Director Global Product Management - Fixed Term Contract - Onsite Athenry, Galway
The Director, Global Product Management is a 12-18-month fixed-term maternity leave cover position, providing leadership and continuity for the Global Product Management function during the permanent Director’s maternity leave. The role is responsible for ensuring that the priorities, plans, budgets and ways of working established by the permanent Director continue to be delivered effectively throughout the cover period.
The primary focus is execution and accountability: ensuring that agreed project plans are followed, milestones and budgets remain on track, and each Brand Manager takes clear ownership of their assigned products across new product commercialisation and the existing product portfolio. Working closely with Marketing leadership, NPD, Communications, Regulatory, Legal, Quality, Operations, Sales and regional teams, the Director will maintain strong cross-functional coordination, provide clear visibility of progress and risks, and escalate issues or decisions requiring senior leadership input. The successful candidate will also bring relevant experience and practical product management best practices that the team can learn from, while working within the strategy and operating plans already established.
Duties and Responsibilities:
Team Leadership & Accountability
- Lead and support the Global Product Management team in delivering the priorities, plans and commitments already agreed for the maternity cover period.
- Hold team members accountable for agreed deliverables, deadlines, quality standards and follow-through.
- Ensure each Brand Manager maintains clear end-to-end ownership of their assigned new and existing products, including actions, documentation, stakeholder coordination and reporting.
- Review progress regularly, address delivery gaps and escalate material risks, delays or resourcing concerns to the VP, Global Marketing.
- Coach the team and share relevant product management best practice that can strengthen capability, consistency and execution.
Product Claims & Source of Truth Governance
- Act as the senior Product Management point of contact for questions relating to approved product messaging and claims.
- Ensure guidance is based on the applicable approved Product Advertising Documents and escalate matters requiring Regulatory or Legal determination.
- Coordinate the review of marketing and product materials against the relevant approved Product Advertising Documents, working in partnership with Regulatory and Legal.
- Ensure the team maintains accurate, approved source-of-truth documentation for product information, claims, positioning and supporting evidence.
- Ensure proposed claims or messaging outside existing approvals are referred for the appropriate Regulatory and Legal review.
Project Plans, Dashboards and Budget Control
- Ensure approved project plans are followed and that owners, actions, milestones and dependencies remain current and visible.
- Provide direct project-management support where specifically required and agreed with the VP, Global Marketing.
- Ensure the central Product Management dashboard and relevant product and project dashboards are accurate, complete and updated in accordance with the agreed reporting cadence.
- Monitor the Product Management budget against the approved plan and escalate potential variances promptly.
- Ensure proposed changes to agreed scope, timing or spend are documented and referred through the established approval process.
- Provide concise and accurate reporting on delivery, budget, risks, dependencies and decisions required.
Product Commercialisation and Portfolio Coordination
- Ensure Brand Managers deliver their assigned responsibilities for new product launches, market expansions and existing products in line with approved plans.
- Coordinate Product Management input across NPD, Marketing, Regulatory, Legal, Quality, Operations, Sales and regional teams.
- Maintain the established handover process from NPD into Product Management (Stage Gate 4) and ensure actions required for commercialisation and ongoing product ownership are completed.
- Ensure product and category performance information is reviewed by the appropriate Brand Manager, and that relevant insights, risks and opportunities are clearly presented to Marketing leadership.
- Support the implementation of product and portfolio decisions made by senior leadership
Governance & Process
- Maintain and oversee Product Management SOPs, Work Instructions, processes, logs, templates and governance frameworks, ensuring they are consistently followed and continuously improved.
- Oversee the accuracy and maintenance of the global pricing matrix, ensuring approved pricing changes are correctly documented and communicated.
- Ensure approved product changes, packaging updates, claims, testimonials and related product activities are progressed by the appropriate owners and through the correct governance processes.
- Partner with Quality, Regulatory and Legal to ensure required documentation, approvals and decision records are maintained.
- Ensure Product Management activities remain aligned with applicable company, Quality, Regulatory and Legal requirements.
Stakeholder Management & Communication
- Act as the senior Product Management contact during the cover period, maintaining effective communication across functions, regions and time zones.
- Represent Product Management in relevant leadership, governance and cross-functional forums.
- Provide the VP, Global Marketing and senior leadership with clear, live visibility of progress, budget, launch readiness, product issues, key risks and decisions required.
- Deliver an evidence-based SWOT analysis of the Global Product Management team’s performance and capabilities at the end of the contract, including practical observations and development recommendations for consideration by the permanent Director and VP, Global Marketing.
- Maintain clear documentation throughout the cover period and provide a structured handover when the permanent Director returns.
Qualifications and Experience:
- Bachelor’s degree required, preferably in Business, Marketing, or a related discipline. A relevant postgraduate qualification or MBA would be advantageous.
- Significant experience in Product Management, Product Marketing, Portfolio Management or a related global commercial or management function.
- Strong experience managing products across the product lifecycle, including commercialisation, Go-to-Market, launch, post-launch management, product governance and claims.
- Strong understanding of product development processes and project management principles.
- Demonstrated experience leading and developing teams.
- Experience working within a regulated or compliance-led environment is highly desirable.
- Strong commercial and analytical capability, with experience using product and portfolio performance data to support decision-making.
- Proficiency with project management tools, with Smartsheet preferred but not essential, and experience working with reporting and analytics tools.
- Excellent communication, collaboration, leadership and stakeholder management skills, with the ability to work effectively across different functions, personalities and cultures.
- Ability to operate effectively in a fast-paced global environment, managing multiple priorities, ambiguity and change.
- Fluent English essential.
- Ability to travel up to 10% of the year.
