Company Overview

Young Innovations is a manufacturer and marketer of high quality dental equipment and supplies. With an outstanding reputation for quality, our company has a broad portfolio of market leading products across a variety of categories.

Role Overview
We are seeking a talented, self-led, and energetic Product Director (Category Director) to join our team at our Algonquin, IL location. The Category Director owns the entire product category and manages product managers to ensure individual product lines align with overall business strategy. Additionally, the Category Director develops and owns the high-level strategy for a broad business segment.

Responsibilities

• Overseeing the development and execution of all product line strategies ensuring they all coalesce into a cohesive business strategy for the category.
• Drives strategic direction for all product lines and responsible for growing the lines at above-market rates.
• Performs or delegates product management responsibilities including identification of customer needs through voice of customer and other market research, is an active participant in creative/ideation processes, and is the primary advocate for products moving through stage-gate process.
• Prepares all business cases and is accountable for results created.
• Establishes and implements communication plans.
• Gathers and analyzes customer insights.
• Manages budget and forecasting for the category including price/volume/new product revenue drivers, and SG&A investments needed to drive growth.
• Partners with downstream marketing team on effectiveness and makes recommendations on strategies.
• Partners with go-to-market commercial leaders to gain customer insight and ensure product sell-through efforts support developed strategies, making appropriate adjustments as necessary
• Oversees annual planning process including SKU rationalization, pricing, and cost reduction initiatives based on product lifecycle management.
• Analyze market trends and recommend changes to marketing and business development strategies based on analysis and feedback
• Maintains external relationships as appropriate including universities, opinion leaders, third-party evaluators, and advisory boards.
• Stays apprised of competitive situations including trend analysis.

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree
• 8+ years of progressive post-graduate professional experience in a marketing or product management capacity or equivalent combination of education and experience
• Multi-disciplinary background by education and/or experience, including basic financial analysis, marketing and management skills is required
• Background in dental a plus.
• Experience integrating acquired products/businesses into existing category strategies strongly preferred.
• Strong leadership ability – driving initiatives across and through many cross-functional teams
• Must possess intellectual curiosity and a desire to work in a fast-paced, meritocratic organization on diverse and challenging projects
• Expert product management skills – managing product lifecycle, pricing & competitive analysis, product benchmarking, and strategic planning skills.
• Strong and effective project management skills
• Demonstrated communication skills, with an ability to communicate effectively with all levels of internal and external customers/stakeholders.
• Expert analytical and problem-solving skills; intermediate or advanced Excel skills.
• Strong business and financial acumen.

Young Innovations, Inc. is an Equal Opportunity Employer and E-Verify participating employer