Head of Automotive Business

Join the leader in entertainment innovation and help us design the future. At Dolby, science meets art, and high tech means more than computer code. As a member of the Dolby team, you’ll see and hear the results of your work everywhere, from movie theaters to smartphones. We continue to revolutionize how people create, deliver, and enjoy entertainment worldwide. To do that, we need the absolute best talent. We’re big enough to give you all the resources you need, and small enough so you can make a real difference and earn recognition for your work. We offer a collegial culture, challenging projects, and excellent compensation and benefits, not to mention a Flex Work approach that is truly flexible to support where, when, and how you do your best work.

Dolby’s consumer entertainment and cinema businesses are bringing Dolby’s breakthrough technologies, powering the world’s top movies, TV shows, music, games, and live sports to more places around the world across a wider range of consumer experiences and devices.

Dolby is looking for a leader to head and grow our Automotive business line within the Consumer Entertainment business. The role reports into the VP & GM of Consumer Entertainment.

The automotive industry is amid a transformation with the growth of connected and electric vehicles and autonomous driving, and entertainment is gaining in prominence as part of the in-vehicle experience. Dolby re-entered the automotive business about 5 years ago and Automotive is now one of our fastest growing businesses. Our current offerings are products for the playback of Dolby Atmos and Dolby Vision content. Dolby Atmos Music is the dominant use case that we address, and we are expanding beyond music into podcasts, audiobooks and video. Video consumption in cars has started to grow with the China market being the one where this behavior shows up the most. We are also exploring emerging use-cases such as lighting in cars.

Dolby is a B2B company, with a well-recognized consumer brand, and we work with content creators, content distribution services and platforms, device manufacturers, chip companies and software platforms to help our customers and partners deliver outstanding entertainment experiences to consumers.

This is a global business with customers and consumers located all around the world. The leader will have a GM mindset and be a product leader. Dolby is functionally organized with the main business-related functions being business/product, engineering, sales, and marketing. Other key functions are legal, finance, people, operations and IT. The primary functions reporting into this role are business and product.

The GM mindset is required to work collaboratively with the other functions while retaining the responsibility and accountability for the overall success of the Automotive business. This includes collaborating with the Content Ecosystem business leaders who have the responsibility to ensure that content is being generated and distributed in Dolby formats to all devices and settings where consumers consume entertainment including cars, homes, mobile and PC.

The first phase of the Automotive business involved building the first generation of products and going from pre-revenue to producing meaningful revenue and revenue growth. It is now entering the phase where the most important steps are scaling and breaking out of the premium segment of automotive that we have successfully penetrated and expanding into the mass-market.

This involves moving to a portfolio of products and product variants that are well differentiated from each other and positioned in the market to meet the needs of the various segments. It also requires nurturing product offerings that meet new needs in the space.

One of the main responsibilities for this leader will be to successfully manage the transition of this business from the start-up phase into the expansion phase.

Responsibilities

• Within Dolby, this role has primary responsibility for products and revenue from the Automotive space. You'll be responsible for setting the vision for your business, crafting the strategy and executing the strategy. This involves communicating your strategy to the broader organization and ensuring that it is well understood.

• Acts with the mindset of a general manager in a functionally organized company. You will collaborate with other key functions (content ecosystem teams, engineering, research, marketing, sales, customer support, finance, legal) to deliver value to the industry and grow the Dolby business.

• Scale the business in terms of revenue and scope of products. Develop a segmented view of the market. Within that segmented view, have clearly defined and articulated value propositions for customer and consumer segments.

• Identify new market opportunities and define products. You'll create a well-defined long-term product roadmap, with clearly defined value propositions for each product line and product version.

• Develop Go-to-Market strategies for the Automotive business. This involves identifying the right sequencing of activities and helping the broader organization understand and execute the GTM strategy.

• Decides the priority of different product and business initiatives within your resource envelope.

Requirements

• Deep knowledge of the infotainment segment within the automotive industry. Will very likely have worked multiple years in the automotive space.

• Technical expertise equivalent to a bachelor’s degree in engineering or science.

• Knowledge of the automotive industry, the way that vehicles are made, segmented, positioned and sold. Knowledge of the value chain and supply chain. Practical experience with how features and technologies are packaged across trims and models (e.g., standard vs. optional content, premium bundles), and how these decisions are made commercially and strategically in the different regions.

• Has Product DNA. Likes products. Track record of delivering value to the market through products.

• Ability to handle complexity and simplify it for others. Dolby delivers value through building content ecosystems with multiple constituents and where value delivery and value capture occur in different ways in different parts of the ecosystem.

• Sets and enforces enterprise-level standards for confidential data handling, ensuring all sensitive employee, candidate, and business information is protected, access-controlled, and managed in full compliance with GDPR and internal governance frameworks, while fostering a culture of accountability and trust across the organization.

• Willingness to travel.

Key Personal Attributes for Success in this Role

• Mindset of ownership and accountability - A track record of accomplishing measurable and identifiable results. Gets Things Done.

• Thought leadership and clarity in thinking - The ability to craft and articulate a future state for the business, and to use that to inspire people.

• People leadership - Ability to build a great team and to make people around them better.

• Exhibits empathy for others - team-members, colleagues, customers, partners, consumers and the end-user.

• Sets high standards for themselves and for others.

• Ability to collaboratively lead teams that are comprised of individuals that directly report into this role as well as individuals who don’t.

• Ability to work with different cultures across the globe and engage with different functions within customers.

• Strategic Prioritization - Demonstrates disciplined focus by aligning resources to high-impact initiatives. Makes tough trade-offs to maximize strategic and revenue outcomes, ensuring the team executes what matters most.

• Boundaryless - form strong relations with peers, comfortable collaborating with people on other teams to deliver results.

• Mobilization Excellence - Builds and leads high-performing teams with collaboration and alignment.

Location

• This role can be in either the Munich / Nuremberg region or in our headquarters in San Francisco.
• This leader is expected to work from our San Francisco or Nuremberg office 2-3 days per week. While we remain committed to flexibility, this team’s rhythm includes regular in-person connection to support collaboration, learning, and impact.
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The San Francisco/Bay Area base salary range for this full-time position is $259,000 - $366,200 which can vary if outside this location, plus bonus, benefits and equity. Our salary ranges are determined by role, level, and location. Within the range, individual pay is determined by work location and additional factors, including job-related skills, competencies, experience, market demands, internal parity, and relevant education or training. Your recruiter can share more about the specific salary range and perks and benefits for your location during the hiring process.

Dolby will consider qualified applicants with criminal histories in a manner consistent with the requirements of San Francisco Police Code, Article 49, and Administrative Code, Article 12

Equal Employment Opportunity:
Dolby is proud to be an equal opportunity employer. Our success depends on the combined skills and talents of all our employees. We are committed to making employment decisions without regard to race, religious creed, color, age, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, religion, marital status, family status, medical condition, disability, military service, pregnancy, childbirth and related medical conditions or any other classification protected by federal, state, and local laws and ordinances.