Associate Director - Collar Product Manager

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