Product Manager

Company Overview 

  We have been producing industry leading software products since 2000. Our expertise lies in developing and supplying dedicated products and services, designed to improve the supervision and control of railways worldwide. 

Our success lies in the strength of our relationships with our customers and with our colleagues throughout Europe. We work to meet and exceed market requirements by producing only the very best software products: on time and to the most exacting standards. 

Our head office is located in Bradford on Avon, England and we have further offices in Plymouth and Derby, England. 

We are always happy to hear from people who are customer focused and keen to produce high-end, added value software products. 

The purpose of the role is to bridge the gap between Sales, R&D and the customer by understanding the current and planned products and the customer needs and translating these into a set of business deliverables. The role plays a key part in shaping the product direction in line with business and sales strategies in order to maximise the value of HICSE products to the business.

Role

Reporting to the Head of Research and Development, the role shall cover but not be limited to:

• Liaise with Sales, R&D and the customer.

• Translate business strategy, sales strategy and customer needs into high level product, service or value requirements

• Understand how current and planned HICSE products could be exploited by the customer

• Understand the customer needs

• Work with R&D leads to develop and modify roadmaps, and shape the technical, service and value output of the company

• Be the voice for the customer within HICSE

• Maximise the business value of HICSE products

• Create and own product business cases through to outcome realisation

• Responsible for driving revenue from new product developments with both internal and external stakeholders

• In collaboration with key R&D stakeholders, allocate investment budgets to support business aims

• Support the development of Research projects and plans

• Support the definition of the product ‘vision’

Tasks

Achieving success in the role will be indicated by performance on tasks such as:

• Adherence to the HICSE Business Management System

• Define and maintain the HICSE product strategy

• Define and maintain HICSE product roadmaps

• Deliver of product launches and demos, both internally and externally, in collaboration with the business development manager

• Develop business cases for internal investment and gain internal approval

• Work with internal stakeholders and third parties to assess and establish partnerships

• Work with Marketing to develop core positioning and messaging for the product

• Write Product Requirements and Market Requirements documents

• Assist Sales in setting product pricing

• Monitor, report on and improve product performance

• Evangelise HICSE products internally and externally

Key Skills & Technical Competencies

• Experience with roadmap development

• Experience with developing product strategies

• Experience within the software engineering environment

• Good understanding of Technology Readiness Level, prototype development and agile philosophies.

• Good understanding of software development techniques

• Experience with Network Rail GRIP, SPEED and PACE processes.

• Strong negotiating and presentation skills.

• Experience working within highly regulated industries, ideally rail, but experience from similar industries will be considered.

• Strong management skills.

Leadership and Management Competencies