Regional Category Lead （Japanese）

Location: CN - Shanghai   
Goodyear Talent Acquisition Representative: Joa Xu  
Sponsorship Available:  No
Relocation Assistance Available: No 

Primary Purpose of the Position                                                    
Act as the ambassador and key enabler of Product Superiority concept across the Consumer product portfolio in designated line and/or area of Asia-Pacific region. Ensure diligent execution of corporate and marketing targets in the designated territories. 

Scope of the position includes:
•    In line with regional product strategy, driver planning and execution throughout the product lifecycle. Activity includes gathering and prioritizing product and customer requirements, defining the product vision on a data-driven basis, and working closely with enterprise project leaders, engineering, sales, marketing, and countries to ensure revenue and customer satisfaction goals are met
•    Define Customer Value Proposition and Go-To-Market strategy for new and existing products to achive competitive advantage and Product Superiority at targeted countries, sales channels and audience
•    Support & Oversee market back alignment for product initiatives and priorities in AP clusters in relation to regional priorities

Principle Duties and Responsibilities 
Product Review and Country Portfolio management 
Lead and collaborate with country product management teams on a regular basis:
•    Challenge and critically assess local product strategy and its synchronization with regional targets and metrics
•    To define and align Country Product Portfolio, enable Product Superiority concept locally and remove inefficiencies in current outlook via simplification activities
•    Support and deploy new products Customer Value Proposition and GTM in line with regional guidelines
•    Collect market insights and define future requests for the product in designated area
•    Track realization and target achievement for executed activities
•    To address any regional requests requiring in-time and quality country support
    

New Product Introduction and Customer Value Proposition 
   Transfer strategy into diligent launch of new products in the markets for designed area of responsibility:
•    Definition of new product concept based on strong and data-driven insights: Product Claim, Performance requirements, Coverage, Competition benchmark, Business case preparation and Market insights
•    Value Proposition and Product superiority deployment: Defining added value of new product to bring to the company, customers and end users. Collaborate closely with local and regional functions
•    Organizing and driving launch plan in designated markets together with local product team, in line with regional guidelines

Contribution to corporate cycles and long-term product planning 
Support Product Director in preparation and consolidation of the function input towards corporate reports and activities:
•    5-Year Product Roadmap: Data-driven approach based on market intelligence inisghts and product knowledge to identify focused area for long-term growth and size of prizes
•    Rationalization and Complexity: In-time coopertaion with business and Technical teams to ensure optimized and efficient portfolio deployment in the market
•    Participate in PCP (Product Creation Process) and contribute in other corporate forums to address to present and elaborate Product related activities for new launch, existing product portfolio and other adhoc activities
•    Special Projects trigged by regional office and Product Director for designated area of responsibility

Operational excellence, ways to reinforce data-driven approach, product superiority and collaboration:
•    Constant market and competitive analysis for designated area of responsibility, joint collaboration with other regional functions and local product team to achieve corporate targets
•    Managing and structuring data knowledge for designated area of responsibility and explore ways to optimize and streamline it
•    Collaborate with other Category Managers and consolidate the data to present joint input for Product Director on requested topics
•    Business trips to the local markets to closely collaborate and check performance and ‘situation on the ground’ in designated area of responsibility.

Experience required:
•    More than 5 years experience in product and/or marketing management. FMCG or Tire Industry are preferrable
•    Experience in transferring technical concepts into strong marketing communications message
•    Experience working with complex portfolio [multiple SKUs and Sourcing]
•    Project Management: Experience working at a fast pace with varied disciplines and individuals to drive accountability for deliverables
•    Must be able to understand the new product development process
•    Experience in budget management and directing investments

Knowledge, Skills & Abilities required:
•    Story-telling: Ability to work and analyze big massive of data, transfer it into a structured manner, assess gaps, conclude solution and present in understandable format for target audience
•    Product from the lens of Marketing knowledge
•    Stakeholder management and ability to adapt the message to different target audiences [Executive leaders, Peers, Customers, etc]
•    Agility in prioritizing and executing the agenda with adhoc task
•    Team player: understand scope of responsibility in relation to bigger team and target
•    Fast learner and creative thinker: ability to onboard fast into the topic, understand the challenge and drive the solution
•    Punctual and disciplined towards tasks assigned

•    Fluent in both Japanese and English.

Location: Shanghai or Tokyo

Welcome candidates who are currently in Japan and want to return to China.

Goodyear is an Equal Employment Opportunity and Affirmative Action Employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to that individual's race, color, religion or creed, national origin or ancestry, sex (including pregnancy), sexual orientation, gender identity, age, physical or mental disability, ethnicity, citizenship, or any other characteristic protected by law.

Goodyear is one of the world’s largest tire companies. It employs about 74,000 people and manufactures its products in 57 facilities in 23 countries around the world. Its two Innovation Centers in Akron, Ohio and Colmar-Berg, Luxembourg strive to develop state-of-the-art products and services that set the technology and performance standard for the industry. For more information about Goodyear and its products, go to www.goodyear.com/corporate