Director of Product Development

Ethic Tech•Huntsville, AL

4d•Onsite

About The Position

The Director of Product Development is responsible for providing strategic and operational leadership for the Company's product portfolio, including product strategy, product development, commercialization, sales growth, market expansion, and long-term business planning. This position leads the development and execution of product initiatives from concept through commercialization and market growth. The Director works closely with executive leadership, engineering, manufacturing, operations, sales, marketing, contracts, and other internal and external stakeholders to ensure that products meet customer requirements, business objectives, quality standards, and applicable regulatory requirements. The Director is also responsible for establishing and executing sales and market-development strategies; identifying commercial and government business opportunities; supporting capture and proposal activities; developing strategic customer and partner relationships; and driving sustainable revenue growth. This position directly supervises the Product Sales Manager and may oversee other personnel assigned to the product development, product sales, and market-growth functions.

Requirements

Bachelor's degree in Business Administration, Engineering, Product Management, Finance, or a related discipline required.
Ten or more years of progressively responsible experience in product development, product management, commercialization, sales, business development, capture management, manufacturing, or a related field.
Five or more years of leadership or management experience, including responsibility for supervising professional employees.
Demonstrated experience developing and executing product, commercialization, sales, or market-growth strategies.
Demonstrated success driving revenue growth, developing customer relationships, and expanding products into new markets.
Experience developing product roadmaps, business cases, pricing strategies, budgets, forecasts, and performance metrics.
Experience leading cross-functional initiatives involving technical, operational, sales, financial, and executive stakeholders.
Strong business judgment and the ability to evaluate product opportunities based on customer demand, technical feasibility, cost, risk, profitability, and strategic value.
Strong leadership, communication, presentation, negotiation, relationship-management, and decision-making skills.
Ability to manage multiple complex priorities in a fast-paced, growth-oriented environment.
Proficiency with Microsoft Office applications, CRM platforms, and other business-management systems.

Nice To Haves

Master's degree preferred.
Experience with Tribal 8(a), small business, or mentor-protégé federal contracting models.
Established relationships with key federal contracting officers and acquisition officials.

Responsibilities

Develop and execute a comprehensive product strategy aligned with the Company's growth objectives, market opportunities, and long-term business plans.
Establish and maintain product roadmaps, development priorities, commercialization plans, and lifecycle strategies.
Evaluate new product concepts, enhancements, product-line extensions, and market opportunities based on customer needs, competitive intelligence, technical feasibility, cost, and revenue potential.
Assess the performance, profitability, market position, and strategic value of existing products and product lines.
Recommend the development, continuation, modification, repositioning, or discontinuation of products based on business and market considerations.
Establish product requirements, business objectives, target markets, pricing parameters, and commercialization strategies.
Coordinate product planning and development activities across engineering, manufacturing, operations, quality, compliance, sales, and marketing functions.
Ensure product initiatives remain aligned with customer requirements, operational capabilities, applicable regulations, and the Company's financial objectives.
Provide leadership and oversight throughout the product-development lifecycle, from concept development and market validation through production readiness, launch, and post-launch evaluation.
Develop product business cases, including anticipated costs, resource requirements, pricing assumptions, revenue opportunities, market demand, risks, and projected returns.
Coordinate with technical, engineering, manufacturing, and operational teams to establish development schedules, milestones, testing requirements, production plans, and launch-readiness criteria.
Identify and address risks that may affect product development, production, quality, compliance, delivery, customer acceptance, or profitability.
Lead product-launch planning, including market introduction, sales enablement, customer communication, demonstrations, training, distribution, and promotional support.
Monitor product performance following launch and recommend improvements based on customer feedback, sales results, operational performance, and market conditions.
Support the development and protection of intellectual property, proprietary product information, technical data, branding, and other strategic product assets.
Evaluate licensing, manufacturing, distribution, reseller, and strategic partnership opportunities that support product growth.
Develop and execute product-sales strategies designed to achieve revenue, profitability, customer-acquisition, and market-expansion objectives.
Establish annual and long-term sales goals, performance metrics, forecasts, and accountability measures.
Directly supervise, lead, coach, and develop the Product Sales Manager and other assigned personnel.
Establish performance expectations and conduct regular reviews of sales activity, pipeline development, customer engagement, forecasting, and results.
Oversee the identification, qualification, pursuit, and development of sales opportunities across commercial, government, military, law enforcement, distributor, dealer, reseller, and institutional markets.
Provide strategic oversight of key customer accounts and serve as a senior escalation point for significant customer, distributor, partner, or contractual matters.
Participate in customer presentations, product demonstrations, trade shows, conferences, industry events, and strategic business meetings.
Support the development of product pricing, quotations, sales proposals, terms, sales agreements, distribution arrangements, and customer communications.
Monitor sales performance, market activity, customer demand, competitive conditions, and product profitability.
Recommend changes to pricing, market positioning, product configuration, distribution strategy, or sales approach when necessary to improve results.
Ensure sales opportunities, customer interactions, pipeline activities, forecasts, and resulting transactions are accurately maintained in the Company's Customer Relationship Management system.
Identify and evaluate new business opportunities involving the Company's products, capabilities, technologies, and related services.
Develop and support capture strategies for significant commercial and government product opportunities.
Participate in opportunity qualification, competitive assessment, customer analysis, solution development, teaming, pricing strategy, and proposal planning.
Coordinate with business development, capture, proposal, contracts, finance, and operational personnel to support opportunity pursuit and contract award activities.
Develop relationships with government agencies, prime contractors, distributors, dealers, strategic partners, manufacturers, suppliers, and other stakeholders.
Identify potential contract vehicles, procurement channels, reseller arrangements, teaming relationships, and strategic alliances that may expand market access.
Provide product, market, pricing, customer, and competitive information in support of proposals, presentations, white papers, capability statements, and other business-development materials.
Support contract transition, customer onboarding, production planning, and execution activities following award.
Maintain documentation and reporting necessary to support eligibility for applicable capture, contract-award, sales commission, and other incentive compensation programs.