Sr. Product Manager - Aerospace & Defense

It's exciting to work for a company that makes the world measurably better.

We're committed to bringing safety, quality, and customer focus to the business of advanced ceramics manufacturing.

Job Title

Sr. Product Manager - Aerospace & Defense

As the Product Manager, you will be responsible for maximizing the product line(s) revenue and gross margin, managing the product life cycle, collaborating with commercial leaders on setting and executing against product strategy, pricing collaboration, product modifications for margin management, and achieving targeted margin growth. Success is defined by margin improvement/lift by facility and customer and profitable new product introductions. You will have global or multi-region responsibility for assigned markets or products.

In this role, you will lead, develop, and manage strategically significant programs encompassing multiple projects related to new products or improvements to ensure program requirements and specified objectives are met. You will support the Aerospace & Defense market by translating customer, platform, and end-market requirements into product-line priorities, while balancing growth, capacity, quality, delivery, compliance, and long-term profitability.

A key part of this role is close collaboration with FDEs, Technology, and Commercial to ensure strong transparency into growth opportunities and alignment on priorities.

Roles & Responsibilities

·    Track product line health against key metrics including volume growth, profit margin, operating cash flow, asset utilization, and working capital management, and lead the resolution of internal issues such as quality and on-time delivery. P&L ownership.

·    Working with strategic insights and strategic marketing, understand the competitive landscape, market segmentation, and trends to strategically target new opportunities and threats.

·    Partner with marketing and provide input to create data sheets, product memos, trade show materials, and other product content.

·    When needed, partner with account managers on customer interactions and escalations.

·    Act as liaison with supply chain and assume responsibility for customer and delivery prioritization.

·    Manage the product life cycle from launch to obsolescence by ensuring organic growth through innovation, annual price improvement, and product rationalization.

·    Collaborate with operations to identify and initiate annual cost reductions and/or avoid cost increases.

·    Based on market pricing, establish internal pricing floors and targets for account managers in collaboration with leaders.

·    Understand potential opportunities related to capacity and margin maximization and align them with the overall strategy.

·    Facilitate business development through sales-force training, customer visits and demonstrations, and relationships with key stakeholders.

·    Lead business case reviews, including capital expansion reviews and recommendations.

·    Define and communicate product-line strategy, including positioning and the 4 Ps. Develop the product-line service strategy in partnership with engineering and operations.

·    Drive design wins, orders, and revenue growth.

·    Contribute to the development of CoorsTek’s product and technology roadmap.

·    Partner with sales and operations on volume, revenue, and margin forecasts, including unconstrained and constrained demand.

·    Lead program management related to new products or product improvements.

·    In partnership with R&D and Operations, identify opportunities to implement process improvements aligned with program goals.

·    Interact with customers and drive customer input on new product and market requirements and specifications.

·    Drive internal cross-functional schedules aligned with customer commitments and keep customers informed of status.

·    Build and execute product strategies for Aerospace & Defense applications, considering platform life cycles, customer qualification requirements, program timing, and long-term supply expectations.

·    Partner with key customers, OEMs, and industry stakeholders to understand technical requirements, future platform needs, and growth opportunities.

·    Partner closely with FDEs, Technology, and Commercial to identify, evaluate, and prioritize opportunities. Maintain shared visibility into opportunity status, customer requirements, technical feasibility, commercial potential, risks, ownership, and next steps to support coordinated decisions and execution.

·    Coordinate with Quality, Engineering, Operations, Supply Chain, Contracts, and Commercial teams to ensure product plans align with customer requirements and applicable aerospace and defense obligations.

·    Support customer and product qualification activities by maintaining clear milestones, risks, ownership, and communication across functions.

·    Evaluate product and customer profitability, including low-volume and high-complexity work, and recommend pricing, investment, rationalization, or operational actions.

·    Identify and manage product-line risks related to capacity, continuity of supply, quality, delivery, and customer commitments.

·    Prepare and present product-line performance, strategic recommendations, investment needs, and business cases to senior leadership.

Education & Experience

·    Bachelor’s degree in a related field.

·    Minimum seven years’ relevant commercial and product-focused experience.

·    Aerospace and Defense industry experience is strongly preferred.

·    Experience supporting engineered products, long-cycle customer programs, or technical manufacturing environments is preferred.

·    Experience partnering with OEMs, major suppliers, or government-related customers is desirable.

·    Advanced ceramics or materials experience is a plus.

Functional/Technical Knowledge, Skills & Abilities

·    In-depth technical product knowledge and strong analytical skills.

·    Ability to influence senior managers and decision makers.

·    Ability to work effectively with a diverse variety of people from different cultures and backgrounds.

·    Strong financial and commercial acumen, including pricing, margin analysis, forecasting, business cases, and P&L management.

·    Ability to translate complex technical, customer, and operational information into a clear product strategy and executable priorities.

·    Strong cross-functional program leadership skills, with the ability to manage competing priorities, risks, and customer commitments.

·    Clear written and verbal communication skills, including the ability to present recommendations to customers and senior leaders.

·    Knowledge of Aerospace & Defense customer expectations, qualification processes, and market dynamics is preferred.

Position-Specific Responsibilities

For the near term, estimated to be the next 12–24 months, the Product Manager will be responsible for the following across an assigned group of plants and product lines:

·    Commercial review of pricing based on age and length of time since the last price change.

·    Commercial review of customer portfolios based on gross-margin estimates within each plant.

·    Commercial and operational review of low-yielding products.

·    Commercial and operational review of products requiring significant machine setup and/or downtime, including evaluation of opportunity cost and potential customer charges.

·    Coordination with Strategic Planning on available capacity by facility to determine whether filling capacity is feasible or may create further inefficiencies.

·    Development of minimum order values by product line and/or facility.

·    Cost analysis for order processing by plant and at the corporate level to identify best-in-class facilities.

·    Driving the customer qualification cadence for profitable customer acquisition.

·    Create a prioritized A&D product-line and customer profitability plan, including pricing actions, cost-reduction opportunities, capacity constraints, and product-rationalization recommendations.

·    Build an A&D opportunity and program pipeline showing revenue potential, margin expectations, and investment needs, alongside timing, qualification requirements, and key risks.

·    Establish a regular cross-functional product review cadence with Commercial, Operations, Engineering, Quality, Supply Chain, and Finance.

·    Develop recommendations for strategic capacity and capital investments tied to validated customer demand and targeted returns.

·    Measure success through margin improvement, profitable growth, customer and product portfolio quality, on-time execution, and operational efficiencies.

Role Specific Details:

• ·         Location (On-site): Golden, Colorado
• ·         Travel: Will vary depending on customer and business needs
• Target Hiring Range