Senior Vice President, Product Strategist

The SVP, Product Strategist is a senior product leader embedded within Engineering, responsible for defining the up-front product roadmap and future product concepts for the company.

This role owns what we build and why—before initiatives enter formal Product Development (PD) execution. Unlike traditional backend PD roles focused on sales planning, volume forecasting, and lifecycle management, this position leads front-end product strategy, consumer-driven feature definition, and early-stage go/no-go decision-making.

The role sits within the ACE (Advanced Concept Engineering) organization, a group of ~160 elite engineers chartered with inventing the company’s next-generation product portfolio.

Key Responsibility

Front-End Roadmap Leadership

• Own and structure the front-end product roadmap across Engineering.
• Manage a portfolio of initiatives including:
  • ~20 critical, must-win programs
  • ~50 dependent or enabling projects
  • Early-stage incubation and exploratory concepts
• Ensure roadmap alignment with long-term strategy, consumer needs, and market opportunity.

Product Strategy & Concept Development

• Act as the product manager for early-stage concepts:
  • Define problem statements, target consumers, and use cases
  • Validate market fit and consumer value
  • Establish clear, differentiated feature sets
• Translate marketing and consumer insights directly into engineering-ready product definitions.
• Ensure concepts are fully formed and defensible before transitioning into PD execution.

Go / No-Go Governance & Portfolio Decision Making

• Partner closely with executive leaders to:
  • Lead structured go/no-go decision forums
  • Evaluate consumer relevance, market fit, feature logic, and technical feasibility
  • Stop or redirect initiatives early to preserve engineering capacity
• Serve as the voice of the consumer and the market within technical and executive discussions.

Engineering Partnership & Influence

• Guide engineering teams on why specific features and solutions best meet consumer and market needs.
• Operate as a trusted peer to senior engineering leaders, bridging product vision with technical execution.
• Ensure engineering innovation is consistently grounded in customer value and strategic intent.

Team Leadership & Light PMO Oversight

• Potentially lead a small team of project managers within the Engineering organization.
• Operate a lightweight, front-end PMO to support:
  • Prioritization
  • Dependency management
  • Readiness and decision quality
• Focus on clarity, discipline, and decision velocity rather than process overhead.

Organizational Placement

• Reports into Engineering leadership.
• Embedded within the ACE (Advanced Concept Engineering)
• Interfaces directly with:
  • Product Development (PD) leadership
  • Marketing and consumer insights
  • Advanced development and R&D
  • Executive leadership

Qualifications & Experience

Required

• Senior product leadership experience at the VP or SVP level.
• Strong engineering background or equivalent technical credibility.
• Proven experience leading front-end product strategy and roadmap development.
• Demonstrated ability to translate consumer and market insight into product and feature definition.
• Experience making and defending go / no-go decisions in ambiguous, high-investment environments.
• Exceptional communication and influence skills with senior engineering and product leaders.

Preferred

• Experience leading advanced concept, incubation, or next-generation product teams.
• Background working at the intersection of:
  • Engineering
  • Product Management
  • Marketing / Consumer Insights
• Experience managing small PM or program teams in a matrixed organization.

Leadership Attributes

• Consumer-obsessed and market-driven.
• Decisive and comfortable saying “no.”
• Credible and respected by engineering teams.
• Strategic thinker with hands-on product instincts.
• Comfortable operating with ambiguity and incomplete data.