Senior Manager, Technical Product Management

Specialty Coffee

Seattle, WA

Position Overview:

PMI is seeking out our next culture add! We have an exciting opportunity to share with you today and look forward to seeing your application soon! In this role you will be responsible for managing our Technical Product Management Sampling team within our Specialty Coffee business. As an experienced and inspiring people leader, you will lead a talented team of product managers and collaborate cross functionally with our creative and development, MS (Merchandise Sourcing), Account Management and Quality teams to ensure top quality product design execution and precise data management accuracy. This will include tracking and reporting on multiple simultaneous program timelines and product sampling deliverables for all SMU (Special Make Up) core and seasonal programs globally. Applying your cross functional partnerships, our new PLM (Product Lifecycle Management) tools and related systems, you will oversee all BOMs (Bill of Materials), sample requests, sample reviews, product prototypes, customer approvals and support your team, as necessary, in the triage of any manufacturing challenges. Our Technical Product Management Sampling team is a dynamic, highly detailed team of product experts who deliver exceptional, on trend, innovative and top-quality products. We are excited to welcome a fun and committed leader to guide their work and drive success for the team, our company, and our specialty coffee customers.

Responsibilities:

Manage the Technical Product Management Sampling team, processes, workflows for product sampling, final product documentation, and ensure all best practices and sampling deliverables are achieved.

• Celebrate and grow the Technical Product Management Sampling team’s expertise, engage in goal setting, support goal completion, and cultivate talent and leadership.
• Ensure learnings and product solutions are documented and shared. Routinize cross training for ongoing new development awareness, team flexibility and to support changes in business demand by season and market.
• Require accuracy. Highlight and enforce cross checking to so all CMF applications, colors, documentation, and communication are valid.
• Support the implementation and consistent utilization of Centric PLM and other system tools. Become an expert resource and eliminate extraneous or duplicative data so that PLM becomes and remains the single point of truth for sampling and final product data.

Deliver to deadlines. Manage and report regularly on sampling status across multiple simultaneous and fast track schedules, each with their own unique duration constraints, assortment quantity and varying levels of design complexity.

• Commit to on-time delivery and the completion of hundreds of samples that align to global seasonal assortment programs, in various materials across multiple factories.
• Be a proactive, solution focused advocate for the Sampling team across the organization. Prioritize and align sample timing to customer timelines.
• Provide consolidated weekly reports and status updates on samples across all materials and all programs. Escalate to cross functional team as needed to achieve timing and best practice product and process execution.

Be a continuous learner and continuous improvement leader. Embrace the unique demands of our business. Respect the processes that work. Lead and partner when processes need to change and evolve.

• Ensure that the work of the Technical Product Management Sampling team is efficient and effective. Constant innovation takes a growth mindset and iteration, and advocate for what’s needed to achieve excellence.
• Participate in sample review preparation and presentation, represent your team within the product and creative teams, partner with cross functional managers to drive your team’s work and ensure all cross functional hand offs and processes are followed.
• Communicate regularly with the MS team to improve our sample lead times and deadline tracking, implement the ability to flex sample lead times for urgent needs and deliver on all our varied customer timelines effectively. Create a collaborative routine that works for both teams and is consistent and proactive.
• Lead discussions to improve first time quality. Iteration is a natural part of creative development but resampling due to errors is not. Partner with PMI QA, engineering, and MS team to align on cosmetic standards, color matching protocols, and ways that errors or inconsistencies can be caught and resolved before samples ship.

Proficiencies:

• Prior experience managing a hard goods, consumer product development, sampling or creative team required. Housewares, toys, or apparel preferred.
• Proven track record of relationship and team building skills, passion for talent development, goal setting and advocacy.
• Excellent people skills with the ability to effectively work with individuals and groups at all organization levels – including international teams.
• Teamwork spirit. Patient and positive attitude is a must, celebrate accomplishments big and small.
• Experience working with Centric PLM strongly desired, specifically in building BOMs, master data and factory sample requests.
• Strong interest in consumer products, visual merchandising, and graphic applications.
• Flexibility and willingness to adapt to changing business needs and deadlines.
• Ability to take initiative and prioritize tasks; good time-management, organizational, problem-prevention and problem-solving skills.
• Ability to work accurately with close attention to detail.
• Strong analytical ability with active listening skills.
• Excellent written and oral communication skills; ability to communicate effectively and project a professional image when giving and taking information in writing and in person.
• Prior experience working directly with product management, sales, and graphics departments.
• Ability to respond effectively to sensitive inquiries or complaints.
• Ability to maintain confidentiality of sensitive information.
• Ability to continuously learn and apply new information.
• Solid knowledge of Centric PLM, Smartsheet, Agile, Google Docs, Microsoft Word, Excel, PowerPoint.

Education and Experience:

• 4-year degree required
• 7+ years’ hard goods consumer products development
• 5+ years’ managing a product or creative team

Interaction and Environment:

• Reports To: Senior Director, Product Management, Specialty Coffee

About HAVI

HAVI is a global, privately owned company that connects people with ideas, data with insights, supply with demand, restaurants with deliveries and ultimately, people with the products they love. Whether we are sourcing, storing or delivering products, we bring unmatched category expertise and unrivaled operational excellence, combined with powerful digital analytics and insights. Founded in 1974, HAVI employs more than 10,000 people and serves customers in more than 100 countries. HAVI’s business units include Supply Chain, tms and Stanley. Our portfolio of businesses offers best-in-class sourcing and supply chain capabilities, brand defining marketing and promotion services and innovative consumer products. For more information, please visit HAVI.com, tmsw.com and stanley1913.com.