Act as a Business Manager with Responsibility for Business Development of a Key Product Line in a Visible, High-Impact Role

If you combine technical knowledge and product development experience with strong team development and management ability and leadership skills, this global Product Line Manager role offers you some compelling opportunities. You will:

• Make an impact by learning our technology and translating that knowledge into business development opportunities to take our product line to the next level.
• Build your management skills as you manage a diverse team that is dispersed across multiple countries.
• Influence improvements, including helping to bring your team together to make a stronger overall department.
• Showcase your skills and abilities as you take on a variety of responsibilities and advance in our growing global organization.
• Enjoy a communicative and upbeat culture. We maintain an open-door policy and wide communication at all levels, including Town Hall meetings and Company Round Tables with the CEO.
• Earn competitive compensation and bonus opportunity along with comprehensive benefits.

We touch millions of lives globally every day. CTS is a leading designer and manufacturer of sensors, actuators, and electronic components for original equipment manufacturers (OEMs). We have over 20 locations in 12 countries and more than 3,500 employees. Our innovative sensing, connectivity, and motion solutions offer a diverse range of products across many industries. We are at the forefront of innovating life-changing technology, focusing on quality to keep people safe, healthy, and happy.

To meet the basic qualification for this role, you will be a U.S. citizen. In addition, to be a good fit for the Product Line Manager opportunity, you will have:

• A bachelor’s degree in Business, Engineering, or other technical disciplines; a master’s degree in business is preferred
• 10+ years of product development, applications, or engineering experience in a similar industry (such as communications, device components, frequency control solutions, wireless connectivity, etc)
• 5+ years directly leading teams, ideally in a dispersed environment, preferably global
• A strong understanding of how to work with customers across many countries, and the ability to have a global mindset
• Some international experience, and a proven record of business growth with the ability to understand international client’s needs
• The ability to coordinate, manage, and align multiple stakeholders, both internal and external, to reach business objectives
• Strong self-confidence and ownership enabling responsiveness and decisive action, as well as a demonstrated action orientation with the ability to organize resources for getting things done quickly and effectively
• Excellent communication skills and the ability to communicate effectively with a wide variety of audiences utilizing a variety of formats; ideal candidates will also have strong knowledge of international business customs
• The ability to build, develop, and motivate both U.S. and international sales staff toward common business goals and strategies, and to inspire others to top performance
• Strong listening and team-building skills
• Skill as a collaborative and effective leader with the ability to motivate, inspire, and influence

Preferred but not required:

• 3+ years of manufacturing industry experience preferred
• Mergers and Acquisitions experience preferred
• Our ideal candidate will have significant experience leading manufacturing operations in multiple countries

We generally work during business hours Monday through Friday, but you’ll need to be flexible to work with customers and team members in other time zones and around the world, which may require earlier, later, or weekend hours on occasion. This is a global position, and you will travel up to 30%, mostly in the U.S. to visit customers, as well as some travel in Europe and Asia to visit customers and meet with your team.

The Organization
Reporting to the General Manager of the Electronic Components Business Unit, you will be responsible for the Frequency Control product line. We have strong technology that is useful for a variety of communication, military, and industrial applications. Our portfolio is expanding, and ranges from products that are highly commodified to highly engineered.

Your Team
In the Hopkinton facility, you’ll have four direct reports including an Engineering Manager, a Product Manager, a Business Development Manager, and an Operations Manager, plus another Operations Manager based in Singapore. You will guide communication between the teams to establish common strategies, goals, and best practices. One of your key goals will be to bring the team together, helping everyone to align and become a more efficient team, and to help move to the tangible outcome of growing the business to strategic targets.

Your Role
At a high level, you’ll be accountable for overall product management strategy, developing products, executing product and pricing strategies, driving profitability, improving gross margins, and securing revenue growth, basically behaving as a business manager for your product line, with the similar responsibility to a General Manager, but only for a single product line rather than the whole business unit. You will own the P&L, be empowered to determine product strategy and define your tactics, and will have strong influence on our go-to-market strategy.

Some of your specific tasks will be to:

• Develop and drive the product line strategy and ensure understanding, alignment, and execution across the product line organization.
• Oversee operating income for the product line and review activity reports and financial statements to determine progress of operations.
• Use market, business, and product expertise, and direct the activities necessary to develop a balanced portfolio of products within the product line in different stages of their lifecycle with the right levels of investments to meet the strategic revenue, margin, and growth expectations.
• Use revenue and margin forecasts to set goals and monitor success.
• Oversee and coordinate product, R&D projects, and activities of the product line in accordance with business plans.
• Attract, develop, and retain talent to ensure that people with the right skills and motivation to meet business needs are in the right place at the right time. Assess organizational capabilities and develop action plans to address gaps and weaknesses.
• Develop goals and action plans, and provide leadership to ensure the achievement of operating income targets and profitability.
• Provide professional growth and development opportunities. Provide regular coaching, guidance and performance feedback.

Note: this description is intended to give you a general overview of the position and is not an exhaustive listing of duties and responsibilities.

High Impact
When you do this job well, you will be a hero as you help the business grow at a faster pace. We already have amazing technology, we just need someone with the right mix of experience and skill to help us take the business to the next level.

Support and Empowerment
Though you'll be based in the U.S., your manager will be based in Taiwan, so you’ll be empowered to do whatever is needed to grow the business. We’ll rely on you to be the ‘boots on the ground’ in Massachusetts, but you’ll also have plenty of support whenever you need it from your manager via phone or email, and from the rest of the team.

Professional Development
This is an extensive role where you’ll have opportunities to learn even though you already have a good deal of experience. For example, if you haven’t participated in mergers and acquisitions, that’s something you’ll have a chance to learn here. We also have plenty of training and development programs, such as employee development training, leadership development, and performance training. We prefer to hire from within whenever possible, so you will have the chance to grow your career with CTS. Once you find success in this role, your next step from here could be as a General Manager.

Great Environment
You will join a team that includes dedicated, smart, talented and mutually supportive professionals. The team is fairly lean and the pace is fast, but we believe in strong communication and are all dedicated to meeting our goals and objectives.

Growth Oriented
Company-wide, there is a tremendous effort being spent to drive growth. That means adding key resources and providing room for strong performers to make a name for themselves. Growth = opportunity to take on even greater responsibilities and advance.

Excellent Compensation
In addition to a competitive salary and bonus potential, we offer a slate of benefits including medical, dental, vision and other insurances; a 401(k) plan; flexible spending accounts; and more.

To excel in this role, you’ll need the technical expertise to understand the value of our frequency control product and engineering solutions so that you can explain it to customers, and understand where you could look for new business opportunities.

In addition to your technical skill and product development experience, it will be equally important that you fit in well with the culture here. We are a global organization, and you’ll be working with teams in the U.S. and Asia, as well as customers in the U.S., Europe, and Asia. You will need to already have, or to quickly develop, an understanding of international business customs, and to be able to work with, motivate, and develop a global team.

Our ideal candidate will have a strong work ethic and high integrity. You’ll also need a strong sense of ownership and a self-starter mentality to keep projects moving even though your manager works in another time zone. We are looking for someone who has the knowledge and experience, and who will take initiative to achieve goals without a great deal of oversight.

You should bring a high level of energy to the job, and transfer that to your team, taking the time to provide coaching, mentoring, and guidance to bring everyone together as a high-functioning department. If this sounds like the right mix of challenge and opportunity, then we want to hear from you!