The Director of Product shapes and executes the product strategy for Third Wave Systems' portfolio of advanced desktop manufacturing modeling software applications. This role bridges business, technology, software development, and user experience to ensure products align with company goals, customer needs, and technical feasibility.
As a member of the leadership team, this person partners across the organization to define product vision, mature product development practices, and deliver measurable outcomes across the product portfolio.
Third Wave Systems' core values — See the Big Picture, Take Action, Collaborate, and Make an Impact — shape how this role leads, decides, and works across the organization.
This role reports to the Chief Operating Officer.
This role is onsite in Eden Prairie, Minnesota.
Requirements
Strategic Leadership
- Define and communicate the product vision, strategy, and roadmap, ensuring alignment with company priorities and customer needs.
- Collaborate with the head of software development and technology to keep product and development teams working cohesively — balancing innovation, feasibility, and quality.
- Contribute actively to organizational strategy, prioritization, and cross-functional planning as a member of the leadership team.
- Establish frameworks to evaluate new product opportunities and maintain a disciplined approach to innovation and delivery.
- Maintain a deep understanding of customer workflows, industry trends, competitive offerings, and emerging market opportunities.
Commercial Impact
- Inform pricing, packaging, and go-to-market decisions, connecting product priorities to revenue growth and retention.
- Bring market, competitive, and current win/loss insight into commercial decisions so positioning and pricing reflect what customers actually value.
- Equip Sales and Customer Success with the product narrative, positioning, and launch readiness they need to sell and retain effectively.
- Evaluate product development investments against their commercial return, making the case for where to invest, sustain, or wind down.
Product Development Oversight
- Lead the end-to-end product lifecycle — from discovery and definition through release and continuous improvement.
- Establish repeatable processes and metrics that connect customer insight, market data, and business goals to inform product development prioritization and investment decisions.
- Build consistent standards for product documentation, backlog management, and release planning.
Cross-Functional Collaboration
- Gather and synthesize input from Sales, Customer Success, Business Development, and Services into a shared view of customer needs that informs product strategy and the roadmap.
- Partner with Development and Technology to maintain strong alignment between product strategy and engineering capacity.
- Translate strategic goals into clear, actionable product plans and measurable outcomes.
- Foster open communication between business and technical teams to build transparency and shared accountability.
Team Leadership & Mentorship
- Lead and mentor a cross-disciplinary team (roughly 6 people) of product managers, project managers, UX designers, and learning developers — strengthening product thinking, decision-making, and leadership skills.
- Own the structure of the product organization — the right people in the right seats — assessing fit against role expectations and core values.
- Help the team see the big picture — connecting individual work to product strategy, company priorities, and the customer outcomes it serves.
Governance & Documentation
- Develop and steward product governance practices covering decision rights, escalation, and release accountability, in alignment with the leadership team.
- Document key product management processes, workflows, and decision frameworks to ensure continuity and institutional knowledge.
- Champion a data-informed, outcome-driven approach to product decisions.
Knowledge, Skills & Abilities
- 10+ years of experience in product management, including at least 3 years leading a product team.
- Comfort operating across altitudes in a small-company environment — setting strategy one hour and working a backlog the next, without needing heavy process or a large support structure.
- Demonstrated ability to operate across executive, technical, and customer audiences — translating between strategic intent and ground-level execution.
- Proven track record of leading through influence, building cross-functional alignment, and delivering measurable results in a B2B or technical software environment.
- Experience contributing to pricing, packaging, or go-to-market decisions in a B2B or technical software environment.
- Deep familiarity with Agile and Lean product development methodologies, with the ability to adapt frameworks to fit the organization's needs.
- Experience working alongside software development and UX teams in a product organization where technical feasibility shapes strategy.
- Background in advanced manufacturing, simulation, or industrial software is strongly preferred.
Leadership Attributes
- Strategic & Systemic Thinker: Connects long-term goals to daily execution without losing sight of either.
- Exceptional Communicator: Meets every audience at the right altitude — executives, engineers, customers — and brings people along through clarity rather than authority.
- Collaborative Partner: Builds trust and alignment across functions by bringing people into decisions early and following through on commitments.
- Mentor & Builder: Invests in people and process maturity with a genuine commitment to team development.
- Commercially Minded: Understands how product decisions translate into revenue, retention, and company growth.
- Empathetic Leader: Balances business needs with human-centered leadership, earning credibility at every level of the organization.
This description may be changed, corrected, or modified at any time and without notice.
Benefits
The salary range is $170,000-$210,000, plus an annual bonus of (10-20%) based on company's performance.
Third Wave Systems offers a comprehensive employee benefits program for full-time employees.
- Health Insurance
- Dental Insurance
- HSA
- 401 (k) + Employer Match
- Paid time off
- Holiday pay
