Product Manager - Sustaining & Compliance

Product Manager - Sustaining & Compliance

Position Overview: STULZ USA is hiring a Portfolio Product Manager, Sustaining & Compliance to drive the long-term performance, compliance, and competitiveness of our data center cooling product portfolio. This role sits within Product Management and is responsible for ensuring that products remain efficient, manufacturable, compliant, and aligned with evolving market and regulatory requirements throughout their lifecycle. The role owns the strategic component roadmap for the portfolio, with formal authority on Critical components and direct partnership with Supply Chain on execution. The ideal candidate brings a strong engineering background in HVAC or thermal systems and is comfortable evaluating technical trade-offs, component strategies, and system-level performance. This individual will work closely with Product Managers, Engineering, and Supply Chain to identify and prioritize product improvements, manage lifecycle risks, and lead sustainability and compliance initiatives across the portfolio. This is a portfolio-wide role focused on sustaining and strengthening existing products. It is not a new product development ownership role.

Key Responsibilities:

• Product Lifecycle Ownership: Monitor and manage the health of the product portfolio across its lifecycle. Identify risks related to performance, cost, component availability, and regulatory compliance. Drive lifecycle decisions including product updates, redesign initiatives, and phase-out recommendations.
• Sustainability & Compliance: Lead initiatives related to low-GWP refrigerant transitions, including R454B and future requirements. Ensure alignment with evolving industry standards and regulatory frameworks. Identify opportunities to improve product efficiency and environmental performance.
• Component & System Strategy: Own the strategic component roadmap for the portfolio on a 3-year horizon. Define and maintain the Critical Component classification and risk register. Lead second-source qualification strategy and prioritization in partnership with Supply Chain. Drive standardization across product lines. Evaluate trade-offs between performance, cost, availability, and long-term viability. Hold final approval on strategic direction for Critical components.
• Continuous Product Improvement: Identify and prioritize opportunities to improve product performance, reliability, and manufacturability. Develop business cases for sustaining improvements and portfolio enhancements. Support execution of improvement initiatives in collaboration with Engineering.
• Market & Customer Insight Integration: Partner with Technical Business Development to translate Voice of Customer feedback into lifecycle and sustaining priorities. Monitor market and regulatory shifts and assess portfolio implications. Use VOC and field data as primary inputs in business cases for sustaining and component decisions.
• Cross-Functional Collaboration: Partner with Product Managers to align lifecycle and compliance priorities with the product roadmap. Work closely with Engineering to define scope and technical direction for product updates. Collaborate with Supply Chain to convert strategic component direction into supplier action and second-source qualification. Partner with Technical Business Development to ensure customer feedback and market signals are reflected in lifecycle and component decisions.

Required Qualifications:

• Bachelor's degree in Mechanical Engineering or related engineering discipline.
• 5+ years of experience in HVAC or thermal systems.
• Strong understanding of refrigeration cycles, heat transfer, and airflow management.
• Experience evaluating HVAC components such as compressors, coils, fans, pumps, and control systems.
• Ability to assess system-level performance and technical trade-offs.
• Demonstrated ability to translate customer feedback and field data into product decisions.
• Strong cross-functional communication and collaboration skills.

Preferred Qualifications:

• Experience in data center cooling or precision HVAC systems.
• Familiarity with low-GWP refrigerants such as R454B.
• Experience in product lifecycle management or sustaining engineering.
• Knowledge of industry standards such as ASHRAE or AHRI.
• Experience leading or contributing to strategic sourcing or second-source qualification programs.

Key Attributes:

• Systems thinker with strong technical and analytical skills.
• Ability to balance technical detail with business priorities.
• Comfortable operating across multiple products and initiatives.
• Proactive and solution-oriented mindset.
• Customer-oriented; treats Voice of Customer as a primary input, not an afterthought.
• Strong collaborator across Product Management, Engineering, Supply Chain, and Technical Business Development.

Impact of the Role: This role will play a critical part in ensuring STULZ USA's product portfolio remains competitive, compliant, and positioned for long-term success. By focusing on lifecycle management, strategic component planning, and compliance, this position will help drive continuous improvement, reduce supply and obsolescence risk, and lead the company's transition to next-generation cooling technologies.