Strategic Project Manager

Justrite Safety Group•Follansbee District, WV

2d•Hybrid

About The Position

The Strategic Portfolio Manager will lead JSG’s expansion into new lithium-ion safety product lines within the Chemical Safety Business Unit. This role owns portfolio strategy, road mapping, and governance for a set of growth programs spanning new-to-the-world product platforms, line extensions, and adjacent categories tied to lithium-ion battery handling, storage, charging, incident mitigation, and compliance-driven safety solutions. You will translate market and customer needs into a prioritized, value-creating portfolio; define where to play and how to win; and drive disciplined execution through JSG’s stage-gate / NPD processes. Success requires strong cross-functional leadership across engineering, product management, marketing, operations, quality/regulatory, supply chain, and sales—often without direct authority.

Requirements

Bachelor’s degree in Engineering, Business, or related field (Engineering strongly preferred); MBA a plus.
3+ years of experience in portfolio management, product management, strategy, or NPD leadership in industrial/manufacturing environments.
Demonstrated success leading cross-functional NPD portfolios through a stage-gate process.
Strong business case development skills (market sizing, pricing, margin modeling, investment tradeoffs).
Proven ability to influence without authority; strong executive communication and stakeholder management.
Ability to travel ~25% to plants, test labs, customer sites, and corporate offices.

Nice To Haves

Experience in industrial safety, hazardous materials handling, chemical safety, EHS products, fire protection, or containment systems.
Exposure to lithium-ion battery safety applications (storage, charging rooms, thermal runaway mitigation, smoke/fire containment, compliant enclosures).
Familiarity with relevant standards and compliance environments (e.g., OSHA/NFPA/UL or comparable frameworks).
Experience launching platform-based products and building modular portfolios (common components, scalable variants).

Responsibilities

Build and maintain the lithium-ion safety category strategy: customer segments, applications, competitive landscape, and differentiation thesis.
Define portfolio architecture (platforms, tiers, variants, accessories, services) to scale growth efficiently.
Develop and manage a multi-year roadmap aligned to BU and enterprise objectives (revenue, margin, SKU vitality, risk).
Own prioritization decisions and resource recommendations across programs (engineering capacity, capex, supplier development, testing bandwidth).
Lead VOC and insight generation through customer interviews, site visits, channel input, service/incident data, and win/loss learning.
Translate insights into opportunity spaces, concepts, and product requirements with clear use cases and buying triggers.
Track emerging trends (battery chemistries, regulations, insurance requirements, facility safety standards, fire suppression/containment practices) and convert into actionable portfolio moves.
Create business cases with pricing corridors, cost targets, margin models, and investment needs.
Lead portfolio reviews and governance rhythms (monthly operating reviews, quarterly roadmap reviews, gate readiness).
Ensure rigorous stage-gate execution: problem definition, requirements, risk assessment, validation plans, and launch readiness.
Drive cross-functional alignment on scope, schedule, cost, and risk; manage tradeoffs and escalate decisions when needed.
Create standard work for portfolio management: dashboards, KPIs, templates, decision logs, and lessons learned.
Own product positioning and value proposition development in partnership with BU marketing and product management.
Define competitive claim strategy and validation plan (test methods, protocols, thresholds, documentation).
Partner with engineering to translate requirements into robust designs with clear safety factors, durability, and compliance considerations.
Build pricing and packaging strategies tied to customer value and total cost of ownership (TCO).
Partner with operations and supply chain to ensure manufacturability, quality plans, supplier readiness, and capacity alignment.
Support make/buy decisions and supplier selection aligned to cost, quality, and lead-time needs.
Lead launch plans and commercialization readiness with sales enablement, channel strategy, and post-launch performance tracking.
Own portfolio-level performance: forecast assumptions, business case governance, investment tracking, and variance management.
Define and track KPIs such as: pipeline health, NPD throughput, time-to-launch, on-time gate performance, gross margin, mix, attach rates, and field quality.