Product Manager

McLaren Racing; Old Woking; On-site; GBP 65,000 - 90,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

25 days holiday

Enhanced company pension scheme

Private medical insurance

Discretionary annual bonus

Life assurance benefit

Sabbatical opportunity

Job summary

McLaren Racing is seeking a Product Manager to lead product definition and lifecycle for vehicle programmes, translating customer needs into clear requirements, driving go-to-market strategies, and shaping pricing and feature sets across trims and options.

You will collaborate with Strategy, Engineering and Finance to refine business cases, manage trade-offs, and present proposals to senior leadership, while embedding voice of the customer across marketing collateral and product guides.

Qualifications

• Deep understanding of the automotive industry and market trends.
• Experience in Product, Strategy, Design, Engineering or Marketing, ideally with an automotive OEM HQ.
• Pan-European or global experience desired.
• Ability to articulate with strong presentation skills and manage stakeholder needs.

Responsibilities

• Coordinate market studies and research activities.
• Translate product positioning into key USPs and Why-Buys.
• Support benchmarking and vehicle evaluations at various stages.
• Define product lifecycle and manage features, options and pricing strategy.
• Develop product guide assets and ensure accurate product data in marketing collateral.
• Present compelling proposals to Senior Leadership and drive sign-off across programs.

Skills

Automotive industry expertise

Presentation skills

Cross-functional collaboration

Strategic thinking

Commercial acumen

Numerate and analytical

Education

Degree or higher in Engineering, Product Design, Business or Marketing

Job description

The Product Team is responsible for product definition and product lifecycle management for all McLaren vehicle programmes. From the long term portfolio and strategic positioning, through to the products we are launching today. As a Product Manager, the role will include the development of product requirements and feature assumptions which support the product positioning and target customer needs, leading the production definition process, incorporating the product go-to-market launch strategy, and the development of key strategic marketing messages and technical product detail. By championing the product vision both within the business and at external events and will be the single source of truth and voice of the customer for all product direction. Success in this area requires a deep understanding of the automotive industry and market (customer, competition, trends, technologies, international legislative frameworks, environmental factors and pricing), a passion for developing outstanding automotive products, the ability to manage and balance competing requirements (customer, financial, technical, legislative) ensuring best overall value to the business, plus the ability to work closely with and develop strong relationships with all parts of the business.

What You'll Do

• Coordinate market studies and research activities
• Detailed understanding of the core and adjacent competitor offerings.
• Translation of product positioning into key USPs and Why-Buys.
• Support product benchmarking and static/dynamic vehicle evaluations at each stage of the project.
• Identification and in depth understanding of the vehicle target customer.
• Ensure 'Voice of the Customer' is heard in all product development activities, helping to guide the direction, inform trade off decisions and protect the original product strategic intent.
• Work with the Product Development teams to develop the product attribute/content positioning; managing trade-offs to achieve best product fit for customer / brand / financials.
• Own and develop the product lifecycle to optimise offer, competitiveness and business case contribution; including bodystyles, powertrain strategy, variants and special editions strategy, trim walks, features, options, accessories and colour & trim strategy.
• Lead the change control and documentation of product direction documents.
• Embed Accessories and MSO content strategies to the product.
• Work with Product Pricing, developing price and take rate assumptions to feed the business cases for all Trims, Options & Accessories
• Drive the product direction sign-off through development and delivery of compelling presentations and product proposals to the Senior Leadership team.
• Working closely with the Product Strategy, Engineering and Finance teams to refine the business case for all product programmes, options and accessories, managing unit economic costs, model and market mix, overall programme investment and resultant profit and pay back periods.
• Through continuous monitoring of the vehicle sales performance across all markets, develop MY strategies which enhance and optimise the customer offer throughout the lifecycle, maximising the bottom line.
• Develop key customer facing strategic product messaging, including target audience specific USPs, Why-Buys and Sales arguments and translate these with the Marketing team into appropriate and compelling marketing assets.
• Develop of Product Guide assets to provide complete product information to the wider business in support of Product launch and go-to-market activities, arming the sales and marketing teams with the knowledge to deliver planned sales targets.
• Own consolidation and communication of product technical detail to internal and external stakeholders.
• Ensure correct representation of the customer offer, product messaging and product technical data in all marketing collateral, across all markets (e.g. Configurator, Brochure, Website, Price Lists, etc).
• Support the Sales and Marketing teams in the development of Retail product training materials development.
• Represent McLaren at routine press and marketing events.

What You'll Bring

• A deep understanding and experience of the automotive industry and market (customer, competition, trends, technologies, international legislative frameworks, environmental factors and pricing).
• Tenacious, open and transparent.
• A passion for developing outstanding automotive products.
• The ability to manage and balance competing requirements (customer, financial, technical, legislative) ensuring best overall value to the business.
• The ability to work closely with and develop strong relationships with all parts of the business.
• Ability to articulate with strong presentation skills.
• Qualification (degree or higher) ideally in Engineering, Product Design, Business or Marketing.
• Experience in Product, Strategy, Design, Engineering or Marketing, ideally with an automotive OEM HQ.
• Pan-European or global experience desired.
• Proven ability of working cross-functionally as part of an OEM product development programme.
• Experience in new mobility, electrification and circular economies is an advantage.
• Strong commercial acumen.
• A thorough knowledge of market trends and analysis methodology covering both macroeconomics and automotive segments.
• Up-to-date knowledge of automotive legislative and regulatory environment highly desirable.
• An excellent understanding of sales data analysis and market segmentation / target customer methodology.
• An in-depth understanding and experience of product pricing, value indexing and options analysis.
• Must be able to define and execute business processes and understand the importance of formal process to reduce risk and variance.
• Highly numerate and analytical, with a clear view of the big picture and a flair for strategic thinking.
• Understand that intelligence of presentation is key to deliver convincing proposals to management.

No restraints. No limitations. We don't simply push boundaries. We completely rethink them. McLaren Automotive exists to create breath-taking performance road cars. It takes a community to do what we do. A diverse group of people with many areas of expertise, united by their passion to deliver visionary products and set new benchmarks. McLaren Automotive commits to equal opportunity for all. Diversity, Equality and Inclusion is at the heart of our impact, it drives our innovation and enables us to truly create something special. Join us on our journey.

We offer a wide - ranging benefits package, which includes:

• Structured career development framework
• 25 days' holiday, plus bank holiday. Annual buy & sell up to five days
• Enhanced company pension scheme
• Discretionary annual bonus award
• Private medical insurance and health cash plan
• Life assurance benefit
• Ability to apply for a sabbatical of up to one year after only two years' service
• Benefits you can adapt to your lifestyle, such as discounted shopping
• Generous parental leave policies
• A range of wellbeing initiatives, such as employee assistance programme and free financial & mortgage advice