Director, Product Lifecycle

American Tire Distributors•Huntersville, NC

About The Position

The Director, Product Lifecycle Management owns end-to-end product lifecycle governance for ATD's Proprietary Brands portfolio. The role is accountable for the commercialization of new tire products and for the lifecycle controls that protect item data integrity, cost and pricing accuracy, supplier and vendor readiness, and warranty and quality oversight across all proprietary segments. This is an enterprise-wide accountability for a defined business area, with direct impact on margin, profitability, and customer experience. The Director establishes and governs the cross-functional framework that connects Product Management, Product Administration, Pricing, Procurement, Finance, Vendor Management, Marketing, Supply Chain, RevMan, IT/Oracle, Warranty, and Quality Control. Rather than coordinating handoffs, the role sets the standards, controls, and decision rights that ensure new items are commercialized accurately and launched on plan. Where execution sits with other functions, the Director governs the outcome: driving alignment among senior leaders and operational partners, resolving cross-functional conflict, and holding the end-to-end process accountable for timely execution, accurate information flow, clean handoffs, and follow-through. The role exercises significant influence across the enterprise even where formal authority is matrixed. The Director leads one direct report accountable for proprietary warranty and quality control activity, while providing leadership-through-influence across senior stakeholders, operational partners, and suppliers enterprise-wide. The level of this role is anchored in the breadth of process ownership and business impact rather than span of control.

Requirements

Bachelor’s degree
9 years of related experience including significant management experience preferred

Responsibilities

Own and govern the end-to-end product lifecycle for all proprietary segments, from commercialization through phase-out, replacement, and discontinuation, ensuring item data is accurate, complete, and launch-ready before sales enablement or PO placement.
Define and continuously improve the governance framework, controls, and decision rights for product commercialization, supplier onboarding, cost accuracy, quality oversight, and lifecycle management, directly protecting margin and profitability.
Set near-term operating priorities and longer-term lifecycle strategy for the portfolio, identifying process improvements, mitigating business risk, and ensuring organizational readiness for launches, lifecycle transitions, and supplier initiatives.
Drive cross-functional alignment and decision-making among senior leaders across Product, Finance, Procurement, Supply Chain, Pricing, Marketing, IT, and Vendor Management to achieve enterprise commercialization and lifecycle objectives.
Govern supplier and vendor onboarding for new vendors, factories, and suppliers ahead of purchase activity.
Direct root cause analysis, supplier corrective action, and resolution of quality and warranty trends.
Establish standards for freight, duty, tariff, drayage, and landed-cost data used across the business, and ensure item-level cost and pricing accuracy to protect margin and reduce rework.
Lead finalization of tire label design in partnership with Product, Marketing, and vendors, and confirm product specifications and commercial information are accurate and internally homologated.
Lead, coach, and develop the direct report accountable for proprietary warranty and quality control, and ensure claims, quality issues, and product concerns are tracked, reviewed, and escalated appropriately.
Own reporting integrity for rental/recon rebate activity.