Director Foodservice Product Management

Description

ABOUT FREEDOM ELECTRONICS

Freedom Electronics is a market-leading provider of electronic parts and solutions for the retail petroleum industry and adjacent equipment markets. We source and resell OEM parts, repair and remanufacture high-value electronic components, and engineer proprietary replacement products that help customers reduce equipment downtime and operating costs.

Freedom is expanding these capabilities into the commercial foodservice market, initially serving convenience-store operators, restaurant chains, service organizations, and other multi-location equipment owners. Our growing customer relationships are generating a strong funnel of potential products across beverage, cooking, refrigeration, ice, coffee, and related equipment categories.

We are seeking an experienced foodservice product leader to help convert those opportunities into a scalable, market-backed product portfolio.

Our growth strategy includes both organic efforts and growth through acquisition, and our culture is built upon these values:

The Customer is Always Served

Continuous Improvement

Invest in Our Employees

Uncompromising Ethics

Trust

Passion

Benefits

100% Employer Paid Medical and Dental plans  

Vision insurance 

100% Employer paid Life insurance 

Annual Bonus Program 

401k Matching 

Paid holidays

Paid Time Off 

Reports to: Vice President of Products

Location: Kennesaw, Georgia area

Work Arrangement: Hybrid, 50/50 office/remote

Travel: Approximately 15%–25%, primarily for customer visits, industry events, supplier meetings, and field research

POSITION OVERVIEW

The Director of Foodservice Product Management will own the strategy, prioritization, and development roadmap for Freedom’s foodservice product portfolio.

The Director will evaluate opportunities generated through customer meetings, sales activity, service-market needs, and competitive research. The successful candidate will determine the broader addressable market, customer value proposition, product economics, technical requirements, and strategic fit of each opportunity before significant development resources are committed.

This individual will recommend whether Freedom should:

• Source and resell an existing product
• Repair or remanufacture an OEM component
• Engineer a proprietary replacement
• Develop a strategic supplier or service partnership
• Defer the opportunity
• Decline the project

The Director will lead products from initial opportunity assessment through market validation, development, launch, and lifecycle management.

This is a hands-on, senior individual-contributor role with significant cross-functional leadership responsibility. The Director will initially lead through influence rather than through a large direct-report organization and may help build additional product-management resources as the business grows.

This is primarily an upstream product strategy and product-development role rather than a communications-focused product marketing position.

KEY RESPONSIBILITIES

Product Strategy and Portfolio Management

Develop and maintain a multi-year foodservice product strategy aligned with Freedom’s growth objectives and core capabilities.

Identify the foodservice equipment categories and components where Freedom has the strongest opportunity to compete.

Create a prioritized product roadmap by equipment category, OEM, customer segment, and offering type.

Evaluate the strategic fit of new opportunities against Freedom’s technical capabilities, customer relationships, channel strategy, and available resources.

Market and Opportunity Evaluation

Establish a consistent opportunity-screening and stage-gate process for all foodservice product opportunities.

Determine whether an opportunity is specific to one customer or scalable across a broader market.

Estimate installed equipment populations by OEM, platform, customer type, and end market.

Conduct competitive analysis covering OEM products, aftermarket alternatives, repair providers, distributors, and other market participants.

Conduct total addressable market, serviceable addressable market, and serviceable obtainable market analyses.

Evaluate customer concentration, competitive offerings, replacement frequency, equipment age, failure rates, and service requirements.

Business-Case Development

Develop financial and commercial business cases for potential products and programs. Evaluate expected revenue, gross margin, pricing, development expense, tooling requirements, working capital, warranty exposure, and time to revenue.

Estimate engineering-resource requirements and identify the opportunity cost of each project.

Define the assumptions, uncertainties, and validation steps required before a project advances.

Evaluate core availability and core-return requirements for remanufactured products.

Voice of the Customer and Product Requirements

Lead structured voice-of-the-customer research with end users, technicians, service organizations, distributors, and other channel participants.

Define the customer problem, target application, value proposition, differentiation, and required performance standards for each product.

Validate customer interest and purchase intent before significant development resources are committed.

Work with Business Development and Sales to understand the original customer need, expected volume, and commercial opportunity.

Translate customer and market requirements into clear product requirements and commercial specifications.

Product Development Leadership

Lead cross-functional foodservice product-development teams involving Engineering, Sales, Business Development, Operations, Supply Chain, Quality, Finance, and Marketing.

Maintain accountability for timeline, business case, and commercial outcomes throughout the development process.

Establish project scope, milestones, decision points, ownership, and target launch dates.

Partner with Engineering to evaluate technical feasibility, development risk, testing requirements, and resource needs.

Ensure development teams remain focused on the highest-priority market opportunities.

Commercialization and Launch

Define the target customer, use case, positioning, value proposition, and competitive differentiation for each new product.

Develop pricing recommendations in partnership with Finance, Sales, and executive leadership.

Partner with Marketing to create product messaging, launch materials, website content, sales tools, and training.

Partner with Sales and Business Development to identify target accounts and establish launch plans.

Ensure Operations, Customer Service, Supply Chain, and Quality are prepared to support new products.

Monitor launch performance and address gaps in demand, product quality, availability, pricing, or customer adoption.

Product Lifecycle and Performance Management

Establish product- and portfolio-level KPIs.

Monitor revenue, gross margin, customer adoption, warranty performance, inventory turns, core availability, and return on development investment.

Compare actual performance with the assumptions used in the original business case.

Provide regular roadmap and portfolio updates to executive leadership.

Identify opportunities to expand successful products into additional customers, equipment platforms, or sales channels.

Recommend product rationalization or discontinuation when appropriate.

KEY WORKING RELATIONSHIPS

The Director will work closely with:

Director of Business Development: Opportunity generation, customer relationships, and commercial discovery

Engineering: Technical feasibility, design, testing, and product development

Sales: Customer requirements, market validation, pricing, and commercialization

Operations and Supply Chain: Manufacturing, repair processes, sourcing, inventory, and scalability

Finance: Business cases, profitability, capital requirements, and performance measurement

Marketing: Positioning, content, launch communications, and sales enablement

Customers and Technicians: Voice of the customer, field validation, and product acceptance

Vice President of Products: Product strategy, prioritization, development oversight, and executive alignment

Requirements

REQUIRED QUALIFICATIONS

• Bachelor’s degree in business, engineering, marketing, economics, or a related discipline.
• Five or more years of relevant professional experience in commercial foodservice equipment, foodservice parts, equipment service, aftermarket products, or a closely related industry.
• Demonstrated experience in product management, category management, portfolio management, product strategy, or commercial product development.
• Experience evaluating and prioritizing new-product opportunities.
• Demonstrated ability to conduct market sizing, competitive analysis, and financial business-case development.
• Experience translating customer needs into product requirements and development priorities.
• Experience leading cross-functional product-development or commercialization initiatives.
• Strong understanding of the commercial foodservice equipment ecosystem, including OEMs, service organizations, distributors, end users, and replacement-parts channels.
• Strong analytical skills and advanced proficiency with Excel or similar analytical tools.
• Ability to organize and analyze imperfect or incomplete market information and make well-supported recommendations.
• Excellent written, verbal, and executive-presentation skills.
• Ability to travel for customer research, equipment observation, supplier meetings, and industry events.

PREFERRED QUALIFICATIONS

• Experience with Parts Town or another major foodservice parts distributor.
• Experience with a major commercial foodservice equipment OEM.
• Experience with a national or large regional service organization supporting convenience stores, restaurant chains, or other multi-location operators.
• Direct experience serving major C-store operators, restaurant chains, franchisees, or institutional foodservice customers.
• Experience with aftermarket parts, repair, remanufacturing, core-return programs, or engineered replacement products.
• MBA or other relevant advanced degree.
• Experience working with electronic controls, displays, sensors, power supplies, or other high-value equipment components.
• Experience with product P&Ls, pricing strategy, inventory economics, and working-capital analysis.
• Familiarity with e-commerce-driven parts distribution and digital product information.

LEADERSHIP AND PERSONAL ATTRIBUTES

The successful candidate will be:

• Highly analytical while remaining commercially practical.
• Curious about how equipment operates, fails, and is serviced.
• Comfortable spending time with technicians, customers, and engineers.
• Willing to challenge assumptions and ask for evidence before resources are committed.
• Decisive when information is incomplete.
• Capable of saying no to attractive but strategically weak opportunities.
• Comfortable working in a growing, entrepreneurial organization without extensive support staff.
• Able to move between detailed product analysis and executive-level recommendations.
• Highly accountable, organized, and responsive.
• Motivated by building a new business and creating scalable processes.
• Collaborative, but willing to make and defend difficult prioritization recommendations.
• Focused on measurable results, speed, and continuous improvement.

WHAT SUCCESS LOOKS LIKE

During the first year, the Director will be expected to:

• Implement a consistent opportunity-screening and stage-gate process.
• Create a market-backed foodservice product roadmap by equipment category, OEM, and offering type.
• Establish clear decision criteria for sourcing, repair, remanufacturing, and Freedom-engineered products.
• Ensure priority projects have validated market estimates, business cases, and product requirements before entering full development.
• Improve funnel visibility, decision speed, and development prioritization.
• Reduce the amount of Engineering time consumed by poorly defined or insufficiently validated opportunities.
• Build reliable market models for the highest-priority foodservice categories.
• Improve coordination among Business Development, Sales, Product, Engineering, Operations, and Marketing.
• Launch priority products with clear target customers, pricing, positioning, and performance expectations.
• Establish post-launch reporting that compares actual results against the original business case.
• Build a scalable product-management capability that can support Freedom’s continued expansion.