Product development manager Jobs in North York, ON

What you’ll do

The Product Development ( Indoor Cooking ) team’s mandate is to help build the equity of CTR’s Retail Brands by improving the design and experience associated with our private-label branded offerings. The Product Development Associate Manager role is to support the Product Development Manager in building processes and capabilities that help deliver a consistent, authentic, and customer-driven product experience through our retail brands.

Under the guidance of the Product Development manager, leads and executes the product development efforts from concept to production for all given categories and brands in their portfolio.

Through ongoing analysis of the business categories and consumer foresight, partner with the category business and brand management team to align on business priorities and product assortment architecture.

Develop, lead and conduct multi-pronged product user centric design research exercises to learn about all aspects of the product experience (consideration to usage to disposal) for the designated products in your category. Analyze and synthesize findings into insights that identify feature sets, functionalities and innovation approaches.

Engage with Merchandising and Brand stakeholders and present findings through presentations. Be a champion for the human centered design approach.

Be the SME (Subject Matter Expert) and support the business innovation pipeline goals by providing guidance on new technology, product design, manufacturing considerations and other areas in the product value chain that delivers a competitive advantage. Aim to help create the next category + subcategory

Work closely with Brand and direct art direction for packaging, marketing, etc. as needed ensure consistent presentation of the brand in all customer-facing vehicles.

Work closely with the Design, Brand, QA, and Merch teams to conduct multi-pronged product user centric design research exercises to learn about all aspects of the product experience (consideration to usage to disposal) for the designated products in your category. Analyze and synthesize findings into insights that identify feature sets, functionalities, and innovation approaches.

Manage the creation of technical specification guides specific to the product opportunity that integrates the relevant CTQ (Critical to Quality) and CTE (Critical to Experience) components.

Review and evaluate samples and prototypes for accuracy.

Lead product tear down and product analysis of competitive products.

Work closely with the Global Sourcing, Quality, Brand and PRO teams to integrate the specifications into their work streams.

Contributes to product recommendations by completing competitive shops and presents findings to the PD Manager and relevant business partners.

Travel (Domestic and International) to various vendor partners to participate in onsite engineering and manufacturing builds, tooling and design reviews

Provide ongoing product and technical leadership to the assortment via solutions for product certification, registration and focusing on improving product integrity.

Work closely with the cross-functional teams at key touch points to execute the design work and get alignment and detail level consensus to drive results.

Integrates with Global Sourcing, the PRO, and Line Review teams to ensure a tight integration of the Brand Development processes with the line review processes.

Develops project plans that can deliver business requirements on the established timelines.

Helps to provide art direction for packaging, marketing, etc. as needed, and works with cross-functional teams to ensure consistent presentation of the brand in all customer-facing vehicles.

What you bring

Undergraduate degree in Mechanical Engineering, with 5+ years of experience in product development of the following industries preferred – consumer hard goods including kitchen, toys, tools, home appliances, automotive OEM or aftermarket parts.

Strong familiarity with manufacturing processes that is typically found within consumer-packaged goods as it relates to chemicals within the relevant category (recipes, product registration, claim validation through testing etc.)

Preferred understanding of the retail industry and product planning in retail communicated via experience working for a retailer or developing products keeping in mind the retail channel.

A passion for cooking, baking and / or BBQing.

Skilled in 3D modeling tools such as Solidworks and design tools such as Adobe CS etc.

Experience in User Interface and User Experience would be an asset.

Experience managing external design agencies – including briefing, selection, and project management.

Ability to work well cross-functionally; demonstrated ability to collaborate, influence and negotiate with colleagues more senior.

Outstanding communicator able to clearly translate strategy into design specs or direction.

Ability to formulate and sell recommendations based upon robust research and assessment of risk / rewards.

Strong presentation skills with demonstrated ability to adjust style and format as required to suit the audience.

Experience in understanding consumer / market needs in the development of technical product requirements

Experience with usability testing, ethnographic research, and product development tools

Customer focused and action oriented

Highly organized and detail oriented, able to tackle multiple projects with varying scope and project teams.

A passion for cooking, baking and / or BBQing.

Hybrid

At Canadian Tire we work flexibility embracing ‘Hybrid’ whereby individuals utilize a combination of working at a CTC campus and or virtually in service of outcomes. Determined by managers, decisions around work location will be made based on business and team needs and grounded in a desire to support individual well-being and personal needs. Our goal is to empower teams and individuals to make the right decisions for them, and we expect that to look different for everyone

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