Product & Program Manager (Parental Leave Coverage)

**About Reliance Foundry** Reliance Foundry is an innovation-driven manufacturer with a legacy of engineering excellence and a bold outlook for the future, designing, producing, and supporting a wide range of products seen around the world. We stand at the intersection of heavy industrial manufacturing and smart infrastructure, developing complex physical products, including those enhanced by IoT/embedded software. We strive to bring superior products to market swiftly, cost-effectively, and with mínimal risk. This blended role requires a professional adept at both strategic product definition and rigorous operational execution, ensuring we design products that are inherently safe, functional, and beautiful to eliminate any reason not to buy. We believe is finding the right person for the right position so during our recruitment process you will have the opportunity to meet the team you will be working with. **The Opportunity: Strategy Meets Execution** The Product & Program Manager (PPM) is the engine that drives high-value products from conception to market dominance. You will own the strategic direction of key product lines while leading the disciplined cross-functional execution required to deliver physical products on time and budget. You will be the crucial bridge between market needs and operational realities. **Key Responsibilities** **1. Product Strategy, Vision, and Lifecycle Management (The "What" and "Why")** **-**Voice of the Customer (VoC): Act as the definitive voice of the customer within the organization, conducting market analysis, competitive benchmarking, and customer discovery to identify genuine market needs and uncover opportunities for innovation or margin improvement. - Product Definition: Develop and maintain the strategic product roadmap and define the Minimum Viable Product (MVP) requirements, ensuring that features address core market needs without excessive complexity. - Financial Acumen: Drive product profitability by establishing product costing targets and managing gross margin analysis, leveraging Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) models, and developing compelling financial business cases (e.g., ROI analysis) for new investments. - Design and Value: Champion Design for Excellence (DfX) principles, incorporating factors like Design for Reliability, Design for Manufacturing, and Design for Testability early in the concept phase to minimize risk and cost downstream. **2. Program Execution and Governance (The "How" and "When")** **-**Stage-Gate Leadership: Lead and rigorously enforce our standardized Stage-Gate process, treating each gate as a critical decision point for alignment within all the stakeholders. This structured, phase-based approach manages risk, complexity, and resource commitment inherent in physical hardware development. - Planning & Control: Develop and manage comprehensive program schedules and project plans, ensuring all deliverables meet defined scope and budget objectives. You will track expenditures and report regularly on program R&D budgets and variances. - Methodology: Oversee project teams utilizing appropriate methodologies, ranging from sequential Waterfall (Front-End Planning/FEP) for high-commitment physical components to Agile/Scrum methods (or a hybrid approach) for faster iterative development of software and digital solutions embedded in products. - Operational Integration: Collaborate with Engineering and Operations to ensure designs are manufacturable, processes are scalable, and all supply chain and regulatory compliance needs are understood and mitigated early. **3. Cross-Functional Alignment and Go-to-Market (GTM)** - Central Coordinator: Serve as the central hub for alignment and communication across all core functions: Engineering, Design, Marketing, Sales, Operations, Finance and Senior Management. - Launch Readiness: Coordinate and lead launch readiness activities, ensuring all teams are aligned on messaging, pricing, training, and operational setup for order processing and fulfillment. - Systems Integration: Partner with operations teams to ensure accurate product setup within our ERP system (NetSuite) and project management tools (ClickUp/equivalent) prior to launch. **Qualifications and Experience** **-**Experience: 5+ years of combined experience in Product Management and Program/Project Management, preferably in a manufacturing, hardware, or complex engineered goods environment. - Education: Bachelor’s degree in Business, Engineering, Supply Chain Management, or a related technical field. - Process Expertise: Proven ability to lead and govern New Product Development (NPD) projects using structured methodologies, with specific experience in or deep understanding of the Stage-Gate process. - Technical Fluency: Strong understanding of how design choices impact manufacturability, cost, lead time, and quality in physical products. Experience navigating regulatory requirements (e.g., UL, CE, ISO, ASTM) is preferred. - Tools: P