Product Manager III

Controls Product Manager

The Controls Product Manager is responsible for helping to define the strategy, roadmap, and lifecycle management for connected controls, embedded systems, cloud-enabled platforms, and digital services that support AAON's HVAC product portfolio. This role serves to increase collaboration with customers, controls engineering, product engineering, sales, service, and operations. The position requires strong technical fluency in HVAC controls, connected devices, data-driven services, cloud platforms, and customer-facing digital experiences, along with the business judgment to translate market needs into scalable product solutions.

Primary Duties

The Controls Product Manager collaborates with all departments in the planning, prioritization, and execution of product strategies for controls, IoT, and cloud-based solutions that advance AAON's connected equipment capabilities and long-term digital product direction. This role owns product vision, business cases, customer requirements, release priorities, and cross-functional alignment for solutions that may include equipment controls, supervisory control systems, edge devices, connectivity, telemetry, remote monitoring, analytics, mobile or web applications, and cloud services.

Primary duties may include, but are not limited to:

• Develop and manage the product roadmap with controls engineering.
• Translate customer, contractor, service, sales, and internal stakeholder needs into clear product requirements, business cases, user stories, acceptance criteria, and release priorities.
• Guide cross-functional collaboration with controls engineering, embedded software, cloud software, hardware, cybersecurity, UX, manufacturing, service, marketing, and sales teams.
• Identify market opportunities for connected HVAC systems, remote monitoring, diagnostics, analytics, predictive maintenance, energy optimization, and lifecycle service offerings.
• Define requirements for device onboarding, provisioning, connectivity, telemetry, alarms, dashboards, APIs, user roles, data access, reliability, scalability, and support workflows.
• Partner with controls engineering team to ensure controls and cloud solutions are designed for security, interoperability, manufacturability, serviceability, and long-term platform growth.
• Evaluate competitive offerings, emerging technologies, customer adoption trends, regulatory developments, cybersecurity expectations, and industry standards relevant to connected HVAC solutions.
• Guide commercialization planning, including product positioning, pricing input, launch readiness, sales enablement, training content, and customer communication.
• Define and monitor key product metrics such as adoption, activation, uptime, feature usage, customer satisfaction, service impact, revenue contribution, and product profitability.

Job Requirements

Education and Experience Requirements:

Requires a bachelor's degree in engineering, computer science, information systems, product management, business, or a related technical field; engineering degree preferred. Advanced degree or MBA preferred. Requires significant product management experience, preferably in HVAC, building automation, industrial controls, IoT, enterprise software, SaaS, cloud platforms, or connected-device environments.

Knowledge, Skills, and Abilities:

• Strong understanding of HVAC systems, controls architectures, building automation concepts, equipment communication, and connected-device ecosystems.
• Working knowledge of IoT platforms, cloud services, edge devices, telemetry, APIs, data analytics, dashboards, mobile or web applications, and SaaS business models.
• Ability to convert complex customer needs and technical constraints into clear product strategy, requirements, priorities, and measurable outcomes.
• Experience guiding products through discovery, business case development, roadmap planning, development, launch, lifecycle management, and continuous improvement.
• Strong commercial judgment, including the ability to assess market opportunity, competitive positioning, pricing inputs, adoption barriers, and profitability drivers.
• Familiarity with cybersecurity, data privacy, reliability, scalability, interoperability, and support considerations for connected products and cloud-based services.
• Excellent communication, facilitation, and presentation skills for technical, executive, customer, and cross-functional audiences.
• Strong analytical, organizational, and prioritization skills with the ability to manage multiple strategic initiatives simultaneously.
• Proficiency with Microsoft Office and product management tools such as roadmap, backlog, requirements, analytics, or product lifecycle management systems.
• Ability to influence without direct authority and lead cross-functional teams through ambiguity, trade-offs, and changing priorities.

Essential Mental and Physical Functions:

This role requires advanced critical thinking, systems-level problem solving, strategic planning, and the ability to make decisions across hardware, software, controls, cloud, customer experience, and business considerations. The Senior Product Manager must be comfortable operating with incomplete information, balancing technical trade-offs, prioritizing competing needs, and guiding teams through complex product decisions.

Physical Requirements:

• Ability to sit, stand, or work at a computer for extended periods in an office, lab, or manufacturing environment.
• Occasional travel to customer sites, trade shows, industry events, manufacturing facilities, or technology partners.
• Ability to interact with equipment, controls panels, engineering labs, and production floor environments as needed to support product discovery, testing, launch, and field feedback.

Work Environment:

Work is primarily performed in an office setting with regular interaction with engineering labs, controls development environments, manufacturing areas, customer-facing teams, and external technology partners. The role involves frequent collaboration across technical and commercial functions and may include occasional travel to support product research, beta programs, field validation, customer visits, launches, or industry events.

Disclaimer:

Please note this job description is not designed to cover or contain a comprehensive listing of activities, duties or responsibilities that are required of the employee for this job. Duties, responsibilities and activities may change at any time with or without notice. This job description is not an exhaustive list of all functions that the employee may be required to perform, and the employee may be required to perform additional functions. The company reserves the right to revise this job description at any time. The employee must be able to perform the essential functions of the position satisfactorily. If requested, reasonable accommodations may be made to enable employees with disabilities to perform the essential functions of the job, absent undue hardship.