New Product Development Project Manager

Full-Time // Remote

At Vispero, you’ll be part of a global team enhancing solutions that make a difference in people’s lives. Vispero is the world’s leading assistive technology and owner of the brands Enhanced Vision, Freedom Scientific, Optelec, and TPGi. All the Vispero brands have a long history of providing solutions for individuals, governments, and corporate clients across the globe.

The Project Manager is a key role in the organization, with full ownership and responsibility for managing the successful execution of New Product Development (NPD) projects. The project management responsibilities include project planning, meeting management, and coordinating all project-related activities across the entire Vispero organization as required. NPD Project Managers are instrumental in providing cross-functional leadership – helping bridge the gap between various functional areas within the company, such as Product Management, Engineering, Operations, Procurement, and Quality. NPD Project Managers must possess a diverse set of skills, including leadership without direct authority, excellent written and verbal communication, technical experience & skills to engage with engineering, and the tactical skills necessary to see a project through from inception to completion. This role will report directly to the VP of Hardware Products, with a dotted line reporting to Product Management.

Key Responsibilities

The NPD Project Manager’s job spans much of the Vispero organization but is focused primarily on Accessibility Technology Hardware Engineering (AT HW Engineering). The Project Manager’s key responsibilities include but are not limited to planning, management, and coordination of New Product Development (NPD) projects. They will be responsible for managing multiple projects at a time in parallel and may involve working with both internal & external resources as the project scope warrants. They are expected to work with and coordinate cross-functional engineering development efforts with the following engineering disciplines: Electrical, Mechanical, Software, Firmware, Optical (cameras & displays), Industrial Design (ID) & Human Factors/User Experience (HF/UX).

The NPD Project Manager is responsible for leading cross-functional project teams to design products and see them through successful mass production (MP) launches. These tasks include working with:

• • The Product Manager and Engineering team to:
    • Define the project plan (including schedule, resources, and deliverables)
    • Design and build the product
    • Execute the project to plan (schedule, budget, resources, product functional/performance specifications & product cost targets)
    • Coordinate, test, and evaluate product prototype builds to ensure the product meets functional, performance, and business objectives of the project
  • Engineering Management to plan and manage resources for each project to ensure project execution success
  • Operations & Procurement to source the necessary parts and materials to support engineering prototype builds and support NPI to MP transition activity
  • Quality to ensure the product is designed to specific quality performance metrics
  • Management to prepare project status and metric reporting to senior management
  • External development partners may augment internal resources (i.e., engineering, UI designers, app developers, etc.)

Specific Job Duties

• • Define project plans which include:
    • Project schedules using WBS-based approaches for accurately estimating task durations which enable a phase-based & overall development project plan roll-up
    • Resource planning & management – define the resources needed for each project and work with functional engineering management to manage them across multiple projects as needed
    • Risk assessment and mitigation comprehended as part of project plan
    • Deliverables definition – ensure the project requirements documents are completed by team members as required:
      • Product Requirements Specification (from Product Management)
      • UI specification (from Product Management & Software Engineering)
      • Hardware Requirements Specification (HRS) (from Hardware Engineering)
      • Software Requirements Specification (SRS) (from Software Engineering)
    • Budget/Expenses plan & management (financials, headcount, etc.)
  • Manage/coordinate project plan & tasks across cross-functional team members to ensure execution to plan
  • Utilize industry best practices, techniques, and standards in the management of project teams
  • Track project costs vs budget and keep team informed on expenditures (especially Product Management)
  • Fill gaps between functions as needed to ensure seamless project execution while reinforcing accountability as required
  • Manage weekly project status & standup meetings with each project team
    • Hold project team members accountable to both individual and team level commitments
    • Constantly drive forward progress to plan with a sense of urgency and empowerment of team members to “do what it takes” to execute the project successfully
    • Resolve any roadblocks to forward progress as needed, while being mindful of the bigger picture – launch of successful product
    • Efficiently & effectively manage meetings – take and send out meeting notes covering meeting discussions, project status updates, key decisions, action items, owners, and due dates
    • Manage and update project schedule based on team member status updates
    • Where execution misses plan, work with the team to define recovery mitigations and update the project plan accordingly
  • Provide project status report out to management team
    • Track to high-level milestone status (i.e., EVT, DVT, PVT, NPI, MP)
    • Highlight risks/issues and mitigation plans
    • Be an advocate for project teams with management (i.e., ask for resources as needed, set expectations based on project risks, escalate organizational level issues that are barriers to team level execution, etc.)
    • Development cost vs planned budget

  Key Personal Attributes

  • Leadership – The ability to effectively lead & influence teams and individuals, even without direct supervisory control over them. Must possess ability to prioritize and project manage tasks involved in launching products
  • Motivated and have ability to be informed of and manage/coordinate rapidly changing dynamics across multiple NPD projects running simultaneously
  • Process improvement – Ability and desire to continuously improve the product development process to become more effective and efficient is required
  • Working independently – The ability to work with minimal supervision, and request support as needed is required
  • Communication – Strong communication skills are required. The ability to be concise, but thorough in written and verbal communication is required
  • Conflict management – The ability to tactfully handle conflicting goals of different project team members and stakeholders is required
  • Teamwork – The ability to work with organization wide, cross-functional teams is required
  • Technical skillset – ability to thoroughly understand and manage complex technical challenges/issues impacting projects with Engineering Management & engineering team members

  General Role Requirements:

  • Minimum 5 years of experience in a technical product development environment
  • Experience in the full development lifecycle of products
  • Knowledge of PMP principles required. PMP certification preferred
  • Familiarity with project management tools, such as SmartSheet or Microsoft Project
  • Engineering/technical degree or equivalent background/experience required

  Key Performance Measures

  A Project Manager’s success on the job can be measured via key project performance measurements, including but not limited to the following:

  • Successful project execution on project plan to:
    • Schedule
    • Resources (headcount, budget, external resources, tools & equipment, etc.)
    • Scope (project deliverables, product features/function/quality)
  • Dotted line reporting/partnership with Product Management to ensure new product development efforts meet key product & business success metrics (time to market, cost, function/features, etc.)
  • Being an agent for positive change in helping the AT HW Product NPD team to continually improve process and project execution
  • Behavior exhibiting Vispero’s core values/principles:
    • Ownership: Maintain appropriate focus on the right outcomes and accomplishments. Convey a sense of urgency to make things happen
    • Customer Focus: Demonstrate creative solutions and innovation that increase customer loyalty and satisfaction
    • Team First: Place the team before themselves and always have the interests of the team at heart
    • Enthusiastically work with others to achieve a common goal.
    • Operational Excellence: Develops systematic improvements to the company’s operations, resulting in improved customer experiences and more profitable operations

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  If you have a passion for excellence and want to work with an outstanding team of experts, working in an exciting, challenging, fast paced environment for the world’s leading assistive technology company, please send your resume to mpeterson@tpgi.com.

  Vispero actively seeks to develop greater levels of diversity in our workforce and in our pipeline of future employees. We are committed to attract and retain candidates who have a passion for their work and encourage all individuals to apply. Vispero is an Equal Opportunity Employer.