Principal Product Manager - Manufacturing(AI Enabled) Staines-upon-Thames, England, United King[...]

Principal Product Manager - Manufacturing (AI Enabled)

Manufacturing is entering an era that is AI-enabled, data-driven, autonomous, and increasingly intelligent. This role sits at the center of that transformation. As Principal Product Manager for Manufacturing Solutions, you will define and drive products that optimize operations, improve efficiency, and deliver measurable business impact for industrial customers.

You will own the end-to-end product lifecycle, from discovery to adoption to scale, acting as the strategic bridge between customer needs, engineering execution, and commercial outcomes. Leading with a start-up mindset, you will set vision and direction, validate with customers and industry stakeholders, prioritize ruthlessly, and deliver scalable solutions aligned with IFS’s AI-first strategy.

Core Responsibilities

• Define and execute a clear product vision and roadmap aligned with company strategy and measurable customer outcomes.
• Identify high-impact opportunities through market, customer, competitive, and industry analysis.
• Build strong investment cases focused on value creation, adoption, scalability, and differentiation.
• Drive growth across core and AI revenue streams.
• Align strategy across related products or components within the portfolio.

Customer Insight & Discovery

• Lead end-to-end discovery with Research and Design.
• Engage directly with customers to understand workflows, operational challenges, and desired outcomes.
• Co-create and validate solutions with customers.
• Establish continuous feedback loops from discovery through to adoption.
• Use qualitative and quantitative insights to refine direction and ensure ROI.
• Ruthlessly prioritize based on measurable value.
• Leverage AI/ML and automation to enhance operational decision‑making and optimize manufacturing workflows.
• Lead functional prototyping and early validation to ensure feasibility and market fit.
• Champion an AI-first mindset across Product, Design, and Engineering, ensuring AI is applied intentionally where it creates meaningful customer and commercial value.
• Identify high-impact opportunities to embed AI into workflows, decision support, automation, and user experiences, not as a feature add‑on, but as a core capability.

End‑to‑End Ownership & Execution

• Own the lifecycle from concept through launch and scale.
• Bridge functional, technical, and commercial requirements to ensure smooth transition from prototype to adopted product.
• Clarify priorities, remove blockers, and drive measurable progress toward customer outcomes.
• Maintain transparency and alignment across Engineering, Design, Product Marketing, Support, Sales, Go-to-Market and Customer Success.
• Balance competing priorities while contributing to commercial performance and product P&L considerations.

Commercial Impact & Go-to-Market

• Define and communicate clear product differentiation and value proposition.
• Contribute to pricing and packaging strategy to maximize growth and market impact.
• Work with Product Marketing and GTM teams to ensure successful launches and strong market positioning.
• Personally support customer and partner presentations to drive credibility and adoption.
• Own adoption as a core metric, ensuring delivered capabilities are intuitive, usable, and deliver real operational impact.

Experience & Education

• Proven experience (6+ years) in Product Management within SaaS, platform, or enterprise software environments.
• Experienced and knowledgeable in the domain of Manufacturing, ideally hands‑on experience in the industry.
• Demonstrated ability to define and execute product strategy, vision, and measurable outcomes.
• Hands‑on experience in customer discovery, prototyping, and validating solutions.
• Proven track record of launching and scaling products from concept to adoption, delivering measurable customer value.
• Exceptional communication, stakeholder management, and prioritization skills.
• Data‑informed decision‑making mindset, using analytics, experimentation, and evidence to guide direction.
• AI‑curious.
• Experience in developer platforms, application frameworks, data services, or AI/ML-enabled enterprise applications.
• Prior exposure to commercial responsibilities such as pricing, monetization, or P&L ownership.
• Experience working in global, distributed organizations and partnering across geographies.

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