Associate Product Manager, Nucleic Acid Chemistries

Company Description

LGC’s Diagnostics & Genomics Division, comprising of Biosearch Technologies, Seracare, Technopath and Maine Standards, delivers a premium portfolio of >17,000 products in the in vitro diagnostics (IVD) and extended life science industry. The Division is on a significant growth trajectory and therefore needs the ability to effectively manage its product and service portfolio, identifying gaps and extending where needed. 

Within Biosearch Technologies, Nucleic Acid Chemistry (NAC) has been built through successive acquisitions to deliver a comprehensive portfolio of products for customers using nucleic acid components and instrumentation for oligonucleotide synthesis, particularly in nucleic acid therapeutic (NAT) and molecular diagnostic (MDx) end applications. NAC is most notably well known as the global leader in controlled-pore glass (CPG) manufacture, the inventors of BHQ™ technology, and through its MerMade™ synthesizer platform brand.

Job Description

The Associate Product Manager, NAC role objectives centre on owning the tactical product management of the NAC product portfolio (excluding the MerMade™ synthesizers), with primary responsibility for its Product Life Cycle management, delivering effective marketing and sales enablement and supporting the Senior Product Manager in driving new product development.

Accountability Areas and Key Responsibilities

Own and maintain the product master data requirements.

• Maintain master data file(s).
• Provide all product data requirements to stakeholders for IFS, eCommerce, labelling, product documentation, SDS, manuals, protocols etc.
• Execute SKU data modifications where required.

Manage and rationalise extent of SKUs and formats offered in line with market requirements. 

• Work closely with Sales, Customer Service, Manufacturing, Quality and Supply-Chain to ensure portfolio composition is deliverable and meets customer requirements.
• Ensure portfolio changes are communicated internally and externally, working closely with Quality on change notifications.
• Assess and execute on creating custom configurations where appropriate.
• Execute new SKU and/or product creation where appropriate (including NPD).
• Execute SKU and/or full product discontinuation where appropriate.
• Provide product market intelligence to SIOP to guide inventory and demand planning.

Support product vitality through new product development, product extensions and product improvements.

• Participate in voice of customer and market research efforts to refine customer personas, identify new product and business opportunities, and write product requirements.
• Work closely with Senior Product Manager to support new product development through to launch.
• Work closely with Finance to ensure accurate product vitality index tracking.

Ensure awareness, and act upon, competitor product positioning in relation to ours.

• Be aware of competitor and market information using all available resources.
• Support Senior Product Manager in providing competitor positioning, comparative benchmarking and 'strategies to win' to Sales teams.  

Work closely with Marketing team to drive eCommerce capability and marketing campaigns.

• Act as SME for creation of product marketing collateral, campaigns and content for multiple offline and online channels (provide ideas, copy, edit/review, approve).
• Provide support for product launch activities.
• Create case studies and customer success stories, liaising with customers.

Work closely assisting Sales team to drive budget attainment.

• Monitor, evaluate, and report on product portfolio financial metrics.
• Participate in calls and customer visits to provide deeper product understanding to customers.
• Receive and act upon customer feedback accordingly.
• Create, provide and maintain Sales enablement tools such as product technical documentation and customer-facing communications.
• Provide Sales training on NPIs and other portfolio changes.
• Work closely with Customer Service and Quality to address / resolve customer complaints.
• Work closely with all teams to address /resolve issues with quotes / orders / shipments and to ensure product availability.

Educate both internal and external stakeholders on our product features and their benefits.

• Attend and showcase portfolio at industry conferences and events.
• Present conference posters.
• Participate as SME in product webinars.
• Deliver training and tools to our sales and customer service teams.

Own management of price data.

• Create, maintain and adjust list pricing for all SKUs.
• Provide product knowledge and market intelligence to annual price review.
• Provide support to Sales in pricing of custom configurations, custom products, volume discounting and ad hoc pricing requests to win/retain business.
• Support Senior Product Manager to maintain competitor price benchmarking.

Qualifications

Required Knowledge, Experience and Technical Skills

• BSc degree in Chemistry, Life Sciences, or equivalent.
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills.
• High degree of numeracy and attention to detail.
• Ability to comprehend and analyse complex technical information to support decision-making.
• Experience utilizing basic Office software, including Excel, PowerPoint, and Word.

Preferred Knowledge, Experience and Technical Skills

• Experience with any integrated marketing system, and an understanding of the principles of marketing tactics and metrics.
• Previous experience in regional marketing, product marketing, and/or product management is preferred, but not essential. With the right complementary experience in the life science sector, this role may be suitable for someone wishing to transition to product management.
• Solid understanding of basic financial reporting, and experience in manipulating data within Excel.
• An understanding of the life sciences market, with experience of the oligonucleotide synthesis reagent market being extremely advantageous.

Additional Information

Essential Competencies and Behaviours

• Preference to working in a collaborative, cross-team capacity. This role requires you to work across functions and departments, managing and leveraging a complex internal and external network.
• Delivers on commitments.
• Critical thinking: the ability to analyse, question and derive answers from complex scenarios.
• Project and time-management skills: self-motivated and the ability to work without close supervision; able to prioritise and deliver on time-bound objectives.
• Excellent people and empathetic skills to interact with employees, colleagues and cross-functional teams, and third parties.
• Willing to travel internationally. In addition to customer visits and industry events, this role will involve time spent at our sites in the US, UK and Europe.