Sr. Technical Hardware Product Manager

Digital Control Incorporated (DCI) is the world’s leading supplier of underground locating and steering products for the horizontal directional drilling (HDD) industry. Since the introduction of this revolutionary technology 30 years ago, Digital Control has been at the forefront of trenchless technologies that enable the efficient installation of underground utilities such as fiber optic, telecom, gas, and water lines world-wide. DCI’s products are valued for their durable design, ease of use and uncompromising commitment to customer service.

DCI is seeking a Technical Hardware Product Manager to drive global strategy, product development, and customer success for our portfolio of physical products. This highly collaborative role bridges technology, domain expertise, sales enablement, and customer experience. Working with a team of 3-4 product managers, engineering project managers, and leaders in the organization, you'll apply your knowledge of hardware development and industrial applications to shape our product ecosystem's strategic roadmap. Managing key product lines, you will ensure seamless integration with our broader product suite while delivering customer value and driving adoption across global markets.

Responsibilities:

Crafting a Visionary Hardware Roadmap

• Collaborate with other product managers and leadership members to chart to course of DCI's hardware portfolio and greater product ecosystem. Define, present, and execute comprehensive strategies and roadmaps for your product lines, driving internal and external alignment with the product and company vision.

Collaborative Product Development

• Partner closely with engineering and production teams to deliver the hardware and tools product roadmap. Contribute your expertise to balance trade-offs across developer resources, customer experience, and time-to-market goals.

Connecting Requirements Throughout the Product Ecosystem

• Work with other product managers to align technical decisions and features across platforms, seeking their input for requirements and solutions outside your domain expertise. Develop specifications and requirements for key hardware and embedded software components, enabling cohesive and scalable solutions.

Ensure Scalability and Usability

• Work with user experience and testing teams to balance features and performance against global market needs and hardware lifecycles. Coordinate with manufacturing and customer service teams to ensure our hardware and software integrations meet the highest standards of quality and reliability.

Clear Written Communication

• Use your exceptional writing skills to craft compelling, concise, consistent messages that inspire trust and drive stakeholder alignment. Deliver documentation for product requirements, strategies, and data analyses that clearly portray customer and company goals being met while allowing for the development of technically feasible solutions.

Global Product Launches

• Partner with domestic and international customer service, marketing, training, sales channel, and operations teams to deliver seamless product launches. Drive product adoption with localized go-to-market strategies that meet the unique needs of global markets.

Translate Insights into Action

• Collaborate with the Product Operations team on idea intake, customer feedback, analytics, and lifecycle management programs. Use data-informed decision-making to transform insights and business needs into actionable product requirements and priorities.

Market Research and Analysis

• Conduct and support in-depth market research and competitive benchmarking efforts to sustain industry leadership. Define and monitor product performance metrics, leveraging user feedback and data to inform continuous improvement efforts.

Industry Engagement

• Interact with customers, channel partners, and field teams to gather requirements, address pain points, and validate product direction. Represent DCI at industry events, showcasing our thought leadership and your domain expertise while demonstrating genuine curiosity.

Requirements

• Bachelor’s degree in business, engineering, or a related field.
• Ability to navigate construction sites and other potentially hazardous environments.
• Hardware development experience, including familiarity with common project management methodologies.
• Experience working with UX design, mechanical, electrical, and software engineering teams.
• Strong ability to communicate technical concepts, make trade-offs, and evaluate new ideas.
• Industry experience in manufacturing, construction, tools, or other heavy industries involving technical products in diverse environments.
• Exceptional business writing skills with the ability to explain complex ideas to varied audiences.

Nice to have:

• Experience with electronic measurement devices, sensors, and IoT products.
• Portfolio management experience.
• Background in user research and customer-focused solutions.
• Experience collaborating with embedded software development teams.
• Familiarity with systems engineering processes and frameworks.
• Exposure to manufacturing or supply chain systems.
• Working knowledge of Lean, Agile, and Scrum methodologies.
• Proficiency with tools like Asana, JIRA, and Confluence.

Benefits

• Unparalleled health benefits (PPO plan with no deductibles, no co-pays, DCI covers 99% of costs)
• Quarterly bonuses: we all share in the success of the company
• Professional development
• 401k match (3% match from DCI regardless of participation, 5% maximum match, 100% vested immediately)
• 22 days PTO
• Parental leave
• Company covers 100% of payroll taxes for state family medical leave
• 11 annual paid holidays plus 1 floating holiday
• Winter break (we are closed the last week of each year)
• See more benefits information here.

Compensation:

• DCI is proud to offer comprehensive compensation packages including competitive base pay and discretionary quarterly profit sharing bonuses to all part-time and full-time team members. Base pay is reviewed at a minimum on an annual basis.
• Pay range: $143,900.00 - $166,400.00 per year. To ensure equity, our compensation philosophy is to bring people into new roles in the range of the mid-point of that role. Factors considered for pay include the level of skill, experience, training, external market factors, and internal value.
• Profit sharing bonus: Over the last 3 years, quarterly bonuses ranged between 11% and 27%. Future bonuses could be higher or lower depending on company profits.

If you’re excited about this role but your experience doesn’t align perfectly with every requirement, we encourage you to still apply. You may be just the right candidate for this or another role at DCI.

Why DCI?

Work hard, play often... DCI employees are innovative and creative. Our open (forest-like) work environment creates free flowing conversations across all functions. We have gaming days; Lego challenges and ping pong matches to build on our creativity when one hits a roadblock. If that is not enough, our employees bring their four-legged companions (dogs) to work and can take them for a walk around the Green River trail.

DCI takes pride in caring a lot about our employees. We believe that employees should not be burdened with benefits expenses, so we provide lucrative health care plans unmatched in most other companies. We also like to eat at DCI and find any excuse to celebrate the most random holidays (Pi Day, Chocolate Ice Cream Day, etc.) We have monthly catered lunches, a fully stocked snack area, sporting tickets, wellness competitions, and most importantly a team of people who will tell you that DCI is the best place they've ever worked. This is evident by our long service team and low turnover.

We Celebrate Inclusion:

DCI is an equal opportunity employer. Employment at DCI is based solely on a person's merit and qualifications directly related to professional competence. DCI does not discriminate against any employee or applicant because of race, creed, color, religion, gender, sexual orientation, gender identity/expression, national origin, disability, age, genetic information, veteran status, marital status, pregnancy or related condition (including breastfeeding), or any other basis protected by law.

It is DCI’s policy to comply with all applicable national, state and local laws pertaining to nondiscrimination and equal opportunity. The Company's EEO policy includes the full & complete support of the Company and all levels of leadership. Because it's just the right thing to do. We hope you think so too.