Product Strategy & Commercialization Manager
Flex-Tek is a global manufacturing company for products in Aerospace, Construction and Heating markets and is a division of Smiths. We are seeking a Product Strategy & Commercialization Manager to help convert market insight, customer needs, and business capabilities into profitable product growth. This role will own product strategy and lifecycle priorities, lead cross-functional new product development projects, identify new uses for existing technologies, and create a stronger communication loop between the field, engineering, and sales. The ideal candidate is comfortable operating at the intersection of technical product knowledge, customer engagement, commercial strategy, and disciplined project execution.
The Product Strategy & Commercialization Manager is responsible for identifying market opportunities, translating customer and field insight into product requirements, leading new product development projects, and managing product lifecycle strategy for an assigned Flex-Tek business. This role bridges sales, engineering, operations, quality, and executive leadership to ensure technologies are placed in the right applications and converted into profitable, scalable product platforms.
The position will be hired for two business contexts: Gastite, focused on plumbing, HVAC, tubing, fittings, and engineered connection systems; and HVAC Air Distribution, focused on Royal Metal Products, Thermaflex, sheet metal components, flexible ducting, and adjacent HVAC air movement applications.
Primary Purpose of the Role
- Own and advance product strategy, portfolio priorities, and lifecycle decisions for the assigned business.
- Lead cross-functional new product development and commercialization projects from concept through launch.
- Identify new applications for existing technologies, manufacturing capabilities, and product platforms.
- Create a disciplined field-to-engineering-to-sales communication loop that converts customer feedback into actionable product requirements.
- Feed validated market and technology insights into long-term business strategy, roadmap planning, and innovation priorities.
Key Responsibilities
1. Product Strategy and Portfolio Management
- Develop and maintain product roadmaps aligned with business-unit growth objectives and Flex-Tek strategy.
- Manage assigned products through lifecycle stages including concept, launch, growth, margin optimization, refresh, and end-of-life.
- Assess portfolio gaps, market trends, competitive offerings, technology shifts, code changes, and customer pain points.
- Support pricing, positioning, channel strategy, margin improvement, product rationalization, and investment prioritization.
- Create business cases for new products, product extensions, and technology-driven growth opportunities.
2. New Product Development Project Leadership
- Lead cross-functional NPD projects from opportunity definition through commercialization and launch handoff.
- Define project scope, customer requirements, target economics, launch criteria, risks, timing, and success metrics.
- Coordinate engineering, sales, marketing, operations, sourcing, quality, manufacturing, and finance stakeholders.
- Facilitate stage-gate or equivalent project reviews and ensure decisions are documented and action-oriented.
- Drive launch readiness, field validation, training content, sales enablement, and post-launch performance tracking.
3. Technology Commercialization and Application Development
- Identify new applications where existing manufacturing capabilities, product platforms, or technologies can solve customer problems.
- Translate technical capabilities into commercial value propositions and market-entry plans.
- Partner with engineering and operations to evaluate feasibility, manufacturability, compliance, risk, and cost position.
- Build early opportunity funnels and screen concepts based on market size, differentiation, margin potential, channel fit, and execution complexity.
- Support strategic make/buy/partner recommendations when capability gaps limit commercialization speed.
4. Voice of Customer and Field-to-Engineering Communication
- Establish a structured process for capturing field feedback, customer needs, competitive intelligence, and installation challenges.
- Convert Voice of Customer input into clear product requirements, application use cases, and prioritized development actions.
- Serve as the communication bridge between sales, field teams, customers, engineering, and leadership.
- Participate in customer visits, ride-alongs, distributor meetings, trade shows, product training sessions, and field troubleshooting reviews.
- Ensure product decisions reflect both technical feasibility and real-world customer adoption drivers.
5. Long-Term Strategy Support
- Provide market and product insight for annual strategic planning, roadmap reviews, and innovation portfolio discussions.
- Maintain a forward-looking pipeline of product, application, technology, partnership, and adjacent-market opportunities.
- Identify growth themes, capability gaps, regulatory shifts, competitive threats, and customer trends that should shape long-term strategy.
- Prepare concise executive recommendations supported by market evidence, customer insight, financial assumptions, and risk assessment.
Working Relationships
Internal: Sales, engineering, innovation, operations, quality, sourcing, finance, marketing, customer service, product training, business-unit leadership, and Flex-Tek leadership.
External: Customers, contractors, distributors, OEMs, rep agencies, suppliers, industry partners, installers, and relevant standards or code stakeholders.
Required
- Bachelor's degree in Engineering, Business, Marketing, Construction Management, Product Management, or a related field; equivalent experience may be considered.
- 5+ years of experience in product management, product development, application engineering, technical sales, business development, program management, or a related commercial/technical role.
- Demonstrated ability to lead cross-functional projects without relying solely on direct authority.
- Strong technical aptitude with the ability to understand manufacturing processes, applications, product performance, and customer requirements.
- Commercial mindset with experience developing business cases, evaluating market opportunities, and communicating value propositions.
- Excellent written, verbal, and presentation skills with an ability to communicate effectively with executives, engineers, sales teams, and customers.
Preferred
- Experience in HVAC, plumbing, building products, fluid conveyance, tubing, fittings, ducting, air distribution, sheet metal products, or contractor/distributor channels.
- Familiarity with stage-gate, lean product development, portfolio management, lifecycle management, or product roadmap processes.
- Experience launching products through distributor, contractor, OEM, or specification-driven channels.
- MBA, advanced technical degree, product management certification, project management certification, or equivalent practical experience.
- Prior exposure to codes, standards, regulatory requirements, product testing, field validation, and installation practices.
We believe that different perspectives and backgrounds are what make a company flourish. All qualified applicants will receive equal consideration for employment regardless of color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, economic status, disability, age, or any other legally protected characteristics. We are proud to be an inclusive company with values grounded in equality and ethics, where we celebrate, support, and embrace diversity.
At no time during the hiring process will Smiths Group, nor any of our recruitment partners ever request payment to enable participation - including, but not limited to, interviews or testing. Avoid fraudulent requests by applying jobs directly through our career’s website (Careers - Smiths Group plc)