Product Manager - Data Center Portfolio

Founded in 1984, AFL is an industry-recognized global leader in optical fiber network infrastructure. Our customer-first, high-speed fiber network solutions serve various markets – including energy, enterprise, and hyperscale – across 130+ countries. Products and services include single- and multi-mode optical fiber cable, test and inspection equipment, and our award-winning Data Center Interconnect solution, enabling centralized resource management for enhanced performance across multiple data center facilities.

Our recent European expansion brings end-to-end, sustainable optical fiber solutions closer to our valued EMEA customers, prioritizing customer satisfaction while lowering emissions in line with our Environment, Social, and Governance (ESG) strategy.

AFL is headquartered in Spartanburg, South Carolina, United States, with facilities in multiple global locations, including the UK, Canada, India, China, Mexico, and Australia. AFL is a subsidiary of Fujikura Ltd.

Key Responsibilities

• Product Strategy and Vision
• Conduct market research to identify trends, customer needs, and opportunities for product development.
• Develop a regional product roadmap aligned with global strategy and market demands.
• Product Line Management
• Oversee the regional product portfolio, ensuring alignment with global strategy and market relevance.
• Manage the product lifecycle, drive innovation, and optimize product costs and portfolio efficiency.
• Collaborate with cross-functional teams to ensure successful product launches and create high-quality documentation.
• Develop competitive pricing strategies for regional markets while maintaining profitability.
• Cross-Functional Collaboration
• Align regional product roadmaps with global strategies, ensuring market fit.
• Work with marketing teams to support strong product launches and campaigns.
• Provide market insights to engineering teams for product development and collaborate with sales to position products in the market.
• Financial Management
• Manage budgets for product development, ensuring efficient resource use and project delivery.
• Optimize costs for development, production, and distribution without sacrificing quality.
• Regulatory and Compliance Management
• Ensure products comply with international standards and certifications for smooth market entry.
• Innovation and Continuous Improvement
• Implement feedback loops to refine products based on customer needs and market trends.
• Performance Monitoring and Reporting
• Track key performance indicators (KPIs) and use data to drive product decisions.
• Regularly update stakeholders on product performance and strategy.
• Travel and Representation
• Travel to meet with regional teams, clients and suppliers.
  
  

Key competencies & personal attributes

• Analytical skills: Proficiency in analysing market and product trends, customer needs, and competitive landscape, to formulate effective product strategies
• Business acumen: Strong understanding of business fundamentals, including revenue models, profitability, market positioning, and competitive analysis.
• Product lifecycle management: Proficiency in managing the entire product lifecycle from ideation to retirement, including iterative development, launch, and optimization.
• Customer-centric mindset: Deep commitment to understanding and meeting customer needs, ensuring that products and solutions are designed with the customer in mind.
• Pricing skills: Knowledge of pricing models and strategies, particularly in a B2B context, to ensure competitive yet profitable pricing across different markets.
• Problem solving: Strong problem-solving skills to address challenges related to product development, market entry, and solution delivery in target markets.
• Data-driven decision making: Ability to analyse complex data sets, including market data, customer feedback, and performance metrics, to make informed, strategic decisions.
• Agile methodologies: Familiarity with agile methodologies to manage product development cycles efficiently and adapt quickly to changing market or customer needs.
• Continuous improvement: Commitment to continuous improvement processes, using feedback and data to refine products, solutions, and strategies over time.
• Effective Communication: Strong verbal and written skills to clearly convey complex ideas, strategies, and roadmaps to technical teams, business stakeholders, and customers.
• Resilience: Ability to handle challenges and setbacks in fast-paced and complex markets.
  
  

Preferred Qualifications & Experience

• 3+ years’ experience in product management, product development, or related field
• Optical networking or telecommunications product/industry/technical acumen
• Product Management/Marketing expertise, including market trends/analysis, NPI process, product roadmap development, product life-cycle management
• Proven track record of driving product revenue growth and profitability.
• Experience working effectively within a matrix environment
• Experience working in a global environment
• Preferred certifications in product management (e.g. Certified Product Manager) or agile methodologies (e.g. Certified Scrum Product Owner).