create compelling and differentiated system propositions based on market needs, consumer segments, customer fit, and technical feasibility;

aligned to co-developed component product strategies and roadmaps, while ensuring system performance target delivery via the system and product roadmaps, from ideation to end of life.

You will cultivate and nurture ongoing brand promise maturation and fit new technologies, architectures, consumer demands, and customer requirements, to keep our house of brands and branded systems relevant, desirable, and profitable now and in the future.

This position will require close partnership with HARMAN customer groups. With a focus on being the voice of the customer, you will be responsible for anticipating market needs and ensuring requirements are fed into the global management framework.

You will play a key role in crafting and supporting customer pitches and partner relationship management. Both Global and Regional insights will be critical in driving success.

Your Team

You will grow and directly mange a 50+ member Product Management Scope Team + New Product / Platform Engineering Delivery team over the next 18 months, responsible for delivering this new product to market.

You and your team will also be expected to lead with influence and work with additional cross-functional team members drawn from all relevant functions within the business in a matrix organization.

This team will be empowered and aligned around company objectives. Excellent communication and leadership skills will be key to success.

What You Will Do

• Identify gaps and generate new ideas that contribute to improved consumer experience while addressing OEM partner pain points and needs, meeting Harman's business goals, and maturing our brand promises.
• Find and define OEM-winning system, product, and brand value proposition opportunities that differentiate HARMAN from our competitors and increase revenue and margins.
• Define and translate Proofs of Concept, consumer insights, customer feedback, and technology roadmaps into cohesive branded system definitions and support component productization, marketing, and partnership work streams, with a rolling 2-3-year iterative product roadmap and release calendar
• Manage structured review of branded system concepts with the objectives as defined by the 2-3-year plan. Adapt to and manage change as a key strategic direction of the company, and respond rapidly to market opportunities that arise.
• Deliver overarching system and individually branded system-level MRD and PRDs with prioritized features and corresponding justification
• Translate product strategy into detailed requirements and prototypes
• Work closely with engineering teams to deliver with quick time-to-market and optimal resources
• Analyze appropriate market data and extract technology, system architecture, and product trends for Harman, define necessary system requirements including performance, content, features / products, pricing, and SOP timing.
• Leverage technologies within and outside of HARMAN to develop lasting and winning relationships to benefit the unique nature of the diverse HARMAN business.
• Develop the core value proposition, brand and system positioning, and messaging for the Harman house of branded systems, the individual branded systems used by our OEM partners, and those targeted for new pursuits.
• Identify the Go-To-Market strategies for all branded audio systems 10-15 individual brand activations at major OEMs)
• Create buy-in for the branded system vision, both internally and with key external partners
• Drive branded system early development (ideation, MRD / PRD, PoC, pre-RFQ, pre-development)
• Support pursuits and RFQs, product development, and launch, including working with engineering, marketing, public relations team, executives, and other product management team members
• Develop sales tools and collateral, leveraging our marketing teams
• Brief and train the sales force at quarterly sales meetings and dedicated training sessions
• Define branded system cost targets in cooperation with the customer groups and component product management colleagues
• Recommend list pricing, with accompanying competitive and margin analysis (high-level business case generation in cooperation with our finance teams)

What You Need

• Bachelor’s degree in Engineering, or Business Degree with practical sound domain experience.
• 10+ years of sound system hardware and software architecture, design, and development experience
• 10 + years of product management experience. Demonstrated success with B2B or B2B2C products
• 3+ years each of automotive experience and agile based technology development / delivery experience.
• Demonstrated success or strong demonstrated aptitude for meshing multiple information streams (B2B customer voice, consumer insights, internal business targets, and new technologies into distinct brand promises), into system-level strategies and proposals, while leveraging underlying platform or business efficiencies.
• Knowledge and curiosity to stay abreast of market trends across industries
• Strong customer orientation through credibility with the customer as a trusted, collaborative, and productive partner.
• Experience working in a matrix, global, cross-functional organization by collaborating with key stakeholders in sales, product operations, marketing, and engineering.
• Proven record of developing product and marketing strategies and effectively communicating recommendations to senior leadership
• Solid technical background and on-hand experience in software development. Automotive experience is an advantage
• Appreciation for UX and design

What is Nice to Have

• Master’s Degree in Engineering, Business Administration
• Entrepreneurial experience
• 3+ years of experience working in the sound software domain (voice, audio, noise management).
• Senior Pre-Sales or Business development experience
• Experience with branded audio system design, definition, and development

What Makes You Eligible

• Be willing to travel up 50%, domestic and international travel
• Be willing to work in an office in Garching, GR (up to 50% travel), or Novi, MI (up to 25% travel). Note : the core Automotive Global Product Management team is located in Novi, MI, thus travel requirements are less for a local candidate.
• Successfully complete a background investigation and drug screen as a condition of employment
• This position requires the use of a HARMAN or customer-owned vehicle. As such, any offer of employment will be contingent upon having a clean driving record, which will be evaluated and determined in HARMAN’s sole discretion, no more than 4 active points for moving violations (issued by any motor vehicle agency), and no references to operating a vehicle under the influence of controlled substances within the last 10 years

What We Offer

• HARMAN offers a diverse and inclusive work environment that fosters and encourages career development opportunities, professional training and competitive market base compensation
• You will also receive top-notch employee discounts on Harman’s Consumer Audio (JBL, AKG, HARMAN Kardon) and Samsung products
• Flexible work schedule with a culture encouraging work life integration and collaboration in a global friendly working atmosphere and good work-life-balance
• Attractive salary package
• Professional development opportunities through HARMAN University’s business and leadership academies which also includes extensive technical trainings
• Internal talent management leadership acceleration programs
• Be Brilliant employee recognition and rewards program

HARMAN is proud to be an Equal Opportunity / Affirmative Action employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard torace, religion, color, national origin, gender (including pregnancy, childbirth, or related medical conditions), sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression, age, status as a protected veteran, status as an individual with a disability, or other applicable legally protected characteristics.