In this hybrid role in Ashland, MA, you will manage the HVAC & Ignition Controls portfolio end to end, including product strategy, roadmap execution, lifecycle management, and connected digital solutions. You will collaborate across engineering, cloud, hardware, cybersecurity, UX, manufacturing, service, marketing, and sales to improve customer value while driving growth and profitability.
Role Overview
You will own product vision and portfolio strategy for HVAC controls, ignition controls, and connected offerings. The position emphasizes translating Voice of Customer (VOC) insights into actionable requirements, maintaining short- and long-term roadmap plans, and measuring product performance through defined KPIs.
Responsibilities
- Develop and maintain the short- and long-term product roadmap in partnership with Controls Engineering.
- Define product vision, portfolio strategy, and investment priorities aligned with company objectives.
- Own portfolio business performance, including revenue growth, profitability, market share, and lifecycle planning.
- Identify new market opportunities, adjacent offerings, and growth initiatives spanning HVAC controls, ignition controls, connected devices, monitoring, analytics, predictive maintenance, and energy optimization solutions.
- Monitor industry trends, customer requirements, competitive offerings, regulatory developments, and emerging technologies.
- Collect and translate VOC insights from OEMs, contractors, distributors, service organizations, and end users into actionable product requirements.
- Develop business cases, product requirements, user stories, acceptance criteria, and release priorities.
- Evaluate customer adoption barriers and define strategies to increase market penetration and customer engagement.
- Represent the company through industry associations, customer advisory groups, standards development, and strategic partnerships.
- Lead cross-team collaboration across Controls Engineering, Embedded Software, Cloud Engineering, Hardware Development, Cybersecurity, UX Design, Manufacturing, Service, Marketing, and Sales.
- Drive alignment on product priorities, development schedules, and launch plans; guide teams through trade-offs and competing priorities.
- Ensure products support reliability, manufacturability, serviceability, interoperability, scalability, and long-term platform growth.
- Define requirements for device onboarding and provisioning.
- Define requirements for connectivity and telemetry.
- Define requirements for alarms and notifications.
- Define requirements for dashboards and analytics.
- Define requirements for APIs and systems integration.
- Define requirements for data access and governance.
- Collaborate with engineering teams to develop secure, scalable, customer-centric connected solutions for cloud-enabled applications, remote monitoring platforms, predictive maintenance tools, and digital customer experiences as required by the market.
- Support product positioning, pricing strategy, go-to-market planning, and product launches.
- Create sales enablement materials, training programs, and customer communications, and partner with sales and marketing to drive adoption and revenue growth.
- Define and monitor KPIs including: revenue growth, gross margin, market share, product adoption and activation, system uptime and reliability, feature utilization, customer satisfaction, and new product introduction success.
Required Qualifications
- Bachelor’s degree in Engineering, Computer Science, Information Systems, Product Management, Business, or a related technical discipline.
- Significant product management experience in one or more of the following industries: Commercial HVAC; Burner management systems; Combustion controls; Building automation systems (BAS); Industrial controls; Connected industrial products.
Preferred Qualifications
- Engineering degree.
- MBA or advanced technical degree.
- Experience participating in industry organizations such as ASHRAE or similar standards-focused associations.
- Experience with standards development and regulatory compliance initiatives.
Technical Knowledge and Tools
- Strong understanding of HVAC systems, combustion systems, ignition controls, flame safeguarding, and controls architecture.
- Knowledge of building automation, equipment communications, and connected-device ecosystems.
- Familiarity with communication protocols including BACnet, Modbus, MQTT, and REST APIs.
- Understanding of cloud platforms, remote monitoring, edge computing, data analytics, and connected services.
- Working knowledge of cybersecurity principles, reliability engineering, interoperability, scalability, and data privacy for connected products.
Technology/tools include: Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) systems, product roadmap and backlog management tools, requirements management platforms, and analytics and reporting tools.
Relevant Technologies
BACnet, Modbus, MQTT, REST APIs, and Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) systems.
Industry and Regulatory Familiarity
- UL
- CSA
- NFPA
- ASHRAE
- Building energy codes
- Product safety and efficiency regulations
Product Management and Commercial Acumen
- Ability to convert customer needs, technical constraints, and market insights into product strategies and execution plans.
- Experience leading products through discovery, business case development, stage-gate processes, development, launch, lifecycle management, and continuous improvement.
- Strong commercial judgment covering market opportunity, competitive positioning, pricing, adoption barriers, and profitability drivers.
- Analytical, organizational, and prioritization skills.
Leadership and Communication
- Excellent communication, facilitation, presentation, and stakeholder management skills.
- Ability to influence without direct authority and drive alignment across diverse teams.
- Proven success managing multiple strategic initiatives in complex technical environments.
Compensation and Education
- Salary: USD 120,000 to 160,000 per year.
- Location: Ashland, MA (hybrid).
- Education: Bachelor’s degree in Engineering, Computer Science, Information Systems, Product Management, Business, or a related tech.
