Title: Director of Product Development

Reports to: President

General Scope of Position:

Responsible to manage the product development team, components filtration, process filtration and the products testing lab. Focused on new projects, technical support, part creation process, supporting the overall local fabrication strategy to allow us to meet our goals, and general sales support for Sefar NA.

The Product Development Manager takes direction from the direct supervisor, but works daily with the Business Sales Managers and their teams, the Inside Sales Organization and the Operations Teams both locally, in CH and around the world to ensure we are applying the best commercially viable solution with best practice production techniques that enables us to profitably grow the Sefar business.

Position Requirements:

• Bachelor's degree in Engineering, Product Design, or a related field. A Master's degree or MBA is a plus.
• Minimum of 5 years of experience in product development and engineering, with at least 3-5 years in a leadership or managerial role.
• Foster communication and collaboration across all regions within the Americas, ensuring alignment of goals, strategies, and execution.
• Strong organizational skills with the ability to prioritize and manage multiple projects simultaneously.
• Creative and innovative mindset, with the ability to develop new concepts and solutions in response to technical and design challenges specific to Sefar Inc.’s markets.

Job Responsibilities:

Sefar Inc. employees are expected to uphold the highest standards of quality, ensuring customer needs are met and exceeded through consistent communication and commitment to excellence.

• Manages the components items developed, proposed and sold.
• Management of manufacturing/supply chain requirements…including local supply strategy (new processes) & third party supplier development.
• Management of Components CH-Business/Project/Quality support, through regularly held and documented (with actions & dates) communication. Communication should be a mix of Voice (calls), email & face-to-face interactions.
• Management of new process evaluation…investigates and recommends solutions to facilitate growth strategy.
• Management all components product costing process (ie FCE, projects) to ensure the right product is being both requested and accurately quoted in a timely manner. Developed with guidance from VP of Sales.
• Required that activities support year over year sales growth.
• Required to have a thorough knowledge of all Major Sales Opportunities in Components Filtration.
• Responsible to manage all of the product support as required for the MSO commercial success.
• Required to have in depth understanding of local & global production capabilities to ensure we are making the best specification/supply/sourcing decisions for Sefar.
• Required to effectively communicate your activities to the organization….ie MSO-projects, weekly/monthly report, etc.
• Management of new product/application developments in strategic markets…reviewing with BSMs to brainstorm what new products we could develop to replace competitive technologies.
• Required to support of customer interaction to support Sales.
• Required to perform administrative requirements to meet required schedules…reports, CRM, Notes-DBs, etc.
• Required to attend local, regional and national trade shows, company sales and training meetings as required.
• Required to recommend, implement, and monitor controls for customer material stocking programs or establishment of long term purchasing agreements
• Required to train and provide organizational product support for Components Filtration.
• Oversight of quality complaints…review of organizations actions & response to ensure they satisfy both Sefar business interests and our customer requirements.
• Oversight of new material specification.
• Oversight of aged inventory, determining best course of action.
• Other activities and responsibilities as assigned by Management.