Description

Location: Hannover, Germany

Job Purpose

This role is responsible for managing the Soundbar category.

The job holder manages the different products throughout their lifecycle and holds end-to-end accountability for timely delivering products that meet the needs of our target audiences, building winning go-to-market plans and leading the collaboration with the different functions (R&D, Marketing, Sales, Supply, Finance, Purchasing, Consumer Insights). Essentially, the PM is like the General Manager of his / her business, looking at the full picture and creating 360 plans (Technical, Commercial, Marketing) to deliver sustainable growth.

Primary Job Responsibilities

• Develop in-depth understanding of end-user needs, use cases and market dynamics
• Articulate clearly the target customers we're designing for, the value proposition and our right to win with them
• Drive necessary regional or global consumer research to build product definition and strategy alignment with Product Marketing
• Manage product/ portfolio (lifecycle) and roadmap management incl. turnover planning, portfolio efficiency analysis and identification of tactical activities (product refresh / minor tweaks, create a concept for commercial initiatives to be executed during the big promo events...)
• Define the total product experience to deliver the best value proposition, including product design, packaging experience, pre / post purchase activation
• Collaborate with R&D and Design to find the best compromise between the customer's product experience, time to market, product cost and resource needs
• Create the product story that will feed the Marketing strategy
• Manage the commercial part of the different projects (market landscape analysis to identify the opportunities, define price / promo strategy, align volume forecast with regional teams)
• Monthly forecasting and demand planning in partnership with the Supply team
• Assess acoustic product performance during development as well as competitor products
• Highest level of customer support (share knowledge with the customer support team to maximize their ability to answer most questions, and help answer remaining expert questions)
• Support the sales organization with product training & advice at exhibitions and product events

Additional Job Responsibilities

• Track online reviews to check quality of current products in market
• Identify and work with strategy external partners (technologies, manufacturers, suppliers) in a dynamic market environment
• Stay in touch with relevant key opinion leaders, industry insiders and influencers
• Constantly monitor the competitive offer and analyze their performance
• Manage external relationships with:
  • Suppliers to co-design new products
  • Suppliers who manufacture current products
  • Industrial Design agencies to develop product look & feel
  • Sound virtualization software provider
  • Streaming platforms to secure compatibility with our products
• Manage internal relationships with:
  • R&D
  • Marketing
  • Supply Chain
  • Global & Regional Sales
  • Consumer Insights

Your profile:

• Bachelor's or Master's degree in Engineering, Acoustic Engineering, or related field
• Strong technical, analytical, project management, and stakeholder communication skills.
• Excellent communicator
• Strong team player, balancing various stakeholders
• Fluent in English, German is a plus
• Willingness to travel for projects (approx. 10% of the time)
• End-consumer focus

• Good understanding of how the Trade works (i.e. distributors, retailers) to build winning propositions for them
• International & cultural experience and/or sensitivity
• 10+ years of experience in Product Management / Development, preferably in Consumer Electronics.
• Experience and in-depth understanding & passion for Consumer Electronics / soundbars / headphone end-user market & trends

The Sennheiser brand

The Sennheiser brand stands for premium quality in the field of audio products.
At Sonova Consumer Hearing, we develop and offer consumer devices such as headphones, soundbars and speech-enhanced hearables under the brand license of Sennheiser.

The business is headquartered in Wedemark, Germany, and has approximately 650 employees worldwide. To continue to be among the best in the industry, we are always on the lookout for outstanding talent.