Vice President, Product

Vice President, Product

For the first time, the container is talking! And the world's leading manufacturers are listening.

SmartSkin has developed the unique and patented ability to measure the forces that containers experience as they traverse a production line. The data created by this Physical AI solution enables global manufacturers in multiple packaging segments to unlock new potential in productivity, quality, and sustainability. SmartSkin is already a leading supplier to the food, beverage and pharmaceutical sectors, counting nearly every major brand, with 100’s of installations all over the world.

As a high-growth, scaling company, we are entering a period of accelerated product innovation to drive our solution forward. We are seeking a world class individual to lead our product organization through this next exciting chapter. This is a truly unique opportunity to be part of a globally significant innovation, right here in New Brunswick.

The Vice President, Product is a senior leadership role with responsibility for translating SmartSkin's company strategy, customer needs, market opportunities, and technology capabilities into world-class product solutions. The VP of Product will have leadership responsibility for what we build, for whom, why it matters, and what outcomes we expect it to create. Working in close partnership with Engineering, Sales, Marketing, Supply Chain, Customer Success and the executive team, this highly collaborative leader will ensure SmartSkin makes deliberate product choices, executes against the highest-value opportunities, and measures success through customer and business outcomes.

Because this is a new role, the VP will also establish the product management discipline, decision frameworks, operating rhythms and capabilities required for SmartSkin to expand its leading position in this space.

The Product Management function includes the full product lifecycle, from customer insight through launch, pricing, and eventual retirement. Its scope covers:

• All SmartSkin hardware lines, including sensors and accessories
• The companion software application, cloud platform, and AI and analytics services
• Pricing, packaging, and bundling across our solutions
• Product-facing market research, launch, and lifecycle decisions
• Product information, specifications, compliance data, and the master product catalog
• Field enablement and internal product training

Within that scope the function is organized around six pillars: Market & Client Research, Product Innovation, Product Rationalization, Pricing, Commercial Strategy, and Product Information. The VP of Product is accountable for all six.

The VP of Product will lead SmartSkin’s product strategy and Physical AI portfolio across hardware, firmware, and software platforms:

• Product Strategy & Portfolio: Define and execute a clear product vision and multi-year strategy aligned with company priorities, customer needs and market opportunity. Lead portfolio and roadmap decisions, including where to invest, simplify, partner, accelerate or stop.
• Customer, Market & Product Discovery: Build a deep understanding of customers, users, and emerging opportunities. Establish disciplined discovery and validation practices so significant product investments are grounded in evidence, differentiated value and clear customer problems.
• Product Portfolio & Lifecycle: Create clear market-facing definitions for SmartSkin’s products and capabilities, including target customers, value propositions and strategic role. Manage the portfolio throughout its lifecycle, rationalizing overlapping or underperforming products and preventing unnecessary complexity.
• Pricing & Product Economics: Lead pricing, packaging and bundling across hardware and software, balancing customer value, competitive positioning, cost to serve, margin and recurring revenue opportunities.
• Commercialization & Growth: Collaborate with Sales, Marketing and Customer Success to successfully bring products to market and drive adoption, retention and expansion. Ensure customer-facing teams have the positioning, product knowledge, tools and training needed to sell and support the portfolio effectively.
• Product Development & Operating Model: Establish a high-performing product function with clear ownership, prioritization, roadmapping and development practices. Collaborate closely with Engineering, Operations and other teams to move products effectively from discovery and validation through development, launch and iteration.
• Product Performance: Establish meaningful measures of product and portfolio health and use them to guide investment decisions. Ensure product investments deliver measurable customer value, competitive differentiation, sustainable revenue growth and strong commercial performance.

The VP of Product is expected to establish and maintain, directly or through the team:

• Strategy and roadmap: 18-month integrated hardware and software roadmap;
  innovation pipeline (now / next / later);
  feature and device business cases;
  release plans by product line.
• Insight: quarterly market and competitive briefing;
  customer segmentation model;
  voice-of-customer insight repository;
  concept and pricing test results;
  win/loss and churn analysis.
• Portfolio: portfolio health scorecard;
  annual rationalization plan;
  end-of-life and end-of-support policy;
  migration playbooks;
  new-SKU and new-tier intake gate.
• Economics: pricing and packaging framework;
  bundle and tiering structure;
  discount governance guidelines;
  quarterly margin and pricing review.
• Commercial: go-to-market plan per launch;
  channel and partner strategy;
  sales enablement materials and battlecards;
  launch readiness checklist;
  quarterly commercial performance review.
• Product information: master product and specification catalog;
  technical and user documentation;
  sales and support reference materials;
  release notes per launch;
  content quality and localization schedule.
• Product Performance & Economics: Establish a clear product scorecard that measures portfolio health and informs investment and product decisions, using relevant measures such as adoption and customer value, retention and growth, revenue and margin, cost to serve, customer satisfaction, product reliability, portfolio complexity and return on investment, and the effectiveness and predictability of product development and discovery.

We are looking for a highly collaborative, senior product leader who combines strategic thinking with a willingness to operate close to customers, technology and execution.

The ideal candidate will bring:

• 10+ years of progressive Product Management experience, including meaningful leadership responsibility. It is important the candidate understands the process of product management and how to build and manage a team.
• Significant experience building and scaling B2B SaaS, enterprise software or technology-enabled products.
• Direct experience with products that combine hardware and software, or a demonstrated ability to lead across both domains and reconcile their different development rhythms, cost structures and lifecycles.
• A demonstrated ability to define and execute product strategy across multiple products, customer segments or stages of maturity.
• Strong understanding of SaaS economics, recurring revenue, adoption, retention and product investment decisions.
• Leadership of, or substantial contribution to, pricing and packaging decisions, including bundled hardware and software offers.
• Experience rationalizing a portfolio: consolidating overlapping products, managing end‑of‑life, and moving customers through migrations.
• Experience working closely with sophisticated enterprise customers and complex customer workflows.
• Strong product discovery, market analysis and customer research capabilities.
• Experience contributing to positioning and go-to-market decisions, including channel and partner models.
• Experience with data-intensive products, connected devices, analytics, AI-enabled workflows, or products sold into regulated environments would be particularly valuable.
• The ideal candidate is located in Fredericton, NB. Strong candidates outside of the region will be considered, and relocation assistance may be offered.
• Experience with Physical AI solutions would be ideal. A strong interest in Physical AI is a must.

SmartSkin is driven by integrity, innovation, and ambition. We offer competitive compensation, company-paid health and dental benefits, a Group RRSP with matching, and real opportunities to grow your career while making an impact in a collaborative, forward-thinking environment.