Description
Are you interested in working on products at the very cutting edge of technology? Want to join Vicon, an Academy Award®-winning company, and the world’s largest supplier of precision motion capture and tracking systems?
Vicon is the world leader in motion capture technology, developing high performance software and hardware products for the entertainment, engineering and life science industries. Vicon products have been used in major feature films, games, and commercials, and Vicon is a crucial measurement tool for biomechanics, robotics, and cutting-edge science. We have offices in Oxford, Denver, Los Angeles and New Zealand.
Vicon is a subsidiary of Oxford Metrics Plc.
Role Overview
The Head of Product role at Vicon is an inter-disciplinary role, liaising between our engineering teams (Hardware and Software Development, QA, Program) and commercial teams (Sales, Customer Success Customer Support and Marketing). The Head of Product is responsible for leading the Product team (including Technical Authoring), while working closely with the Senior Leadership Team to ensure that short, medium and longer-term product plans are developed and delivered.
The Head of Product defines departmental processes and procedures with a goal of improving successful product delivery, effective interdepartmental communications and providing consistent department methodology. The role also acts as the main liaison with other department heads, to effectively communicate the team’s progress and to ensure the department is meeting the needs of other groups within the company.
The Vicon Product Team are responsible for constantly understanding market needs, defining features and functions of products with the objective of maximising sales revenues, market share, and profit margins whilst delivering market leading products. The team are also responsible for aligning user needs with company strategies and translating these business objectives into achievable engineering requirements for new opportunities and product range growth.
Who we are looking for?
You will currently be a Head of Product with a related technology background. You will have broad, demonstrable experience of effective technical product management in a business that has global B2B clients and strong commercial and ROI focus.
You will be a strategic thinker, with the ability to create a clear product plan, aligning product goals with business objectives.
You will have excellent communication skills and be comfortable with presenting to internal and external stakeholders at all levels.
You will be an experienced and skilled people and team manager with the focus to lead and motivate a global product management team who manage our market products (hardware and software) and documentation to produce world leading solutions that meet the needs of our customers both now and in the future.
You will have excellent knowledge of modern NPD processes, with experience of implementing different Product Management Frameworks (for example Agile, Pragmatic, Lean).
You will work with the CEO, CTO, CMO and other senior managers on larger scale projects in line with our holding company’s, Oxford Metrics five-year growth strategy and beyond.
Key Responsibilities
· Effectively manage, motivate and develop the global Product Management Team (including Technical Author/s), giving clear direction and leadership towards the achievement of the company’s product strategy, goals and objectives.
· Execute on the company’s innovative product strategy across multiple concurrent product deliverables to ensure the successful execution of total product delivery.
· Adopt a continuous improvement approach by questioning and amending processes and procedures within a defined Product Management Framework.
· Clearly prioritise product requests through to development needs across the product portfolio, using a Product Management Framework and focused NPD techniques.
· Create product plans that align product goals with business objectives whilst also meeting the needs of the target markets.
· Connect these plans to departments that develop (dev org), promote (marketing org) and deliver solutions to the market (sales, support and customer success).
· Understand market problems (through market research, gathering customer insights, defining product requirements, collaborating with cross-functional teams) and prioritise Vicon’s unique ability to address them through feature development of its product portfolio.
· Monitor product(s) performance and customer feedback, making data-driven decisions to drive product improvements; then effectively communicate and translate those insights into the development teams
· Regularly communicate and review the progress of the Product roadmap to the Senior Leadership Team.
· Create and present product visions including financial analyses for new market and product opportunities to the Senior Leadership Team.
· Provide insight into potential pricing strategies based on product life cycle, early adopter program incentives and general beta testing.
· Maintain oversight of competitor activities.
· Provides coordination between all the market business cases, to achieve a unified product priority list that best aligns with company strategy and maximises return on investment.
· Create, maintain, and present product roadmaps.
· Work closely with the Program Team to optimise the use of available resource to help achieve on time delivery of the product roadmap.
· Assist the Marketing team in development of customer communications, marketing campaigns, exhibition organisation and products marketing assets.
Required Skills, Knowledge and Expertise
· A minimum of 7 years of product management experience in a related technology field.
· Experience of B2B in an SME environment.
· Outstanding people leadership, team building and motivational skills, with at least 4 years of direct team management/leadership experience in an international environment and across multiple sites.
· Demonstrable experience of the use of NPD processes within defined Product Management Frameworks (for example Agile, Pragmatic, Lean)
· Experience of hardware, application software and embedded software products.
· Experience with both engineering teams and senior stakeholders.
· Strong analytical, commercial, strategic, and coordinating skills.
· Engineering or technical background - motion capture or related market experience a definite plus.
· Bonus points for experience in Machine Learning and/or Technology as a Service.
· Product Management certification.
Benefits
· Competitive salary
· 10% Company Pension
· 25 days Annual Leave + Bank Holidays
· Life Cover
· Private Medical with Optical / Dental Insurance
· Permanent Health Insurance
· Cycle to work scheme.
· Free On-site Parking
Ever since 1984, Oxford Metrics has been enabling the interface between the real world and its virtual twin. It was in that year we introduced our first Vicon motion capture system and we’ve been providing a bridge between the physical and digital world ever since.
We have a track record of creating value by incubating, growing and then augmenting through acquisition, unique technology revenue streams. Today we have around 10,000 active customers in 70+ countries including some of the biggest names in healthcare, research, sports, engineering and entertainment.