Head of Product Management

Description

Head of Product Management

Location: Birmingham, Alabama
Reports to: President, Autocar
Product Platform: Autocar DC-64 Severe-Service Conventional Truck

Who is Autocar

Autocar, LLC, a manufacturer of severe-duty vocational trucks carrying the first specialized truck brand in North America, is the only American-owned and operated original equipment manufacturer (OEM) of trucks. Autocar's severe-duty vocational trucks provide customers with the perfect tool for their jobs with the most uptime, support, and impact on their bottom line. Autocar collaborates with customers to build trucks to their exact specifications and needs. Autocar promises to provide trucks that deliver the best value, provide the best service, and provide a complete solution for customers' needs.

The Mission

The Head of Product Management will own the process and will be Autocar's senior authority on how customers use severe-service conventional trucks in concrete, construction, dump, roll-off, logging, and other demanding applications for the DC-64 conventional platform. They will identify the problems customers face, determine which problems Autocar should solve, and translate those needs into measurable product requirements, optimize vehicle specifications, body-integration standards, and a multiyear product roadmap. Engineering owns how the solution is designed, validated, and released. The objective is clear: make every Autocar DC-64 the best tool for the customer's specific job and the strongest total-cost-of-ownership choice in its application.

What You Will Own

Understand the Customer's Work

Spend substantial time where the trucks actually operate. Ride with drivers, observe loading and unloading, visit jobsites, landfills, quarries, concrete operations and maintenance facilities, and work directly with fleet managers, technicians, body manufacturers, and equipment suppliers.

Develop a fact-based understanding of:

• What work the customer needs the truck to perform
• How the truck, body, driver, and operation interact
• Duty cycle, payload, terrain, speed, idle time and PTO usage
• Productivity constraints and operating inefficiencies
• Define application architectures
• Failure points, maintenance requirements and causes of downtime
• Driver visibility, ergonomics and safety risks
• Body, equipment, chassis, electrical and control integration
• The economic consequences of the current problems
• Identify the underlying operational problem and determine the best scalable solution.

Define the Right Truck for Each Application

Create clear product definitions for each priority vocation and major application and translate customer operating requirements.

• Proven component and configuration rules
• Reusable engineering solutions
• Standard body-integration interfaces
• Intelligent specification methodologies
• Approved application-specific configurations
• Clear boundaries for when a unique customer requirement justifies new engineering
• Convert customer and engineering knowledge into repeatable tools and institutional knowledge that improve speed, quality, margin, and product performance.

Own Customer TCO and Product Value

Determine how the DC-64 can improve the customer's economics through:

• Higher productive hours
• Greater payload or work completed per shift
• Reduced unplanned downtime
• Faster diagnosis and repair
• Lower maintenance and operating costs
• Improved fuel efficiency
• Longer vehicle life
• Better body and chassis integration
• Improved driver productivity and retention
• Reduced accident and safety exposure
• Stronger residual value

Partner with Finance, Sales, Service, and Engineering to build credible TCO, payback, and return-on-investment models.

Ensure that Autocar can demonstrate why a truck with a higher acquisition price may produce a lower operating cost and greater economic return over its working life.

Own Competitive Application Intelligence

Establish objective, application-level comparisons against Mack, Peterbilt, Kenworth, Freightliner, Western Star, International, Volvo, and other relevant competitors.

Go beyond published specifications.


Translate competitive findings into product requirements, investment priorities, sales tools, and differentiated customer value propositions.

Set the DC-64 Product Roadmap

Own the rolling three-to-five-year product-definition roadmap for the DC-64.

Prioritize product investments based on:

Recommend where Autocar should invest, what should be improved, and what should not be pursued.

Close the Loop Between the Field and the Product

Required Experience

• At least 10 years of relevant experience in Class 8 vocational trucks, vocational equipment, off-highway equipment, major truck bodies, or closely related severe-service equipment.
• Deep practical knowledge of at least one major vocational-truck application.
• Experience working directly with fleets, drivers, technicians, body manufacturers, and equipment suppliers.
• Demonstrated ability to translate customer applications and operating problems into vehicle or equipment requirements.
• Strong working knowledge of chassis, powertrain, axles, suspension, braking, steering, electrical systems, controls, and body integration.
• Ability to understand customer operating economics and quantify TCO, productivity, uptime, and return on investment.
• Sufficient technical credibility to challenge Engineering and sufficient commercial judgment to challenge Sales.
• Experience influencing cross-functional decisions involving Engineering, Operations, Quality, Supply Chain, Sales, Service, and Finance.
• Willingness to spend significant time with customers and trucks in actual operating environments.
• Willingness to relocate to Birmingham, Alabama. Relocation assistance will be provided.

Preferred Background

Candidates may come from:

• A Class 8 truck OEM
• A vocational body or equipment manufacturer
• A large and technically sophisticated vocational fleet
• A construction, mining, agricultural, or off-highway equipment manufacturer
• A vocational application-engineering or vehicle-integration organization

Job Duties Disclaimer:

The duties and responsibilities outlined here are representative but not exhaustive of the tasks that the employee may be required to perform. Management reserves the right to modify, add, or remove duties and to assign other tasks as necessary to meet business needs.

Equal Employment Opportunity:
Autocar is an Equal Opportunity Employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, national origin, disability, or any other characteristic protected by law.


Reasonable Accommodations (ADA Compliance):

Autocar complies with the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) and provides reasonable accommodations to qualified individuals with disabilities. Employees who require assistance or accommodations should contact Human Resources.