Product Manager for Consumer Products

Job description

The Sauder Family of Companies, which includes Sauder Woodworking, Sauder Building Products, and Sauder Manufacturing, is a family-owned group of manufacturing business units headquartered in Archbold, Ohio. We design, manufacture, and market furniture, cabinetry, closets, and specialized commercial furnishings that serve customers throughout North America. With a legacy spanning more than 90 years, we are united by a commitment to craftsmanship, innovation, customer service, and creating opportunities for our team members and communities. POSITION SUMMARY The Product Manager serves as the business owner for an assigned home furnishings product line or portfolio, leading its strategy and performance throughout the lifecycle and remaining accountable for the roadmap, productivity, value, and consumer satisfaction. This role works closely with Business Unit leaders and cross-functional partners to drive profitable growth and continuous product improvement. The Product Manager maintains a deep understanding of consumer and customer needs, market trends, competitors, and how assigned products are manufactured or sourced. This role offers a hybrid arrangement, with an agreed-upon portion of work time spent at our office in Archbold, Ohio. WHAT YOU’LL DO Product Business & Productivity • Owns the overall health and productivity of the assigned product line or portfolio, including margin, cost, velocity, SKU productivity, inventory turns, complexity, quality, and lifecycle performance. • Continuously identifies opportunities to improve product economics and ensures cross-functional action is taken until measurable results are achieved. • Uses financial, operational, consumer, and market data to prioritize actions and measure results. Product Strategy & Roadmap Management • Owns and continuously manages the product roadmap as the primary planning tool for the assigned product line or portfolio. • Integrates current product performance, lifecycle, consumer/customer needs, competitive position, product value, productivity, and future opportunities into a clear multi-year roadmap. • Uses the roadmap to identify and prioritize where to invest, improve, extend, maintain, rationalize, or exit products. • Maintains a forward-looking pipeline of product, assortment, customer, channel, and innovation opportunities aligned with Business Unit and enterprise strategy. • Uses the roadmap to drive cross-functional priorities and Product Review Management (PRM) decisions. Business Unit & Customer Alignment • Partners with Business Unit leaders, who own the business unit, to align product-line strategy and priorities with customer, channel, growth, and financial objectives. • Brings the product-line perspective to Business Unit decisions and works through tradeoffs between long-term product health and immediate customer or business needs. • Partners with Marketing/VOC and Sales to translate consumer, customer, installer, competitive, and market insights into product priorities and actions. • Maintains a strong understanding of competitors, market dynamics, customer assortments, and emerging trends and uses that knowledge to identify opportunities and risks. Manufacturing, Global Sourcing, and Sourcing Productivity • For domestic products, maintains hands-on knowledge of how products are made and works directly with Operations and Engineering on the shop floor to improve labor, process, quality, material utilization, cost, and productivity. • For imported products, develops deep knowledge of our global partner factories, capabilities, processes, costs, quality, capacity, and lead times; works with Global Sourcing team and factories throughout development and ongoing product management. • Actively drives sourcing and factory productivity, including cost reduction, quotation and pricing discussions, supplier/factory alternatives, and production shifts or consolidation when appropriate. Cross-Functional Business Leadership • Mobilizes Engineering, Operations, Global Sourcing, Purchasing, Sourcing, Finance, Marketing, Sales, Planning, Quality, and other functions to solve product-business problems and achieve required outcomes. • Sets clear priorities and expected results, challenges assumptions, drives decisions, follows actions to completion, and escalates barriers when needed. • Owns the product-business outcome while functional teams retain ownership of their technical expertise and execution. • Leads cross-functional teams through influence and business accountability. Product Development & Commercialization • Develops and presents product business cases and product briefs that define the opportunity, consumer/customer need, value proposition, target economics, strategic fit, and expected business outcome. • Defines the business need, product requirements, positioning, target economics, priority, and expected outcome for new product and product-improvement work. • Develops pricing and product-economics recommendations with Business Unit leadership, Sales, and Finance to support revenue, margin, and value objectives. • Partners with Project Management/NPD, Global Sourcing, and functional teams as appropriate to execute approved projects through commercialization while remaining the product-business decision owner. • Owns successful product commercialization from a product-business perspective, ensuring the launched product meets the intended consumer/customer need, value proposition, economics, and business objectives. • Remains accountable after launch for product performance, economics, consumer satisfaction, sourcing/manufacturing productivity, and lifecycle results. Other duties may be assigned. WHAT YOU’LL BRING Education & Experience • Bachelor's degree from four-year college or university is preferred. • Minimum of 5-7 years related experience. • Working knowledge of product development, Stage-Gate, and commercialization processes. • Demonstrated experience developing and managing product, category, customer, or portfolio roadmaps across the full lifecycle, from opportunity identification and development through commercialization, continuous improvement, rationalization, and exit. • Experience leading cross-functional teams, influencing decisions without direct authority. Key Skills & Capabilities • Strategic and forward-thinking, with the ability to anticipate evolving consumer, customer, market, and product needs beyond today’s requests and assortment. • Naturally curious and committed to building knowledge of consumers, customers, competitors, products, markets, manufacturing, and sourcing. • Able to synthesize consumer, customer, competitive, market, and business insights into a clear product strategy and prioritized roadmap. • Sound judgment and comfort making recommendations, evaluating tradeoffs, and prioritizing opportunities with incomplete information. • Strong financial and analytical acumen, including revenue, margin, cost, pricing, inventory, SKU productivity, and business-case development. • Business ownership mindset with accountability for measurable product results and the communication, facilitation, and influencing skills to align stakeholders across functions and organizational levels. Minimal travel is required. PAY SUMMARY The actual salary will be based on factors such as location, relevant experience, and skills. People are capable of great things! Because of this, we encourage you to apply even if you do not meet all of the requirements that are listed within this job description. Sauder is a family company, so we believe in a healthy work-life balance for our employees. We want employees to know their time here is more than just a job—they can build a life-long career at Sauder. We have a culture of continuous improvement and internal advancement. We provide 3 weeks of vacation and a full benefit package beginning at 30 days. Other perks include 401(k), a company-funded health savings account, free counseling, furniture discounts, and tuition reimbursement. Sauder does not provide immigration sponsorship or assistance with obtaining work authorization for this position. This includes, but is not limited to, F-1, H-1B, O-1, TN, and E-3 status. Applicants must be currently authorized to work in the United States without employer sponsorship. Sauder is an equal opportunity employer and gives equal consideration for employment to all qualified applicants. Equal Opportunity/Affirmative Action Employer M/F/Disabled/Veteran.