Staff Product Development

Staff Product Line Manager

Job Summary:

The Staff Product Line Manager serves as a senior technical and strategic partner within the Warfighter Systems business, owning a major product group and driving its multi‑year roadmap, technology integration, and market direction. This role expands beyond product‑specific execution to influence cross‑product architectural decisions, investment priorities, and long‑term capability evolution.

The successful candidate will be a subject matter expert in night vision technologies, imaging sensors, optical systems, soldier‑borne systems, and networked battlefield architectures. They will translate customer needs, operational use cases, and mission requirements into actionable product strategies, requirements, and business cases. This role requires strong communication, technical depth, and the ability to influence engineering, operations, BD, and senior leadership. While not a people-management role, it is a high‑impact leadership position.

Responsibilities and Tasks:

Product Strategy & Roadmap Leadership

• Own the strategy, roadmap, and lifecycle for one or more product groups within Warfighter Systems.
• Develop multi‑year product strategies informed by customer needs, market assessments, and technology trends.
• Facilitate product trade studies and define feature prioritization for next‑generation night vision and soldier‑borne capabilities.
• Create business cases for product investments, including IRAD justification, ROI assessments, and value‑based pricing strategies.
• Ensure alignment of product‑level roadmaps to the broader Warfighter Systems portfolio.

Customer Advocacy & Requirements Leadership

• Act as a senior customer advocate - capturing requirements, operational use cases, and CONOPS and translating them into clear technical requirements.
• Lead customer technical interactions, product demonstrations, prototype planning, and requirement validation activities.
• Author and socialize product‑offering requirements and supporting documentation across engineering, BD, PM, and operations.

Cross‑Functional Influence & Technical Direction

• Provide technical guidance to engineering teams in guiding component and architecture selections consistent with market and other key requirements.
• Work with cross-functional leaders to shape development priorities, investment decisions, and technology integration paths.
• Partner with PEM to lead or support major product checkpoint reviews, ensuring designs meet cost, schedule, performance, and user‑driven requirements.
• Establish and maintain DTUPC targets and coordinate with engineering and operations to achieve cost‑performance objectives.
• Assess competitive strategies/position, emerging technologies, and market shifts to guide product evolution.

Architecture, Technology, and Systems Integration Support

• Support system-level architectural decisions that span multiple products.
• Provide technology assessments and integrate findings into product strategies and roadmaps.
• Contribute to cross‑product system concepts, including integrated night vision, soldier power, tactical radios, shared situational awareness, AR displays, and networked sensor systems.
• Help ensure technical cohesion and interoperability across the Warfighter Systems product family.

Execution Support & Development Oversight

• Monitor all development activities for assigned product lines, identifying risks and aligning priorities with strategic objectives.
• Collaborate with program management on schedule, cost, and engineering deliverables.
• Support proposal development, customer reviews, and internal strategy reviews.
• Provide input into IRAD and EAID rationalization for related technologies and product lines.

Customer Engagement & Growth

• Engage regularly with domestic and international customers to strengthen relationships and identify opportunities for product and capability growth.
• Deliver technical briefs and support BD capture activities with grounded technical insight.
• Support prototype demonstrations and align them with the product strategy and BD capture plans.
• Author and socialize white papers and product/technology briefings developed to influence or define potential CRAD projects, CRADA relationships, or other collaborative constructs with customers.

Collaboration Across TSDEF

• Work with other TSDEF business units to leverage technologies that enhance Warfighter Systems product offerings.
• Participate in enterprise‑level technology discussions when relevant, contributing product‑level insights to broader architectural initiatives.

Travel Requirement:

• Approximately 25% travel to TSDEF sites, trade shows, and customer locations worldwide.

Education, Experience & Certification Requirements:

• Bachelor’s degree in engineering, systems engineering, or related field; advanced degree preferred.
• 10+ years of experience in night vision, warfighter systems, optics, sensors, radios, or related defense technologies.
• Strong experience translating customer requirements into technical specifications and product strategies.
• Demonstrated ability to lead complex product initiatives without direct people management.
• Eligible to obtain and maintain a DoD Secret Security Clearance; active clearance preferred.
• Military experience or familiarity with dismounted soldier operations is highly desirable.
• Able to prioritize tasks and drive projects to conclusion.
• Strong communication and interpersonal skills with the ability to influence across engineering, BD, and leadership.

Preferred Skills:

• Deep technical understanding of imaging sensors, optical systems, radio technologies, and soldier‑network architectures.
• Ability to integrate financial, technical, and market inputs into strategic recommendations.
• Enjoys collaborative environments, relationship building, and mentoring early‑career product professionals.
• Proven experience with customer‑facing engagements, requirement capture, and technical presentations.