Product Manager - EV Connected Services

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Date: Apr 22, 2024

Location: Irvine, California, US

Company: Kia America, Inc.

At Kia, we’re creating award-winning products and redefining what value means in the automotive industry. It takes a special group of individuals to do what we do, and we do it together. Our culture is fast-paced, collaborative, and innovative. Our people thrive on thinking differently and challenging the status quo. We are creating something special here, a culture of learning and opportunity, where you can help Kia achieve big things and most importantly, feel passionate and connected to your work every day.

Kia provides team members with competitive benefits including premium paid medical, dental and vision coverage for you and your dependents, 401(k) plan matching of 100% up to 6% of the salary deferral, and time off starting at 14 days per year. Kia also offers company lease and purchase programs, company-wide holiday shutdown, paid volunteer hours, and premium lifestyle amenities at our corporate campus in Irvine, California.

Status

Exempt

Summary

Kia’s Connected Car and Mobility Team is looking for a Connected Services Product Manager responsible for re-defining the connected EV driver experience. Responsibilities includes identifying EV driver touchpoints, supporting the development of product strategies to increase engagement with the Kia brand, negotiating with EV experience partnerships and managing partnership day to day operations, driving customer research for product feedback and customer satisfaction assessment, evaluate and develop new partner collaboration, and identifying opportunities for building and improving new and existing connected car products and services.  

Major Responsibilities

1st Priority - 35%

  • Negotiate agreements with e-MSP/CPO. 
  • Manage e-MSP/CPO integration into existing environment, developing billing model for integrated consumer charging solution. 
  • Manage billing settlements with e-MSP/CPO.
  • Leverage EV consumer and market insights to tap into new opportunities and deepen customer engagement.
  • Understand electric vehicle (EV) driver behavior, identify pain points and improvement opportunities in driver experience. 
  • Using analytics and customer segmentation – develop and measure marketing funnels to enhance engagement and conversion.
  • Monitor and report on KPIs and the effectiveness of marketing initiatives to the management team and use data to create future marketing strategies.

2nd Priority - 20%

  • Manage feature/service launches from concept to launch and post-launch support.  
  • Develop the product concept and write business requirements for the engineering team. Identify and prioritize product features that will deliver the most value to customers. Prioritize and deprioritize features as needed to ensure timely and high-quality product releases.
  • Collaborate with engineering, build and iterate new capabilities to deliver quality products and experiences. 
  • Champion EV user charging requirements and work with IT to build product backlog and prioritization. 
  • Assist management in developing business cases for the strategies and lead the effort.  
  • Work closely with cross-functional partners including Marketing, Sales & Service Operations, Consumer Affairs, and Legal to present the business goals, build consensus and gain support on the product, sales strategy, legal compliance, and post launch customer support.

3rd Priority - 20%

  • Support new services ideation, customer research, discussions with affiliates, global headquarters, and vendor. 
  • Analyze user feedback, usage data, and metrics to improve our offerings continuously, competition benchmarking, and other sources. Translate customer problems into new connected car products, features, and services. 
  • Support product and market fitment assessment, and develop innovative proposals including business case, implementation cost, and time estimate. 
  • Successfully seek approvals from management to translate the proposal into a project.

4th Priority - 10%

  • Periodically collect product and service usage data from multiple different sources. Analyze user feedback, usage data, and metrics to identify product/service improvements. 
  • Translate data into relevant and useful stories depending on the roles of the target team and support teams to improve or build new products and services.
  • Develop and manage simple business intelligence solutions or self-service tools for the data needs of the connected car team.

5th Priority - 15%

  • Proactively identify areas for market and customer research and coordinate with the research team to gather data and insight about target personas, user experience, product needs, customer pain points, loyalty, and the purchasing decision process for the product. 
  • Be a point of contact for all types of requests for the legal department including providing data as needed and clarifications on connected car products and services.
     

Education/Certification

  • Bachelors in Engineering, Computer Science, or Master’s in Business Administration. 
  • PMP preferred.
  • Certified Product Owner Certification preferred.
  • Knowledge of EV charging industry standards such as OCPP, ISO 15118, OCPI, etc. required.    
  • Understanding of e-MSP / CPO landscape within US market preferred.
     

Overall Experience

  • 10+ years of overall industry experience 

Directly Related Experience

  • 7+ years’ experience as a Management Consultant or Product Management with emphasis on software or data-based services. 
  • 2+ years of experience focused on EV driver experience preferred.  
  • Experience negotiating with e-MSP and CPOs and managing billing and settlements with the former. 
  • Experience in presenting the high-level picture to Executives and going into detail with Developers and operations team.
  • Experience in tracking metrics associated with system usage and user behavior and deriving actionable improvements.
  • Experience managing technical integration projects for customer facing applications.
  • Knowledge in building out customer research processes and reporting findings to business and product management. 

Position Requirements:

  • Occasional travel may be required domestically and/or internationally. 
  • May need to work additional hours outside of normal business hours as required by the job, including weekends or holidays.
  • Perform other duties as assigned.

Skills

Ability to develop and implement post-launch product monitoring plans to ensure product expectations met.
Ability to evaluate complex problems, stakeholder needs, and constraints and adjust priorities accordingly.
Ability to lead internal and external teams/task forces; and cross-functional teams to project completion.
Ability to quickly understand customer needs and develop requirements.
Ability to quickly understand technical constraints.
Demonstrated planning and organizational skills, and the ability to see the big picture as well as attention to detail is required
Experience developing customer facing content and messages.
Proficient in developing complex excel models.
Project management experience with ability to successfully manage multiple projects, assignments, and deadlines simultaneously.
Strong analytical skills
Strong verbal and written communication, presentation, interpersonal, and writing skills is required.

Competencies

CHALLENGE - Solving Complex Problems
COLLABORATION - Building and Supporting Teams
CUSTOMER - Serving Customers
GLOBALITY - Showing Community and Social Responsibility
PEOPLE - Interacting with People at Different Levels

Pay Range

$98,043.00 - $136,296.00 

Pay will be based on several variables that are unique to each candidate, including but not limited to, job-related skills, experience, relevant education or training, etc.

 

Equal Employment Opportunities

KUS provides equal employment opportunities (EEO) to all employees and applicants for employment without regard to race, color, religion, ancestry, national origin, sex, including pregnancy and childbirth and related medical conditions, gender, gender identity, gender expression, age, legally protected physical disability or mental disability, legally protected medical condition, marital status, sexual orientation, family care or medical leave status, protected veteran or military status, genetic information or any other characteristic protected by applicable law.  KUS complies with applicable law governing non-discrimination in employment in every location in which KUS has offices.  The KUS EEO policy applies to all areas of employment, including recruitment, hiring, training, promotion, compensation, benefits, discipline, termination and all other privileges, terms and conditions of employment.

 

Disclaimer:  The above information on this job description has been designed to indicate the general nature and level of work performed by employees within this classification and for this position.  It is not designed to contain or be interpreted as a comprehensive inventory of all duties, responsibilities, and qualifications required of employees assigned to this job.


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