Role Summary

The Senior Product Specialist sits within the Strategy, Product and Portfolio Team at VW Credit, and would be joining the team at a pivotal moment in the automotive industry. In this role you’ll help identify, test and bring to market new products to support the future of personal mobility, the roll out of autonomous vehicles and adoption of new business models for the industry. We are looking for a Product Specialist to help VCI meet this moment with experience in product development and a passion to bring new concepts to life. A good fit for this role would be an experienced, energetic, and entrepreneurial Product Specialist; able to think (and operate) strategically but also lead tactical execution.
The Senior Product Specialist will be the champion for customer driven product development and lifecycle management for the Product Team. This Specialist will be responsible for conceptualizing, testing, and executing new product ideas in the marketplace, as well as continuously improving existing products. This function will be closely aligned with our brand partners and the overall VCI Mobility 2030 strategy.  

This role will have high visibility to the senior management teams of VCI, Audi, Volkswagen, and Ducati so it will be critical for this Specialist to have exceptional communication and influence skills.

Responsibilities will include:
•    Participating in user interviews, focus groups, surveys, and design thinking to understand consumer preferences and develop new product concepts
•    Building/evaluating business cases for existing and new product concepts 
•    Leading the planning, execution, reporting, and other tactical components of VCI’s Retail Finance products, pilots and new product launches
•    Work collaboratively with key stakeholders to identify, map, and align business needs (e.g., operations, sales, marketing, finance, IT and logistics)
•    Perform industry research via news, related events, publications, and announcements to track competitors, trends, and new developments in Mobility and Fintech
•    Manage partnerships by drafting agreements, leading day-to-day interactions, and tracking SLAs in close partnership with legal counsel as needed
•    Report and present regularly on KPI progress, success stories, and opportunities for improvement
•    Contribute to the overall new product development strategy and roadmap for VCI

Responsibilities within this Role

•    Product Management (70%) – This role will manage our core products and launch new products. Key responsibilities include evaluating VCI’s core products, lifecycle management and delivering new functionalities for existing products. This role will also explore new products in the leasing, retail and mobility space including creating the strategy, execution plan, and metrics for success. 
•    Strategy (15%) – This role is responsible for supporting the Sr. Director in the definition, execution, and adaptation of VW Credit’s product strategy. 
•    Ideation and Problem Solving (15%) – This role will apply creative thinking and sensitivity to considerations like timing, expense, and company risk when prioritizing development needs and resolving roadblocks.

Qualification requirements

Years of Relevant Experience: Minimum years of relevant experience needed to perform the job
•    7-10 years of experience managing products
•    7+ years of experience taking new product concepts to market
•    7+ years of experience analyzing data and building financial models
•    7+ years of experience leading cross-functional teams

Education
Required    Desired
•    Bachelor’s degree in Business, Marketing, Economics, Computer Science, Engineering or related area
    •    Master’s degree in Entrepreneurship, Business, Marketing, Computer Science, Engineering or related field

Skills: General skills needed to perform the job
•    Experience in product management, business development, analysis, new product development, and project management
•    Excellent organizational skills, with the ability to prioritize opportunities in highly ambiguous contexts 
•    A bias to action and a proven track record of delivering both minimum viable products and scaled solutions within a matrixed organization to market at rapid speed
•    Ability to partner with designers, developers, business analysts, and other business SMEs to deliver great products
•    Strong analytical mindset and ability to use data and logic to build robust economic analyses of new business concepts
•    Passion for identifying and solving real consumer and business problems
•    Customer driven approach to develop, test and implement new products
•    Exceptional written and verbal communication skills, tailoring the delivery and message to the audience
•    Intellectual curiosity for the underpinnings of new product concepts (e.g., tech stack, operations, financials, etc.)
•    Passion for identifying and solving real consumer and business problems

Specialized Skills: Knowledge or certifications unique to this role
Required    Desired
•    Expertise in combining consumer insights and data to develop new business concepts
•    Ability to build robust financial models to estimate the value of new business and product concepts 
•    Success in developing strong working relationships across many layers of an organization, outside agencies and suppliers
•    Experience in user-centered problem solving and storytelling
•    Comfortable working with tight deadlines; must be proactive and able to multi-task
•    Expertise in Product Development – existing and new Products
•    Experience creating product user stories for agile development using tools such as Jira and Confluence
•    Ability to rapidly research and evaluate new technologies
•    Knowledge and practice of core principals of Agile methodology and Agile development practices including Scrum, Kanban, Lean software development, etc.    •    Deep knowledge of new consumer and/or commercial facing mobility concepts (e.g., vehicle subscriptions, bike and scooter sharing, fleet management services)
•    Deep knowledge in Fintech
•    Automotive experience a plus but not required
•    Data mining