Product Manager - Riflescopes/Optics (Remote)

About Us:

How many companies can say they’ve been in business for over 177 years?!

Here at ZEISS, we certainly can! As the pioneers of science, ZEISS handles the everchanging environments in a fast-paced world, meeting it with cutting edge of technologies and continuous advancements. ZEISS believes that innovation and technology are the key to a sustainable future and solutions for global change. We have a diverse range of portfolios throughout the ZEISS family in segments like, Industrial Quality & Research, Medical Technology, Consumer Markets and Semiconductor Manufacturing Technology. We are a global company with over 42,000 employees and have over 4,000 in the US and Canada alone! Make a difference, come join the team!

What’s the role?  

This is a home-based, fully remote position. The Product Manager (PM) will support the Director of Product Management in identifying the unique needs of the North American (NA) Hunter and Shooter and creating the NA product roadmap for NA riflescopes, binocular and other sport optics products. The PM will gather market and competitive insights, analyze trends, and support creation of specific product requirements for new products and liaise with the Germany-based global category management team to guide NA products from concept-to-market. The PM will translate the product requirements into Key Selling Points to guide the development of selling materials, educational materials, and the basis for marketing briefs. In addition, the PM will develop educational material for new, and existing, products in the form of presentations and video scripts and will manage the product education library for the team. The ideal candidate is an experienced hunter/shooter with deep knowledge in the riflescope, reticle, binocular and related sports optics segment

Sound Interesting?

Here’s what you’ll do:

Category and Consumer Analysis

• Gather information on market trends and competitor product portfolios to provide clear summarized insights to drive development of product roadmap and rationale.

Product Roadmap

• Develop 3-5 year product roadmap based on category and consumer analysis for the sports optics portfolio.
• Create high-level product requirements and revenue potential for concepts on the product roadmap.

Product Definition and Development

• For approved products, Write detail product requirements and critical features and specification for products on the NA roadmap.
• Work closely with the global Category Manager in the ongoing product development process to ensure the final product aligns with the requirements, detailed spec, margins and pricing.

Product Selling and Education

• Develop product positioning brief that outlines marketing needs, key product requirements and specifications and translates these into the key selling points and reasons-to-believe.
• Develop dealer-focused product presentations to support the launch of the new products with dealers. scrips. Present product positioning brief to marketing to initiate marketing campaign.
• Develop retail associate and consumer focused educational presentations and video scripts. Work with Graphic Designer to execute video production and oversee editing of educational content

Ways-of-Working.

• The PM role requires the ability to operate effectively at multiple different levels every day: from highly conceptual and creative, to planful and executional, with a strong focus on attention to detail. 
• The PM is the NA market expert and must be able to communicate well across cultures to the Germany-based Category management team. 
• ZEISS COP NA has the professional systems and tools of a well-established high-performance global organization, but also requires the ability to operate within a small, fast-paced team and in a get-it-done environment utilizing a blend of in-house and freelance resources as necessary.

Do you qualify?

Experience, Skills and Education Requirements:

• Mandatory professional capabilities and characteristics:
  • Adept at working within well-structured matrix global master organization, yet highly entrepreneurial in executing role within lean and fast-moving regional organization.
  • Self-motivated – able to leverage large-company processes, but also to build and define own processes that meet the needs of the market.
  • Honest, ethically minded, person of their word. Creatively minded and highly curious
  • Ambition, desire to build and own the all initiative from concept-to-production, marshalling the resources needed to deliver – but with courage to address critical issues and propose solutions to challenges.
  • Minimum 10 years of combined experience in sales/marketing/product management roles within the hunting and precision shooting market segments

• Technical skills required:
  • Microsoft Office (Outlook, Excel, Word, PowerPoint)
  • Ability to learn proprietary systems
  • Strong conceptual/visual skills
  • Strong communication skills - both written and verbal

• Education:
  • Bachelor’s degree in science or business field is preferred

Travel:

• Domestic travel 2-3 times per quarter
• International travel once annually to Germany

We have amazing benefits to support you as an employee at ZEISS!

• Medical
• Vision
• Dental
• 401k Matching
• Employee Assistance Programs
• Vacation and sick pay 
• The list goes on! 

ZEISS is an EEO/AA/M/F/Disabled Veteran Employer

Your ZEISS Recruiting Team:

Clara Cresswell

Zeiss provides Equal Employment Opportunity without unlawful regard to an Applicants race, color, religion, creed, sex, gender, marital status, age, national origin or ancestry, physical or mental disability, medical condition, military or veteran status, citizen status, sexual orientation, pregnancy (includes childbirth, breastfeeding or related medical condition), genetic predisposition, carrier status, gender expression or identity, including transgender identity, or any other class or characteristic protected by federal, state, or local law of the employee (or the people with whom the employee associates, including relatives and friends).