Product Marketing Manager

Position Summary:

The Manager, Product Marketing is a key strategic position that will serve as the functional lead for product manager responsibilities, including technical project management, working with other members of the team on product launch, developing sales training and enablement tools, and acting as customer facing representation of Avinger. This position will be pivotal in moving marketing initiatives forward, with an emphasis on upstream marketing projects, cross-functional project management, and defining the product strategy and roadmap. In partnership with the Chief Marketing Officer, and other members of the marketing team, the Manager, Product Marketing will own deliverables throughout the product lifecycle, gathering and prioritizing product and customer requirements, defining the product vision, working closely with engineering to deliver patient-focused products, coordinating product launches, and partnering with the sales team to deliver on revenue and customer adoption goals. The Manager, Product Marketing will work with members of the product development team to assist in managing projects in accordance with established objectives.

Core Job Responsibilities:

• Own the product management life cycle through feasibility, development, commercialization, and post-commercialization to ensure target sales and gross profit objectives are achieved.
• Develop and maintain an understanding of the vascular interventional space, including current and future market trends, market size estimates, products, and competitors.
• Create go-to-market strategies for new product launches and line extensions. Lead the commercial launch strategy and execution incorporating brand positioning, pricing recommendations, product features, distribution channels, and product forecasting.
• Maintain a thorough understanding of the future pipeline of products and their characteristics and requirements, e.g., patent issues, competitive landscape, manufacturing challenges, pricing and market dynamics, and barriers to entry. Create business cases for sanctioning new products, which include market analysis, development timelines, key milestones, forecasted revenues and project costs, key stakeholders, risks, manufacturing considerations, and sales and marketing plans.
• Conduct continuous surveillance of the market landscape in order to assess and make recommendations of future product needs to help achieve business goals. Define market research needs and work with Chief Marketing Officer and Chief Medical Officer to design research studies to inform customer requirements and product development.
• Act as cross-functional project manager in the product development process, working with cross-functional team to develop key milestones, budgets, timelines, and project management tools to ensure on-time and on-budget delivery.
• Work in collaboration with a cross-functional team to make go/no go recommendations on new pipeline product as well as assess the market potential for creative line extensions that augment Avinger’s competitive advantage.
• Partner with finance team in regular forecasting cycles to derive market and product assumptions. Collaborate cross-functionally to align forecasting goals between marketing and production. Work with manufacturing, supply chain, and customer service to ensure accurate and timely forecasting for new and existing products. Includes monthly analysis of key variances and market drivers to help improve forecast accuracy.
• Define, validate, and drive the development of sales and marketing communications, sales enablement tools, sales training modules and collateral to drive utilization and adoption of Avinger technology.
• Provide recommendations for potential clinical trials or case series that could support additional indications or literature to drive further adoption of Avinger technology.
• Act as key clinical resource for direct sales force on Avinger products, develop understanding of standard treatment paradigms, and become a product positioning expert.
• Identify and resolve emerging issues that may impact project, department or corporate goals. Recognize potential threats to success and elevate issues to senior management when appropriate. Propose solutions, resolve conflicts within cross functional teams when possible and make recommendations for process improvements.
• Other duties as assigned.

Other Responsibilities:

• Understand the job specific quality system procedures and processes as defined in the Training Matrix and adhere to the requirements listed in those documents.
• Maintain corporate confidentiality at all times.

Requirements:

• Bachelor’s degree or combination of equivalent work experience; advanced degree in Business or Engineering field is a plus
• Minimum of 5+ years’ experience as a Product Manager, or Product Marketing Manager, preferably in the medical device or life sciences industry, demonstrating increasing levels of responsibilities
• Previous experience working cross functionally within all levels of an organization (Sales, Engineering, Operations, Manufacturing, Customer Service) preferably in the medical device industry
• Demonstrated aptitude to define and launch excellent products
• Strong communication, presentation and writing skills
• Excellent teamwork skills and strong desire to collaborate
• Desire to work in an open start up environment with ability to wear multiple hats
• Willingness to develop creative solutions to overcome challenges
• Proven ability to influence cross-functional teams without formal authority
• Ability to engage with external customer groups
• Proactive, with exceptional organizational skills, having the ability to multitask and manage multiple projects under minimal supervision
• Must be available for occasional travel

Nice to Haves:

• Previous experience in the vascular or coronary interventional space
• Previous product launch experience, preferably in the medical device industry

Living Avinger’s Culture:

As a member of the Avinger team, employees agree to embrace and live out the core values of Avinger, which are:

• Patient first
• Collaborate
• Educate
• Be open-minded