Sr. Product Manager - Aerospace & Defense

CoorsTek•Golden, CO

1d•$128,555 - $176,763•Onsite

About The Position

The Sr. Product Manager is responsible for maximizing revenue and gross margin across assigned product lines, managing product life cycles, collaborating with commercial leaders on product strategy and pricing, and achieving targeted margin growth. The role has global or multi-region responsibility and leads strategically significant programs involving new products and product improvements. Success is measured through margin improvement, profitable growth, customer and product portfolio quality, on-time execution, and operational efficiency. Supporting the Aerospace & Defense market, the Product Manager translates customer, platform, and end-market requirements into product-line priorities while balancing growth, capacity, quality, delivery, compliance, and long-term profitability. The role works closely with FDEs, Technology, Commercial, and cross-functional partners to maintain visibility into opportunities and coordinate decisions and execution. It also partners with customers, OEMs, and industry stakeholders on technical requirements, future platform needs, product qualifications, and growth opportunities. For the near term, estimated at 12–24 months, the role will focus on pricing and customer-portfolio reviews, low-yield and high-setup products, capacity and order-value analysis, profitable customer qualification, product-line profitability planning, opportunity-pipeline development, cross-functional review cadence, and recommendations for strategic capacity and capital investment. The position is on-site in Golden, Colorado, with travel varying according to customer and business needs.

Requirements

Bachelor’s degree in a related field.
At least seven years of relevant commercial and product-focused experience.
In-depth technical product knowledge and strong analytical skills.
Ability to influence senior managers and decision makers.
Ability to work effectively with people from diverse cultures and backgrounds.
Strong financial and commercial acumen, including pricing, margin analysis, forecasting, business cases, and P&L management.
Ability to translate complex technical, customer, and operational information into clear product strategy and executable priorities.
Strong cross-functional program leadership, including managing competing priorities, risks, and customer commitments.
Clear written and verbal communication skills, including presenting recommendations to customers and senior leaders.

Nice To Haves

Aerospace and Defense industry experience is strongly preferred.
Experience supporting engineered products, long-cycle customer programs, or technical manufacturing environments is preferred.
Experience partnering with OEMs, major suppliers, or government-related customers is desirable.
Advanced ceramics or materials experience is a plus.
Knowledge of Aerospace & Defense customer expectations, qualification processes, and market dynamics is preferred.

Responsibilities

Track product-line health against volume growth, profit margin, operating cash flow, asset utilization, and working capital metrics; own the P&L and lead resolution of internal issues such as quality and on-time delivery.
Work with strategic insights and strategic marketing to assess the competitive landscape, market segmentation, and trends and identify opportunities and threats.
Partner with marketing to develop product data sheets, product memos, trade-show materials, and other product content.
Support account managers with customer interactions and escalations when needed.
Liaise with supply chain and take responsibility for customer and delivery prioritization.
Manage the product life cycle from launch through obsolescence, supporting organic growth through innovation, annual price improvements, and product rationalization.
Collaborate with operations to identify and initiate annual cost reductions or avoid cost increases.
Establish internal pricing floors and targets for account managers in collaboration with leaders, based on market pricing.
Identify capacity and margin-maximization opportunities and align them with overall strategy.
Support business development through sales-force training, customer visits and demonstrations, and relationships with key stakeholders.
Lead business-case reviews, including capital-expansion reviews and recommendations.
Define and communicate product-line strategy, including positioning and the 4 Ps, and develop product-line service strategy with engineering and operations.
Drive design wins, orders, and revenue growth.
Contribute to CoorsTek’s product and technology roadmap.
Partner with sales and operations on volume, revenue, and margin forecasts, including unconstrained and constrained demand.
Lead program management for new products and product improvements.
Identify process-improvement opportunities with R&D and Operations that align with program goals.
Interact with customers to gather input on new-product and market requirements and specifications.
Drive internal cross-functional schedules aligned with customer commitments and keep customers informed of status.
Build and execute product strategies for Aerospace & Defense applications, considering platform life cycles, qualification requirements, program timing, and long-term supply expectations.
Partner with key customers, OEMs, and industry stakeholders to understand technical requirements, future platform needs, and growth opportunities.
Work with FDEs, Technology, and Commercial to identify, evaluate, and prioritize opportunities; maintain shared visibility into opportunity status, requirements, technical feasibility, commercial potential, risks, ownership, and next steps.
Coordinate with Quality, Engineering, Operations, Supply Chain, Contracts, and Commercial to align product plans with customer requirements and applicable aerospace and defense obligations.
Support customer and product qualification activities by maintaining clear milestones, risks, ownership, and cross-functional communication.
Evaluate product and customer profitability, including low-volume and high-complexity work, and recommend pricing, investment, rationalization, or operational actions.
Identify and manage product-line risks relating to capacity, continuity of supply, quality, delivery, and customer commitments.
Prepare and present product-line performance, strategic recommendations, investment needs, and business cases to senior leadership.
Review pricing based on the age of pricing and time since the last price change.
Review customer portfolios based on estimated gross margins at each plant.
Review low-yielding products and products requiring significant machine setup or downtime, including opportunity cost and potential customer charges.
Coordinate with Strategic Planning on facility capacity and whether filling capacity is feasible or could create inefficiencies.
Develop minimum order values by product line or facility.
Analyze order-processing costs by plant and at the corporate level to identify best-in-class facilities.
Drive the customer qualification cadence for profitable customer acquisition.
Create a prioritized Aerospace & Defense product-line and customer profitability plan, including pricing actions, cost-reduction opportunities, capacity constraints, and product-rationalization recommendations.
Build an Aerospace & Defense opportunity and program pipeline documenting revenue potential, margin expectations, investment needs, timing, qualification requirements, and key risks.
Establish a regular cross-functional product review cadence with Commercial, Operations, Engineering, Quality, Supply Chain, and Finance.
Develop recommendations for strategic capacity and capital investments tied to validated customer demand and targeted returns.