Sr. Product Manager in Rockford, Illinois at Hydraulic Technologies USA, LLC

Why Join Hydraulic Technologies?

Join a growing industry leader where you'll have the opportunity to shape product strategy, launch innovative solutions, and drive global growth. This high-impact role offers visibility across the organization, collaboration with talented teams, and the chance to make a meaningful difference in the markets we serve.

GENERAL SUMMARY

Hydraulic Technologies (HT) is seeking a Senior Product Manager to lead the strategy, growth, and lifecycle management of an assigned portfolio within our family of HT product brands. This role is responsible for developing and executing product strategies that drive profitable growth across HT's industrial hydraulic solutions, serving customers in industrial maintenance, energy, infrastructure, mining, power generation, petrochemical, manufacturing, and data center markets.

The Senior Product Manager owns the product lifecycle from market assessment and voice of customer (VOC) through roadmap development, new product commercialization, pricing, portfolio optimization, and end-of-life decisions. This role serves as the business leader for the assigned portfolio and works cross-functionally with engineering, sales, operations, supply chain, marketing, customer service, and executive leadership to drive growth and market leadership.

Success in this role requires a strong strategic mindset, deep customer focus, commercial acumen, and the ability to influence cross-functional teams without direct authority.

Travel expectations for this role are 25%- 40%.

PRINCIPLE DUTIES AND RESPONSIBILITIES (ESSENTIAL FUNCTIONS)

Product Strategy & Portfolio Management

• Develop and maintain a rolling 3-year strategic roadmap for the assigned HT product portfolio.
• Define portfolio growth strategies aligned with HT business objectives and market opportunities.
• Lead portfolio prioritization and investment decisions based on market attractiveness, profitability, and strategic fit.
• Manage products throughout the full lifecycle from concept through end-of-life.
• Conduct portfolio rationalization and analysis to improve profitability, focus resources, and simplify complexity.
• Establish portfolio KPIs including revenue growth, gross margin, market share, and new product vitality.

Market Intelligence & Customer Insights

• Lead structured Voice of Customer (VOC) initiatives to identify unmet customer needs and market satisfaction gaps.
• Develop detailed market assessments including TAM, SAM, SOM, growth trends, regulatory factors, competitive dynamics, and customer buying behaviors.
• Monitor industry trends across HT served markets including industrial maintenance and reliability (MRO), power generation, oil & gas, wind energy, mining, steel, infrastructure, rail, marine, and data center construction.
• Identify emerging applications and adjacent growth opportunities.
• Build and maintain competitive intelligence, benchmarking, and win/loss analysis processes.

New Product Development

• Own the front-end innovation process for new product concepts.
• Develop business cases, market requirements documents, and product specifications.
• Lead stage-gate activities including opportunity assessment, financial justification, launch planning, and commercialization.
• Partner with engineering teams to translate customer needs into differentiated product solutions.
• Drive achievement of new product revenue and profitability targets.

Commercial Strategy & Go-To-Market Leadership

• Develop value propositions, positioning, messaging, and commercialization plans for the assigned portfolio.
• Partner with marketing to create sales enablement tools, catalogs, brochures, videos, application stories, webinars, digital content, and product training.
• Develop market launch strategies for new products and geographic expansion.
• Support key customer engagements, strategic account initiatives, and channel development activities.
• Collaborate with sales leadership to identify market penetration and growth opportunities.

Pricing & Profitability Management

• Establish and maintain portfolio pricing strategies.
• Conduct value-based pricing analysis and margin optimization initiatives.
• Develop competitive pricing intelligence and market positioning recommendations.
• Monitor portfolio profitability and implement corrective actions as needed.

Leadership & Cross-Functional Collaboration

• Influence and align stakeholders across sales, engineering, operations, sourcing, finance, and executive leadership.
• Serve as the internal subject matter expert for the assigned product portfolio, applications, and market trends.
• Deliver product and application training to global sales teams, distributors, and channel partners.
• Support strategic customer visits, industry events, trade shows, and training seminars.

The above listed responsibilities are intended to describe the general nature and level of work being performed. They are not intended to be an exhaustive list of all responsibilities or duties required. Employee will be expected to perform other duties as assigned.

QUALIFICATIONS

Education

• Bachelor's degree in Engineering, Business, Marketing, or a related field required.
• MBA preferred.

Experience

• 8+ years of product management experience in industrial, engineered, hydraulic, tooling, maintenance, or related technical products.
• Demonstrated experience managing products through the complete lifecycle from concept through commercialization and retirement.
• Proven success developing product roadmaps, go-to-market strategies, and new product launches.
• Experience conducting VOC programs and market research.
• Experience with industrial distribution and channel management preferred.
• Experience with hydraulic tooling, heavy lifting, industrial maintenance equipment, or related technical products strongly preferred.

Knowledge & Skills

• Strong understanding of product management best practices.
• Strategic planning and market analysis capabilities.
• Financial acumen including business case development and profitability analysis.
• Experience with pricing strategy and portfolio optimization.
• Excellent presentation, communication, and stakeholder management skills.
• Strong analytical and problem-solving abilities.
• Ability to influence without direct authority.
• High degree of accountability, urgency, and ownership.

Success Metrics

• Revenue growth of the assigned HT product portfolio
• Gross margin improvement
• New product vitality and launch performance
• Market share growth

This role is ideal for a commercially minded product leader who enjoys bringing new products to market, solving customer problems, and driving strategic growth in highly technical industrial markets.