Director of Product Line Management — Test Instruments & Tools

Tempo Communications; Vista (CA); Sur place; USD 180 000 - 260 000; Plein temps

Résumé du poste

Tempo Communications in Vista, California seeks a hands-on product leader who will own a hardware-oriented product category, including P&L, and decide what to build and in what order. You will lead four product line managers, drive stage-gate discipline, and defend compelling business cases to fund and kill projects.

This role requires deep understanding of field equipment, cost and pricing, and translating market needs into clear specs for engineering and overseas contract manufacturers.

Qualifications

• Eight or more years in product management or product line management with direct ownership
• Ownership of a product line P&L including pricing and margins
• Proven ability to build and defend business cases and rank a funnel financially
• Experience inside a formal stage‑gate or phase‑gate process
• Market sizing and segmentation defended to decision-makers
• Fluency reading a business from data: margin, mix, price realization
• Ability to specify products to engineering and overseas contract manufacturers

Responsabilités

• Own how Tempo decides what to build and in what order
• Lead four product line managers and mentor on business case construction
• Build and defend a multi-year roadmap with continuous technology backing
• Own NP&SI stage-gate process end to end with defined deliverables
• Track revenue, margin, and vitality index against plan and adjust as needed

Connaissances

Product management

Product line management

P&L ownership

Business case development

Stage-gate/process

Market sizing

Data-driven decisions

Engineering liaison

Financial analysis

Description du poste

Read This First

This is a physical products role. You will own instruments and tools that technicians carry into the field, open in the rain, and drop off the back of a truck. If your product experience is software, SaaS, or a platform, we are not a fit, and we will not be able to move you forward no matter how strong the rest of your background is.

This is hands-on work. You will personally own a product category and make its decisions rather than directing product managers who make them for you. The scope is set to grow into VP of Product Management as the portfolio does, and we are looking for someone who wants that.

The position is on-site at our Vista, California headquarters. We are not considering remote or hybrid arrangements, and we prefer candidates already in the San Diego area.

About Tempo

Tempo Communications builds the test, measurement, and tooling products technicians rely on to install and maintain communications networks across copper, fiber, PoE, and underground utility location. Our brands are Tempo, Paladin Tools, and KingFisher.

We are an independent, closely held, owner‑led company of roughly 130 people, headquartered in Vista with operations in Wales, Hungary, and Australia. Our customer is the field technician, and our promise is straightforward: Find it. Fix it. Prove it.

The Role

You will own how Tempo decides what to build, in what order, and why. This is working leadership rather than strategy from a distance. You will carry a product category of your own, P&L included, while leading four product line managers across the rest of the portfolio, reporting directly to the CEO.

The company is small enough that your decisions ship. You will have products you defined in technicians’ hands inside of eighteen months, and the authority to decide what those products are.

This role is not a fit if

Your product has been software, if you are looking for a role where you direct product managers rather than own products yourself, or if you need to work on-site less than five days a week.

What You’ll Own

Application knowledge.

Everything else depends on it. Good products come from understanding how the work actually gets done and then seeing where safety, productivity, or quality can be improved. You will need to understand the workflow of a locate, a splice, a certification, and a pull. That knowledge either arrives with you from the field or you build it through voice‑of‑customer work and ride‑alongs, and you will hold your team to the same standard.

The portfolio.

Location & Markers, Fiber Test & Measurement, Copper & PoE, and Tools. You will build and defend a multi‑year roadmap with real continuity of technology behind it rather than a list of individually funded projects, and you will carry one category yourself.

The funnel, with financial rigor.

You will build the business cases, rank the funnel on financial merit, and answer for that ranking. Projects will be funded and killed on your analysis, and we expect you to tell us when something should stop.

Stage gate discipline.

You will own our NP&SI stage‑gate process end to end: deliverables defined for each gate, evidence presented at the gate, and a vote that can genuinely fail.

Launch outcomes.

Today we track launch dates but not what the launches earned. You will own revenue, margin, and vitality index against plan, reported on a cadence.

The team.

Four product line managers, two of them new to product management. You will set development plans, run structured reviews, coach on business case construction and market analysis, and build a deeper bench than the one you inherit.

What You’ll Bring

Required

• Your product has been something a person holds, carries, mounts, or plugs in. Instruments, test and measurement equipment, electrical or electronic hardware, hand or power tools. Firmware or software that ships alongside the hardware is expected. Software as the product is not what we are hiring for.
• Eight or more years in product management or product line management, with direct ownership of a line you make decisions about today rather than oversight of managers that own it.
• Ownership of a product line P&L, including pricing, margin, and portfolio rationalization.
• Proven ability to build and defend business cases, and to rank a development funnel on financial merit. Come prepared to walk us through a funnel you prioritized and the analysis behind it.
• Substantive experience inside a formal stage‑gate or phase‑gate process, where you owned the gates for your line and built the evidence behind them.
• Market sizing and segmentation work you had to defend to people with the authority to say no.
• Fluency reading a business from its data: SKU‑level margin and mix, price realization, and launch performance against plan.
• The ability to specify a product both to engineering and to an overseas contract manufacturer, covering requirements, trade‑offs, and first article review, with enough technical depth to be taken seriously in either conversation.