Strategic Program Manager (m/f/d)

Discover your impact with KUKA

KUKA offers an enormous spectrum of possibilities to advance your career, live your passions and unlock your potential. We’re one of the world’s leading automation specialists, offering global opportunities in areas such as robotics, automation, logistics, software solutions and electronics. If you’re a go-getter, a visionary with bold ambitions and believer in collaboration and mutual respect, then you’re poised for success here at KUKA.

Responsibilities

• Based on in-depth market analysis, competitive landscape, technology trends and user research, leads the formulation of the long‑term strategy, product roadmap of intelligent robotics products.
• Responsible for the comprehensive evaluation and prioritization of new product candidates, leading the completion of business feasibility study including market potential, user portraits, financial models (ROI, cost, pricing), risk analysis.
• Act as a “CEO” for the responsible program & products: from market insights to go‑to‑market, and in the end responsible for the commercial success of products.
• Define and refine the overall program setup to drive key initiatives and to achieve the key targets of the program.
• Lead the product definition, output clear product requirements documents (PRDs), requirements for product design, core intelligent functions, user experience (UX/UI) and human‑computer interaction, and be responsible for final acceptance of R&D deliverables.
• Deeply involved in the product development process, working closely with R&D project management and R&D teams, managing product development priorities, schedules, and key resource coordination to ensure product delivery according to set goals, time, quality, and cost requirements.
• Responsible for the management and control of product requirement changes, balancing market flexibility with project stability.
• Responsible for the formulation and implementation of go‑to‑market strategies, coordinating marketing, branding, and sales teams to achieve product positioning, release plans, and channel strategies.
• Develop and implement exploration of sales channels and partnerships to expand market reach and coverage.
• Identify and pilot innovative approaches for customer onboarding and engagement.
• Responsible for the planning and promotion of product ecosystem strategies, including developer ecosystem, content ecosystem and peripheral hardware ecosystem.
• Define and monitor KPIs for program success and product success, including market share, revenue, adoption rates, channel performance, and customer satisfaction.
• Use data‑driven insights to continuously improve strategies and execution.
• Act as the primary point of contact for internal and external stakeholders.
• Communicate program status, risks, and opportunities and present to company top management leadership team.

Application Requirements

• Master’s degree or PhD in Engineering or related field.
• Several years of experience in project management in industrial automation, robotics, or technology sectors, with proven records of managing complex company‑wise projects.
• Proven records in product management, including go‑to‑market strategies and channel development.
• Experienced in product management for complex mechatronics and software products. Experience in internet or AI products is plus.
• Proven achievements of successfully bringing several products from product ideation to business success.
• Proven success of managing products with intense customer interactions and user experience.
• Multiple years of experience as people manager is highly preferred.
• Senior leadership position experience, e.g., director, is highly preferred.
• Strong product management skills.
• Exceptional Business and User Insights: Proficient in market analysis, user research, financial modeling, and competitive analysis, with strong business acumen and user‑centric design thinking.
• End‑to‑end product lifecycle management capabilities: end‑to‑end full‑process experience from market analysis, product ideation, product development, go‑to‑market, and product maintenance.
• Technology and Ecological Understanding: Deeply understand key technologies such as robotics, Artificial Intelligence, IoT, and human‑machine interaction, which can be transformed into core values that users can perceive.
• Strong project management skills.
• Excellent strategic thinking, cross‑functional leadership, communication and coordination, and team management skills to drive consensus and results in complex environments.