Senior Product Manager - Vendor Relations
New
K
KPI SolutionsWarehouse automation
Workable workplace: remote; Workable locations: Cincinnati, Ohio, United States. Kansas City, Missouri, United StatesFull-TimeSenior
SalaryCompetitive base salary commensurate with experience, plus performance-based bonus tied to product and vendor-partnership outcomes.
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Job Details
- Experience
- 7+ years of product management experience, with at least 3 years focused on vendor/partner or supplier relationship management.
- Required Skills
- Product ManagementRESTful APIs
Requirements
- Bachelor's degree in Business, Engineering, Supply Chain, or a related field, or equivalent experience.
- 7+ years of product management experience.
- At least 3 years focused on vendor/partner or supplier relationship management.
- Experience in material handling, warehouse automation, robotics, or the broader supply chain/logistics industry.
- Proven track record negotiating vendor contracts, SLAs, and commercial terms.
- Working knowledge of WMS, WES, WCS, and/or PLC/controls ecosystems.
- Hands-on familiarity with integrations between these systems and material handling equipment using APIs, data interfaces, and middleware.
- Experience defining or evaluating software integration requirements between third-party/vendor systems and internal or customer platforms.
- Negotiation, stakeholder management, and executive communication skills; ability to manage concurrent vendor relationships and competing priorities.
- Preferred: MBA or advanced degree, product management certification, or direct experience with automation OEMs.
- Preferred: experience at a systems integrator, equipment OEM, or software provider serving the MHI space.
- Preferred: familiarity with contract/vendor management tooling, CRM/PLM systems, iPaaS, or API testing/documentation tools such as Postman or Swagger/OpenAPI.
Responsibilities
- Serve as the product-side contact for OEM and technology vendors throughout the partnership lifecycle.
- Lead vendor evaluation, onboarding, and tiering; negotiate commercial terms, SLAs, and roadmap commitments with Procurement and Legal.
- Own vendor scorecards and drive corrective action plans with underperforming partners.
- Build executive-level supplier and technology partner relationships and coordinate joint go-to-market, co-development, and roadmap alignment.
- Manage vendor contract renewals, escalations, and dispute resolution with Legal and Finance.
- Own technical requirements and acceptance criteria for integrating vendor software and hardware with internal platforms and customer environments.
- Define API contracts, data exchange formats, and middleware requirements for vendor system interoperability.
- Lead technical due diligence and oversee integration testing, user acceptance testing, and go-live certification with vendors.
- Define and maintain product roadmaps, translate vendor capabilities into product requirements, and prioritize backlogs with Engineering and Solutions Design.
- Partner with Sales, Solutions Engineering, Implementation, Field Service, IT, and Engineering on proposals, customer issues, and integration standards.
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