Director of Product Marketing

About Us

ProDriven Brands is a privately owned, fully integrated, global manufacturer and distributor of access products, storage systems, fall protection and light duty construction equipment.

The Company generates more than $1B of sales in over 100 countries.

The Company has a history of organic growth while also acquiring adjacent brands/businesses. In recent years ProDriven Brands has also started expanding by acquisition outside of the U.S., particularly in Europe (France (CDH), UK (Youngman), and most recently in Germany (Zarges). The portfolio of industry leading brands includes Werner, KNAACK®, WEATHER GUARD®, Youngman®, BoSS®, Centaure, Duarib, Bailey and Zarges. ProDriven Brands products are primarily sold through DIY and professional channels and the majority of customers/ end users are professionals, including contractors, builders, painters, and similar tradespeople.

ProDriven Brands products own #1 market share in North America across many categories. Werner is #1 in ladders, WEATHER GUARD® is #1 in truck storage, and KNAACK® is #1 in jobsite storage. Our brands and products are the preferred choice of professional end users.

With over 4,000 employees on four continents, ProDriven Brands has a global manufacturing footprint with warehousing, sales, distribution and office facilities in the U.S., Australia, Canada, China, France, Hungary, Mexico, Philippines, Germany and the United Kingdom.  ProDriven Brands' global headquarters is in Itasca, Illinois—a northwest suburb of Chicago.

Overview

The Director of Product Marketing—Secure Storage Solutions, Jobsite leads a team and has responsibility for directing all aspects of our full life cycle Storage Products portfolio including:

Responsibilities

KEY RESPONSIBILITIES

The ProDriven Global Brands portfolio includes some of the most iconic brands in the construction industry, none more so than the Knaack brand. Knaack is the brand chosen on jobsites across the country for secure and durable asset protection on the jobsite. In addition to Knaack, ProDriven Global Brands also provides solutions for well know brands such as Ridgid, Kobalt, and Tractor Supply Company.  The Director of Product Marketing— Jobsite has responsibility for directing all aspects of our portfolio including:

• Business General Manager
• P&L Delivery
• Strategic Marketing
• Product Portfolio Management
• New Product Innovation
• Product Commercialization and Go-To-Market Planning
• Supply Chain & Operations Partnership

Core responsibilities will focus on: 

General Management Mindset

Think, act, and lead like the overall leader of a business with iconic brands and products that protect the lives and livelihoods of those who use these products everyday on the largest building products taking place across the country. On every stadium, convention center, office building and large commercial construction project, you are sure to see the Knaack brand represented. To be the voice and overall leader of this product portfolio requires a growth mindset, passionate leadership, ingenuity, financial acumen, cross-functional influencing, and a yearning to win!

Long Range Business & Marketing Planning

Leading the development and implementation of product marketing initiatives and long-range strategies that profitably grow market share.  These strategies should be driven directly by end-user requirements obtained through robust field, quantitative, and qualitative research and framed within the expected financial performance expectations of the organization.  The scope of accountability of strategies covers each of the marketing P’s.  Long-range strategies will be delivered in the form of a business situation assessment and will feed into the three-year product development roadmap and annual operating plan. 

Product Lifecycle Management

Directly influenced by long-range marketing strategies and deep end user understanding, this leader will manage the end-to-end product lifecycle for the product portfolio.  This includes product concept to flawless commercial launch through mature product management and end-of-life planning.  The critical expected deliverable is a 3-year product development pipeline consisting of “breakthrough” innovation backed by strong intellectual property protection. The scope of accountability includes leading cross-functional teams and outside resources to achieve long and short-term timelines, financial targets, end-user performance expectations and technical product performance expectations/standards.  

P&L Management/Financial Goal Achievement

Performing as the P&L owner of the product portfolio to achieve sales, margin, and EBITDA goals for the business portfolio as outlined in the annual operating plan. This will be achieved by delivering the marketing strategies above and by partnering with sales, engineering, manufacturing and other functions to capitalize on short and long-term revenue and margin enhancement opportunities.  

Brand Development & Management

Acting as the chief steward of the portfolio of brands to ensure that all strategies, product performance features, communications, merchandising, and packaging is aligned with developed brand persona and guidelines.  Possessing an ongoing understanding of end user attitudes, awareness, and usage of all products/brands within the portfolio is also required.

Leadership & Cross Functional Team Development

Build and develop a strong team in a matrix environment that is tightly aligned with deliverables listed above.  Develop both leadership skills and marketing/business competencies as listed on the marketing competencies matrix.  Implement talent management development strategies to build successors for key business roles.

Qualifications

The ideal candidate will combine a high quality and progressive consumer products goods

Durable goods and  products business background with outstanding leadership, interpersonal, communication, analytic and strategic skills.  This individual must also be able to work effectively in a values-based environment which demonstrates transparency, innovation, collaboration, teamwork and accountability. 

 Additional knowledge and a fundamental understanding is required in the following areas:

• Ability to partner with selling organizations to ensure market success
• End user segmentation/development of bullseye end user target.
• Instrumental in developing brand personality and guidelines.
• Deep understanding of competitive landscape including full SWOT, pricing strategies and financial expectations.
• Deep understanding of top channel partners’ strategies, priorities, and profitability expectations.
• Full understanding of product portfolio P&L and key levers that impact it.
• Strong track record of leading product development processes with a focused commitment to continuous process improvement.
• Excellent interpersonal/communication skills (writing, speaking, presenting and listening) at all levels.
• Broad business, technical and innovation mindset.
• Ability to lead large projects through timely completion and within budget constraints.
• Innovative mindset and a key driver contributing to the product roadmap and willing to take smart risks while balancing the product roadmap with “time to market” requirements.
• Flexibility, adaptability and improvement orientation – willingness to embrace and drive change (“change creates opportunity”), resiliency and willingness/ability to focus on what can be done better.
• Being assertive, inspiring, perceptive, decisive and results-oriented.
• A “leadership by example” style with a high level of emotional intelligence which inspires and motivates a team to break through conventional thinking limitations to develop a high-performance culture.

Leadership & Management Characteristics 

• Excellent leadership skills, strategic, analytic and fact-based decision making, with strong common sense, self-awareness and an ability to communicate confidently.
• Persuasion and problem-solving skills in a matrixed environment; able to make a persuasive business case and decisions in the face of ambiguity and uncertainty.
• Energetic, committed, courageous with entrepreneurial excitement; must be able to generate enthusiasm for best-in-class performance through a clear personal passion to excel.
• Straight forward, self-directed, insightful; can lead the organization towards fact-based decision making.
• Results-oriented with the willingness to stretch to accomplish goals and “make it happen.”
• Builder of a strong and collaborative culture by trusting others’ judgment and empowering them to make decisions within the scope of their roles.
• Motivator and enabler of others to take responsibility, accept challenges, identify risks and progress ideas to make recommendations and decisions.
• Builder of diverse teams who provides others with opportunities for professional growth and personal development. Respects, listens, learns and challenges others’ thinking in a constructive manner.
• Upholds ethics and values and acts with complete integrity while being true to one’s self and to others.
• Acts as the company’s ambassador by living its cultural values always with employees’, customers’ and stakeholders’ best interests in mind.

 EDUCATION/EXPERIENCE

The successful candidate will have:

• An undergraduate degree in business, engineering, or other relevant discipline. An MBA or relevant advanced degree is preferred.
• Minimum of 10 years of product marketing and development experience in well-respected durable goods companies with at least 5 years of leadership experience.
• Solid track record with proven results in product marketing and new product development.

EEO Statement

ProDriven Brands is committed to fostering, cultivating, and preserving a culture of diversity, equity and inclusion. ProDriven Brands is an equal opportunity employer and prohibits discrimination and harassment of any kind. All qualified applicants to ProDriven Brands are considered for employment without regard to age, color, disability, ethnicity, family or marital status, gender identity or expression, language, national origin, physical and mental ability, political affiliation, race, religion, sexual orientation, socio-economic status, veteran status or any other protected characteristic. ProDriven Brands will not tolerate discrimination or harassment of any kind based on these characteristics. 

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