Product Manager

About the position

The Product Manager II is responsible for overseeing the product life cycle of 3-5 products at various stages of development. This role is crucial in defining the vision, strategy, and execution of Segra's telecommunications products. The ideal candidate should have a collaborative mindset with a technical or financial background to serve as a foundation. The Product Manager will ensure timely and clear coordination across multiple departments by fostering cooperative and respectful relationships. This role also involves providing pre/post-sale support across more than 20 states, including Enterprise, Carrier, Government, Education, Channel Partners, and Agent verticals. The Product Manager will think strategically and work in collaboration with team members to assure product management and launches are successful. Infrequent travel will be required.

Responsibilities

• Engage with internal and external stakeholders to gather feedback, prioritize projects, and ensure alignment with business goals.
• Collaborate with relevant organizations to develop market and competitive intelligence.
• Define and track key performance indicators (KPIs) to measure product success and drive continuous improvement.
• Prepare gross margin analysis and other financial and performance metrics, including unit sales and average revenue per unit (ARPU) for assigned product lines, and closely monitor ongoing performance.
• Create and maintain an 18-month plan for each assigned product category.
• Maintain an in-depth understanding of product technology, pricing, and market trends for each assigned product.
• Participate in and occasionally organize Quarterly Department Meetings to proactively share product updates, identify potential challenges, discuss improvement areas, highlight available training, review product strategy, explore new feature ideas or product interests, and ensure alignment.
• Manage all phases of the product development life cycle, which includes concept/research, planning/design, financial modeling, project scope, development/testing, release/launch, analyze/evaluate, maintain/support, enhance/evolve, and end-of-life/sunset.
• Assist team with negotiations of technology partnerships and negotiate vendor contracts.
• Evangelize products internally, encouraging greater familiarity and providing detailed training on how to position the service, its competitive advantages, and capabilities.
• Collaborate in a unified cross-departmental manner with Sales Engineering, Network Engineering, Network Operations Center (NOC), Project Management, Procurement, Outside Plant, Carrier Relations, and Legal to properly define product requirements and deliver an innovative solution that will meet customer expectations.
• Oversee the development of connectivity and communication solutions, including 5G and Packet Core technologies.
• Ensure all telecommunications products adhere to the highest security standards, including compliance with industry regulations and best practices.
• Educate sales engineers and sales teams on product-related sales requirements, including communicating the value proposition, competitive positioning, how to demo the service, and the capabilities to incorporate the product into solution designs.
• Instruct other departments such as the NOC, field services, provisioning, etc. on how to install, deploy, and support the service.
• Coordinate product launch with Marketing, Sales, Engineering departments, and all other relevant segments.
• Document and prepare items such as workflow, systems requirements, regulatory, taxation, and billing.
• When required, assist with product retirement or alternate vendor considerations (SONET, TDM, DSL).
• Serve as a cross-functional team leader and responsible for all aspects of assigned products.
• Review and edit technical portions of marketing collateral, sales slicks, blogs, and webpage content.
• Assist with technical responses for strategic sales opportunities and RFPs.
• Provide direction on special MSA or SLA product requests.
• Assume the role of verbal and written spokesperson for seminars, conferences, and trade shows.
• Create white papers, guides, product definitions, competitive data sheets, training, presentations, videos, etc., from scratch.

Requirements

• Bachelor's degree in Information Science, Computer Science, Business Administration, Engineering, or equivalent combination of industry experience and education.
• MBA or advanced technical degree is a plus.
• Telecommunications, Project Management, or Business certificates are preferred (PMP, Six Sigma, CCNA, CCDA, CCNP, CCDP, MEF, CC, CCSP, CISSP, CompTIA A+ and/or Security+, Fortinet NSE 1-3, etc.).
• Minimum of 5 years of prior demonstrated experience working with knowledge of the OSI model and supporting Metro Ethernet, Transport Delivery, IP-Based Services, Cyber/Network Security, Data Center, Private/Public Cloud Environments, SDWAN, Wi-Fi, or Voice/Collaboration related services (Hosted PBX, SIP Trunking, PRI, UCaaS, etc.).
• Possess an understanding of critical infrastructure and application environments within production networks.
• Proven comprehension of Telecommunication business practices, process flows, and operational understanding of order processing, provisioning, and installation steps to activate services.
• Experience navigating complex vendor selection, contract language, and negotiations.
• Must be proficient with Microsoft Office (i.e., Word, Excel, PowerPoint).

Nice-to-haves

• Experience with telecommunications product management.
• Familiarity with 5G and Packet Core technologies.