Lead Product Manager

Lead Product Manager

The Lead Product Manager is responsible for developing, managing, and optimizing products at Manheim. This position involves contributing to and managing the product roadmap, overseeing implementation, and collaborating with a cross-functional team in an AI-driven environment to deliver products that serve both internal and external clients.

Success in this role requires expertise in Product Management and Ownership, stakeholder and customer engagement, and aligning priorities, as well as knowledge of other relevant disciplines within the organization. The Lead Product Manager oversees one or more strategically important products with high growth potential, which typically involve large cross-functional teams. Additionally, the role incorporates AI tools throughout all phases of the product development lifecycle.

Areas of Focus

• Product Strategy and Discovery: Leverage AI to accelerate discovery, experimentation, and development, and recommend improvements to the PDLC and ecosystem. Lead the discovery process to formulate an in-depth understanding of problems by customer segment and personas with an understanding of the market and competitive landscape. Collaborate with business leaders to ensure product strategy and discovery efforts align to business objectives. Partner with cross-functional groups, stakeholders and clients to inform discovery efforts.
• Product Roadmap: Synthesize discovery into a transparent, outcome-oriented roadmap that sequences near-term wins and longer-horizon strategies; maintain the roadmap and ensure transparency in communication of deliverables with internal stakeholders and clients.
• Planning and Execution: Translate strategy into business outcomes, milestones, and epics; maintain a backlog that continuously delivers measurable value. Collaborate with Product Management and UX colleagues to ensure alignment across the product portfolio. Have a mind towards delivering incremental value throughout the product lifecycle.
• Agile Development: Adopt AI tooling and employ a mindset focused on how to think about and approach work throughout the PDLC. Understand how to effectively apply modern development methodologies in a complex enterprise environment. Build effective relationships with onshore and offshore teams, including contractors, across product, UX, engineering, architecture and solution delivery. Ensure teams understand the product vision and how to execute in a way that incrementally delivers value towards that vision.
• Go-To-Market Planning: Apply commercialization mindset to inform innovation and product development activities in collaboration with business, operations, and marketing teams. Engage with implementation, training and technical support partners to ensure that product solutions balance operational scalability with cost and speed to market. Support testing, experimentation, and iterative value delivery while partnering with business stakeholders to develop pricing strategies and assess impact on Return on Investment (ROI).
• Client Engagement: Engage with clients and client-proxies (e.g., sales, marketing, operations, performance management) throughout the discovery process to gather feedback and input on product ideas.
• Product Success: Assess product performance against KPIs and provide insights to improve product performance and inform future roadmap priorities.
• Product Ownership: Serve as liaison for the product(s); partner with development teams to establish acceptance criteria, manage priorities and backlog for team(s) ensuring delivery aligns with business strategy and requirements, support team planning; manage communication across stakeholder groups.

What We Look For

Minimum Qualifications

• A bachelor's degree in a related discipline and 6 years of experience in a related field. The right candidate could also have a different combination, such as a master's degree and 4 years of experience; a Ph.D. and 1 year of experience; or 10 years of experience.
• 6+ years of experience product management/development with a record of shipping complex, enterprise products.
• Comfortable with current AI tools; have growth mindset in integrating AI in to existing workflows while also challenging the status quo and bringing a new perspective on leveraging AI to create business value.
• Ability to apply critical thinking skills to solve challenging problems for complex enterprise products.
• Can precisely articulate customer problems and solution value and effectively influence cross functional teams; not afraid to ask hard questions and engage in difficult conversations to achieve the best outcome.
• Strong communicator who can articulate customer problems, solution value, and trade-offs; comfortable with hard conversations.
• Fluency in agile methods and tooling; proven cross-functional leadership with UX, engineering, and architecture.
• Purpose-driven with the ability to motivate and excite others; strive for continuous improvement with bias towards action.
• Experience with Product planning/roadmap and project management tools.
• Excellent people skills and developing relationships with team members and customers.
• Applicants must currently be authorized to work in the United States for any employer without current or future sponsorship. No OPT, CPT, STEM/OPT or visa sponsorship now or in future

Functional Skills

• Analytical Thinking – Working knowledge of and ability to apply effective analytical techniques and tools. Ability to apply critical thinking skills to solve challenging problems for complex enterprise products. Analyzes issues, determines root cause, and creates/compares alternative solutions that are in the best interest of the business. Uses logic and intuition to make inferences about the meaning of data and draws conclusions.
• Managing Multiple Priorities – Manages multiple concurrent objectives, projects, or activities, making informed prioritization and time allocation decisions. Responds to day-to-day operational priorities while still making progress on project work. Addresses potential conflicts that impact delivery commitments, working with team members, management, and other stakeholders to re-prioritize as necessary.
• Requirements Analysis – Working knowledge of and ability to elicit, analyze and document required business requirements. Engages with the customers, users, and other stakeholders to gather requirements. Utilizes appropriate methods, tools, and techniques for requirements analysis. Challenges, and manages conflicts and expectations associated with requirements analysis.
• System and Technology Integration – Working knowledge of technology system features and facilities and the ability to integrate and communicate among applications, databases, and platforms. Explores major issues and considerations for successful system integration. Plays an active role in current and planned integration efforts.
• Technology Savvy – Working knowledge of technology and its ability to improve work processes and results. Skilled in using technology to solve work-related problems and create new business opportunities. Pursues opportunities to develop knowledge and experiments with emerging technology solutions. Serves as a resource to help others understand and anticipate the impact of technology on current processes, products, and services.
• Communication – Strong communicator who can precisely articulate customer problems, solution value, and trade-offs to technical and non-technical audiences. Effectively influences cross-functional teams; not afraid to ask hard questions and engage in difficult conversations to achieve the best outcome.

Foundational Skills

• Acts with Integrity – Acts in accordance with one's own values, standards and beliefs even when under pressure. Adheres to ethical and professional standards, regulations, and organizational policies.
• Builds Partnerships – Proactively builds, nurtures, and maintains business-focused, long-term working relationships with partners inside and outside of the organization. Demonstrates flexibility when forming and adjusting partnerships to achieve broader goals. Excellent people skills and developing relationships with team members and customers.
• Drives Innovation – Skilled in exploring alternative ways to view and solve problems to achieve results. Tries unique ways of doing things and tests promising ideas. Takes risks in the interest of finding a better way.
• Focuses on Execution – Skilled in establishing goals that are designed to deliver exceptional business results. Tracks and broadcasts progress and accomplishments. Works tenaciously to overcome obstacles and meet or exceed goals. Purpose-driven with the ability to motivate and excite others; strives for continuous improvement with bias towards action.
• Strives for Excellence – Skilled in establishing criteria and/or work procedures to achieve a high level of quality, productivity, and service. Dedicates required time and energy to assignments or tasks to ensure that no aspect of the work is neglected. Accepts responsibility for outcomes (positive or negative) and admits mistakes, refocusing efforts when appropriate.

Drug Testing

To be employed in this role, you'll need to clear a pre-employment drug test. Cox Automotive does not currently administer a pre-employment drug test for marijuana for this position. However, we are a drug-free workplace, so the possession, use or being under the influence of drugs illegal under federal or state law during work hours, on company property and/or in company vehicles is prohibited.

Benefits

The Company offers eligible employees the flexibility to take as much vacation with pay as they deem consistent with their duties, the company's needs, and its obligations; seven paid holidays throughout the calendar year; and up to 160 hours of paid wellness annually for their own wellness or that of family members. Employees are also eligible for additional paid time off in the form of bereavement leave, time off to vote, jury duty leave, volunteer time off, military leave, and parental leave.

About Us

Through groundbreaking technology and a commitment to stellar experiences for drivers and dealers alike, Cox Automotive employees are transforming the way the world buys, owns, sells – or simply uses – cars. Cox