Automotive Emerging Product Enablement Lead

OpenKrill; United States; On-site; USD 150,000 - 210,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Stock options

Employer-paid health coverage

Unlimited PTO

Career growth opportunities

Collaborative startup culture

Job summary

Tekion is seeking an Associate Principal Emerging Product Enablement Analyst to own the end-to-end journey of a new platform. You’ll enable Sales, Value, Support, Services, and Partners to sell, implement, and sustain it.

You’ll lead dealer discovery, market intelligence, pricing validation, and go-to-market readiness, collaborating with Product, Engineering, UX, and Data teams to ensure a successful launch and measurable business impact.

Qualifications

• 5+ years proven experience in audience creation and CRM or customer lifecycle management.
• Understanding of how CRM and audience work together with gaps in current stacks.
• Strong technical, quantitative, and critical-thinking skills.
• Ability to read product specs, evaluate data models, and translate tech to value.
• Experience managing multiple projects with high accountability.
• Ability to define market opportunities for emerging technologies.
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills.
• Strategic thinker who handles open-ended problems creatively.

Responsibilities

• Lead dealer discovery, validate market fit, and surface actionable product insights.
• Own pricing discussions, value storytelling, and packaging with Product and Finance.
• Create field-ready enablement: battlecards, FAQs, playbooks, and scripts.
• Collaborate with GTM, Customer Value, Professional Services, and partners.
• Ensure field audiences are launch-ready and supported.
• Drive launch readiness checks and obtain leadership sign-off.
• Build adoption dashboards and connect activity to business outcomes.
• Capture dealer feedback and drive corrections before escalations.

Skills

Audience creation

CRM

Customer lifecycle

Data analysis

Strategic thinking

Communication

Project management

Read product specs

Cross-functional collaboration

GTM enablement

Education

Bachelor's degree in Business, Communications, Information Systems, or related field

Tools

CRM platforms

Audience engagement platforms

Job description

ABOUT TEKION:

Positively disrupting an industry that has not seen any innovation in over 50 years, Tekion has challenged the paradigm with the first and fastest cloud‑native automotive platform that includes the revolutionary Automotive Retail Cloud (ARC) for retailers, Automotive Enterprise Cloud (AEC) for manufacturers and other large automotive enterprises and Automotive Partner Cloud (APC) for technology and industry partners. Tekion connects the entire spectrum of the automotive retail ecosystem through one seamless platform. The transformative platform uses cutting‑edge technology, big data, machine learning, and AI to seamlessly bring together OEMs, retailers/dealers and consumers. With its highly configurable integration and greater customer engagement capabilities, Tekion is enabling the best automotive retail experiences ever. Tekion employs close to 3,000 people across North America, Asia and Europe.

Job Description

Internal title is Associate Principal Emerging Product Enablement Analyst.

Reporting to the Manager, Emerging Product Enablement, you'll be the domain analyst and commercialization champion for the platform. You'll own the end‑to‑end journey of this product from early dealer signal through validated market launch, ensuring every field team—Sales, Customer Value, Support, Professional Services, and partners—is equipped to sell, implement, and support it.

KEY ROLE & RESPONSIBILITIES

DEALER DISCOVERY & VALIDATION

• Lead direct research with GMs/Principals, BDC Managers, Service Managers, and Dealer Group CRM and Customer Engagement Leaders
• Surface real pain points around audience creation and cultivation, customer acquisition and retention, agency dependence, OEM program friction, and customer lifecycle and CRM gaps
• Synthesize findings into clear, defensible recommendations that drive product and positioning decisions

Product Intelligence & Mastery

• Maintain credible, domain‑deep working knowledge of the platform, including its audience creation and cultivation tools, core CRM capabilities, embedded AI agents, and progressive autonomy model
• Partner with Product, Engineering, UX, and Data teams to ensure the product reaches launch milestones with usable field artifacts
• Translate technical capabilities into dealer‑facing value stories and positioning

Market Intelligence & Competitive Analysis

• Maintain living competitive intelligence across the CRM, audience engagement, and automotive retail technology categories
• Track industry shifts, buyer trends, and category differentiators
• Feed intelligence into positioning, pricing, and field‑facing enablement strategies

Value Validation & Pricing

• Structure and run pricing signal capture with dealers to document value drivers, packaging preferences, and market signals
• Identify and engage technology and audience partners
• Validate the anchor value story with pilot dealers
• Partner with Product and Finance to finalize pricing and packaging strategy

Go-to-Market Enablement

• Own the complete field‑ready enablement set: value propositions, battlecards, sales one‑pagers, FAQs, knowledge‑base content, demo scripts, and partner courseware
• Collaborate with GTM teams, Customer Value, Professional Services, and partner teams
• Ensure every field audience (sales, support, implementation, partners) is launch‑ready

Launch Readiness & Execution

• Execute standardized launch‑readiness checks at each stage: working demo committed scope validated market fit tested migration live adoption tracking
• Prepare readiness packages for leadership sign‑off
• Own the launch timeline and accountability for field readiness

Adoption & Value Measurement

• Build adoption dashboards, evaluation criteria, and business‑impact metrics
• Connect field engagement to product adoption to business outcome—not just activity counts
• Attach recommended actions to every anomaly
• Create a defensible outcome story from early‑stage product activity

Field Feedback & Prevention

• Capture signal from Support, Professional Services, Sales, and Customer Value during pilots
• Turn recurring failure classes into a living catalog that drives product and enablement corrections before they become field escalations

BASIC QUALIFICATIONS

• 5+ years proven experience in audience creation and cultivation, CRM, or customer lifecycle management
• Grounded understanding of how CRM and audience cultivation work together, including known gaps in current agency and point‑solution stacks
• Strong technical, quantitative, and critical‑thinking skills
• Ability to read product specifications, evaluate data models, and translate technical capability into business value
• Demonstrated ability to manage multiple projects independently with high accountability for results
• Ability to define market opportunities and identify true value in emerging technologies
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills
• Strategic thinker who tackles open‑ended problems with creativity and rigor
• Detail‑oriented, organized, and collaborative team player
• Passion and hunger to succeed in a fast‑paced, high‑growth environment

PREFERRED QUALIFICATIONS

• Working knowledge of dealership operations (CRM, BDC, service drive, sales lifecycle)
• Automotive industry experience
• Experience bringing emerging or early‑stage products to market
• Familiarity with CRM and audience engagement platforms or automotive retail solutions
• Bachelor's degree in Business, Communications, Information Systems, or related field

LOCATION & TRAVEL

• Based in: Pleasanton, CA
• Travel: 50% (for dealer visits, pilot support, and launch activities)

PERKS & BENEFITS

• Competitive compensation and generous stock options
• 100% employer‑paid top‑of‑the‑line medical, dental and vision coverage
• Great benefits including unlimited PTO, parental leave and free snacks and beverages
• The opportunity to work with some of the brightest minds from Silicon Valley’s most dominant and successful companies
• Be part of an early stage, hyper‑growth start‑up with the opportunity to grow and prosper
• Work on the latest and coolest technologies – everything is home‑grown and built ground‑up
• A dynamic work environment with a strong sense of community and collaboration
• The open and transparent culture that encourages innovation, rewards performance and discourages hierarchy
• Exciting opportunities for career growth and development

#LI-SP1

Current Tekion Employees: Please apply via the Internal Job Board in Ashby

Note: Tekion recently transitioned to a new recruiting tool and we appreciate your patience and feedback as we adjust to our new system!

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