Merck is a leader in Animal Health Technology Solutions, providing innovative global solutions for animal identification and monitoring. The Associate Director - Collar Product Manager will drive product strategy and lead cross-functional teams to ensure the successful development and commercialization of the Vence collar throughout its lifecycle.
Responsibilities:
- Own and manage the Vence collar, together with collar Tech Lead, throughout its entire product lifecycle
- Define the overall collar vision and strategy with a keen focus on value, business outcome, and user experience
- Work with Vence Product Manager to create high-level market valuations, compelling value propositions, and business cases for new product concepts and capabilities
- Identify unmet customer needs and market opportunities to inform new product development
- Lead customer discovery, problem definition, value hypothesis generation, and product experiments focused on market outcomes
- Work with the Collar Technology Lead to design and run technical prototypes and feasibility experiments that validate implementation approaches
- Develop and execute customer insight strategies through e.g., surveys, farm visits, and customer advisory boards to capture feedback and validate direction
- Build strong relationships with customers, field teams, and commercial stakeholders to capture real-world use cases, pain points, and adoption barriers
- Translate customer needs into a prioritized backlog and outcomes based roadmap
- Monitor industry trends, emerging technologies (including animal health monitoring), and the competitive landscape to inform strategy and continuous improvement
- Connect collar product team directly with customers to facilitate open communication and alignment
- Work with commercial teams to ideate new solutions, validate value propositions, and ensure alignment with customer needs
- Partner cross-functionally with the product team (Tech Lead, marketing, sales, and customer success) to ensure end-to-end delivery and adoption
- Collaborate closely with the Collar Technology Lead, Product Designer, and engineers to discover, validate, and deliver effective solutions
- Lead adoption, retention and growth of the product by leveraging marketing, customer success, and market activation capabilities, while engaging commercial teams across regions and markets on the product value proposition
- Act as the product advocate for external partners and customers during discovery, validation, and launch activities
- Drive release planning, manufacturing, go-to-market execution, and ongoing product support in partnership with cross-functional teams
- In partnership with the Collar Tech Lead, engage supply chain and manufacturing teams to decide the most appropriately efficient way to bring products to market
- Engage commercial teams across regions and markets to drive understanding and adoption of the product’s value proposition
- Establish customer success frameworks and support models to ensure optimal product adoption and satisfaction
- Work with Marketing on go‑to‑market messaging, pricing inputs, sales enablement, launch readiness, and customer-facing commitments. Coordinate with the Collar Technology Lead on technical onboarding materials and field escalation processes
- Own unit economics and cost targets for the collar, tracking performance against agreed financial and product metrics
- Create, maintain, and continuously prioritize the product backlog to maximize value delivery and long-term sustainability
- Define and regularly calibrate product metrics to track success and progress against objectives
- Conduct business reviews and monitor industry trends and competitive dynamics to inform product strategy
- Champion a culture of innovation, accountability, and continuous improvement within the product team
Requirements:
- Bachelor's degree in Business, Engineering, or related area of study
- 10 years overall relevant work experience, with at least 5 years experience in product management of hardware or IoT products, with enough technical grounding to engage credibly with engineering teams and make informed trade-off decisions on reliability, cost, and performance
- Demonstrated experience working in a product operating model — comfortable with continuous discovery, outcome-based planning, and working in empowered cross-functional teams accountable for customer and business outcomes
- Ability to learn and work across multiple functional areas (e.g., engineering, design, finance, sales, or marketing)
- Demonstrated ability to solve complex problems with many constraints, using sound judgement to assess risks and building well-structured, data-informed narratives
- Proven ability to engage with engineers, designers, stakeholders, and senior leaders in a constructive and collaborative way
- Excellent communication and collaboration skills, with a track record of leading through influence rather than authority
- A mindset of ownership, accountability, and customer focus; comfortable signing up for results and driving outcomes through others when needed
- Passion for fostering team innovation and leveraging the collective ideas and expertise of cross-functional colleagues
- Comfortable operating in a hardware development environment — familiar with concepts such as NPI, DVT/PVT, manufacturing ramp-up, and field validation, even if not owning them technically
- Willingness to travel to customers
- Benefits Management
- Financial Management
- Management System Development
- Problem Management
- Product Management
- Requirements Management
- Solution Architecture
- Stakeholder Relationship Management
- Strategic Planning
- System Designs
- Waterfall Model