SVP – Product and Markets — Electronics Portfolio

The mandate

An automotive-electronics portfolio has expanded through customer-specific variants of controllers, sensors and interface modules. Revenue remains significant, but applications with different thermal, voltage and software conditions share product labels and business cases. Customer evidence now shows that several offers no longer produce attractive lifecycle value. An urgent product leader must decide where standardisation, redesign or withdrawal is warranted.

The SVP will shape an approximately €9,400 million regional revenue and programme perimeter and influence 1,075 employees and partners. The role owns portfolio strategy, segment choice, product propositions, requirements, pricing architecture, launch and lifecycle governance. Engineering owns technical design and quality owns defect closure. Product and Markets must ensure that approved use cases, customer promises and variant economics remain coherent.

Warranty analysis will be brought into product decisions at cohort level. The same module can perform differently by vehicle architecture, mounting position, climate, update pattern or supplier lot. The SVP will join field incidence, diagnostic certainty, repair labour, customer downtime and recovery to contribution by application. High volume will not protect a variant whose validation and support burden destroys value.

Market work must go beyond customer requests. Product teams will investigate the operating problem, willingness to pay, integration burden and plausible substitution. Requests for unique interfaces or schedules will carry an explicit price and lifecycle case. Where the firm lacks a defendable advantage, the SVP should negotiate a common platform, license, partnership or exit rather than accept another permanent branch.

Why this seat is open

The previous SVP departed following a personal relocation that accelerated the transition. Interim leaders protect current launches but cannot resolve the portfolio. The board seeks a permanent replacement within six to eight weeks. No concealed quality investigation or conduct outcome prompted the search.

What you will own

• Segment the portfolio by customer problem, application evidence and lifecycle contribution.
• Decide standardisation, redesign, repricing, partnership, harvest and withdrawal.
• Set product requirements and approved operating envelopes with engineering and quality.
• Integrate warranty and installed-base obligations into roadmap and launch cases.
• Rebuild customer negotiation around variation cost and verifiable value.
• Develop product-line leaders with commercial and technical authority.

Portfolio forums will examine exceptions before roadmaps. Each new variant needs a named customer value, evidence that a standard offer cannot meet it, incremental validation and support cost, and a retirement rule. Existing exceptions will be grouped by technical similarity to reveal consolidation opportunities. The SVP will protect customer continuity while setting dates after which unsupported configurations cannot be sold.

The product organisation must remain close to field truth. Leaders will spend time with fleet operators, workshops and returned-part teams, not only purchasing and engineering headquarters. Research will distinguish installation error, misuse, component defect and unmet proposition. Claims will be corrected when operating limits are not understood, even where stronger marketing language would help an immediate negotiation.

Roadmap capacity will be reserved for installed-base correction as explicitly as for new launches. Product leaders will forecast engineering and validation demand created by each active application and fund service tooling through its support horizon. Acquisitions or licensed modules will enter the same evidence system, preventing commercial ownership from obscuring warranty accountability.

The first 12 months

The first 90 days will map contribution and warranty by application, review the 20 largest variants and stabilise customer decisions at risk. The SVP will present a product architecture and leadership assessment with immediate stop, contain and investigate choices.

By month eight, two variant families should enter consolidation, revised pricing or controlled retirement; three priority propositions will have tested customer economics and operating envelopes. Product reviews will use common lifecycle evidence from finance, field quality and engineering.

At twelve months, warranty cost in selected cohorts should fall at least 12%, the active variant count reduce by 15%, and contribution improve by 200 basis points across the reviewed range. More than 90% of new requirements must have traceable customer and technical evidence, while no critical transition may breach supply or service commitments.

What the board will measure

• Product choices grounded in application and field economics.
• Fewer unsupported variants and clearer standard platforms.
• Lower warranty cost without claims suppression.
• Honest customer commitments and disciplined withdrawal.
• Strong product leadership with credible successors.

The person

You are an SVP Product, product-line general manager or commercial product head with 22–28 years in automotive electronics, industrial technology or engineered components. You have owned at least €5,450 million and led 750 people or more. Required examples include a portfolio deletion, a customer-specific variation you refused or repriced, and a warranty problem converted into product action.

The position is onsite in Stuttgart with customer, engineering and field travel. You must interpret technical evidence, carry commercial accountability and communicate product withdrawal without damaging trust.

Compensation and terms

Base compensation is €250,000–330,000 plus annual incentive. Performance balances contribution, warranty, adoption, portfolio simplification, customer transition and succession. The final package reflects scope; notice of up to six months can be accommodated.

Confidentiality

The manufacturer, customers, modules, field cohorts and portfolio choices are confidential. Qualified candidates receive further evidence under an undertaking. Stuttgart and the rounded figures do not identify the client.