Director of Product Line Management — Test Instruments & Tools

Read This First This is a physical products role. You will own instruments and tools that technicians carry into the field, open in the rain, and drop off the back of a truck. If your product experience is software, SaaS, or a platform, we are not a fit, and we will not be able to move you forward no matter how strong the rest of your background is.

This is hands-on work. You will personally own a product category and make its decisions rather than directing product managers who make them for you. The scope is set to grow into VP of Product Management as the portfolio does, and we are looking for someone who wants that. The position is on-site at our Vista, California headquarters.

We are not considering remote or hybrid arrangements, and we prefer candidates already in the San Diego area. About Tempo Tempo Communications builds the test, measurement, and tooling products technicians rely on to install and maintain communications networks across copper, fiber, PoE, and underground utility location.

Our brands are Tempo, Paladin Tools, and KingFisher. We are an independent, closely held, owner-led company of roughly 130 people, headquartered in Vista with operations in Wales, Hungary, and Australia. Our customer is the field technician, and our promise is straightforward: Find it. Fix it. Prove it. The Role You will own how Tempo decides what to build, in what order, and why.

This is working leadership rather than strategy from a distance. You will carry a product category of your own, P&L included, while leading four product line managers across the rest of the portfolio, reporting directly to the CEO. The company is small enough that your decisions ship. You will have products you defined in technicians’ hands inside of eighteen months, and the authority to decide what those products are.

This role is not a fit if your product has been software, if you are looking for a role where you direct product managers rather than own products yourself, or if you need to work on-site less than five days a week. What You’ll Own Application knowledge. Everything else depends on it. Good products come from understanding how the work actually gets done and then seeing where safety, productivity, or quality can be improved.

You will need to understand the workflow of a locate, a splice, a certification, and a pull. That knowledge either arrives with you from the field or you build it through voice-of-customer work and ride-alongs, and you will hold your team to the same standard. The portfolio. Location & Markers, Fiber Test & Measurement, Copper & PoE, and Tools.

You will build and defend a multi-year roadmap with real continuity of technology behind it rather than a list of individually funded projects, and you will carry one category yourself. The funnel, with financial rigor. You will build the business cases, rank the funnel on financial merit, and answer for that ranking.

Projects will be funded and killed on your analysis, and we expect you to tell us when something should stop. Stage gate discipline. You will own our NP&SI stage-gate process end to end: deliverables defined for each gate, evidence presented at the gate, and a vote that can genuinely fail. Launch outcomes. Today we track launch dates but not what the launches earned.

You will own revenue, margin, and vitality index against plan, reported on a cadence. The team. Four product line managers, two of them new to product management. You will set development plans, run structured reviews, coach on business case construction and market analysis, and build a deeper bench than the one you inherit.

What You’ll Bring Required Your product has been something a person holds, carries, mounts, or plugs in. Instruments, test and measurement equipment, electrical or electronic hardware, hand or power tools. Firmware or software that ships alongside the hardware is expected. Software as the product is not what we are hiring for.

Eight or more years in product management or product line management, with direct ownership of a line you make decisions about today rather than oversight of managers who own it. Ownership of a product line P&L, including pricing, margin, and portfolio rationalization. Proven ability to build and defend business cases, and to rank a development funnel on financial merit.

Come prepared to walk us through a funnel you prioritized and the analysis behind it. Substantive experience inside a formal stage-gate or phase-gate process, where you owned the gates for your line and built the evidence behind them. Market sizing and segmentation work you had to defend to people with the authority to say no.

Fluency reading a business from its data: SKU-level margin and mix, price realization, and launch performance against plan. The ability to specify a product both to engineering and to an overseas contract manufacturer, covering requirements, trade-offs, and first article review, with enough technical depth to be taken seriously in either conversation.

Experience managing or mentoring product managers, and a willingness to travel roughly 25 to 30 percent. Preferred Communications infrastructure, utility locating, fiber optics, electrical contracting, or the professional and industrial tool trades. Time in the field as a technician, installer, or field engineer before moving into product management.

Two-step distribution experience, or product line integration following an acquisition. Structured preference and trade-off research such as conjoint, MaxDiff, Kano, or price sensitivity analysis, along with the judgment to know when a formal study earns its cost and when a dozen good field interviews will do. How We’ll Evaluate You Expect us to ask about four things.

The first is a development funnel you prioritized, including the criteria, the financial model, a project you backed that paid off, and one you killed. The second is a business case you built and what actually happened after the launch. The third is something you watched a technician do that changed a product. The fourth is the most significant thing you took on that was not in your job description.

We would rather see one product line you genuinely owned than a résumé of programs you coordinated. Why This Role Is Worth Your Time Real authority. You report to the CEO, with no layer between your analysis and the decision. A portfolio that needs a point of view. Strong brands, a loyal installed base, real opportunity in fiber and utility location, and strategy work nobody has claimed.

Room to grow. The role is scoped to become VP of Product Management for a larger portfolio, on performance, against criteria we will put in writing. Systems you will recognize. Annual goal deployment with action plans, named owners, and bowling charts, alongside a formal stage-gate process. The scaffolding exists and needs a product leader who will use it properly.

Big-company rigor at small-company speed. Three owners, no private equity committee, no quarterly earnings theater. Good proposals get an answer in days. Location and Compensation On-site at our Vista, California headquarters, five days a week. Product decisions here get made in hallways and standing over a prototype with engineering, and we have just added three product people who work in the building.

We are not considering remote or hybrid arrangements for this role, and candidates already living in the San Diego area are preferred. Base salary range: $180,000 to $220,000, plus an annual performance bonus. Where you land within the range depends on experience and qualifications. We have a long record of paying for performance, and the bonus is a substantial part of total compensation rather than a token.

Benefits

include medical, dental, and vision coverage, a 401(k), and paid time off. To Apply Send a résumé along with brief answers to all three of the following. A few sentences each is plenty. Name the physical product line you own today, its approximate annual revenue, and roughly how many units ship in a year. Describe one product decision you made that you would still defend, and one you would make differently.

Tell us about something you watched a technician, installer, or tradesperson do that changed a product. Applications that do not answer all three will not be reviewed. Equal Employment Opportunity Tempo Communications, Inc. is an equal opportunity employer. We consider all qualified applicants without regard to race, color, religion, sex, pregnancy, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, national origin, ancestry, age (40 and over), disability, medical condition, genetic information, marital status, military or veteran status, reproductive health decision-making, or any other characteristic protected by applicable law.

Reasonable accommodations are available for qualified individuals with disabilities and for religious practices. Individuals with disabilities and protected veterans are encouraged to apply.