QAD, Inc.—Product Manager (Direct Procurement)

Job description

Description: QAD is building a world-class SaaS company, and we are growing. We are looking for talented individuals who want to join us on our mission to help solve relevant real-world problems in manufacturing and the supply chain. Only candidates based or willing to relocate to Pune will be considered, as our operations are strictly limited to this location. Role Overview As the Product Manager for Distribution, you are the "Full-Stack" owner of the value stream connecting our suppliers to our customers. You will move beyond tactical ticket-writing to drive the "Why" and "What" for both customer sales and supplier purchasing capabilities. This role is part of our Functional Product Stream, focused on solving pervasive market problems to drive adoption and revenue. Core Responsibilities Your work is structured around the Product Management Lifecycle (PMLC), focusing on outcome-based decision gates rather than feature output. 1. Discovery & Strategy (The "Why") - Market Sensing: Conduct biweekly customer and supplier interactions to validate that identified problems are urgent and pervasive. - Problem Validation: Use data from Win/Loss reports and Customer Advisory Boards (CAB) to build evidence-based business cases. - Opportunity Canvasing: Define the market driver, competitive landscape, and economic impact (ROI) for new distribution initiatives. 2. Solution & Design (The "What") - Roadmap Ownership: Maintain a 3-year Now/Next/Later roadmap that balances customer sales features, supplier integration, and technical health. - Ruthless Prioritization: Apply the RICE framework (Reach, Impact, Confidence, Effort) to the backlog to ensure we focus on "Return on Effort". - Constraint Definition: Clearly distinguish between MVP (Technical Prototype) and MLP (Minimum Lovable Product) to prevent scope creep. 3. Delivery & Market Alignment (The "How") - Squad Leadership: Act as the strategic lead for a group of Autonomous Squads (Atomic Scrum Units), collaborating with a Tech Lead and Product Designer. - GTM Readiness: Partner with Product Marketing to ensure Sales, Support, and Customer Success are operationally ready for new releases. - Success Analysis: Post-launch, measure actual adoption and revenue against the original business case metrics to decide whether to Pivot, Persevere, or Kill. 4.Success Metrics (KPIs) In a product-led organization, you are measured on Outcomes, not outputs: - ARR: Supporting growth goals for sales. - Customer Retention: Ensuring users get continuous value from the distribution module. - Outcome Achievement: Meeting the specific success criteria defined in your Business Cases (e.g., reducing purchasing lead times). - Strategic Alignment: Ensuring 100% of your roadmap items are scalable for multiple customers and not bespoke requests. - Experience: 5-10 years of experience in Product Management within supply chain, ERP, or distribution software is highly preferred. - Mindset: High tolerance for ambiguity and a natural curiosity for user problems over technical "purity". - Decision Making: Ability to make "Green Light" investment recommendations based on hard data (logs, usage stats) rather than "gut feel". - Tooling: Proficiency in Aha! for strategy/roadmapping and Jira for execution management. QAD | Redzone is redefining manufacturing and supply chains through its intelligent, adaptive platform that connects people, processes, and data into a single System of Action. With three core pillars — Redzone (frontline empowerment), Adaptive Applications (the intelligent backbone), and Champion AI (Agentic AI for manufacturing) — QAD | Redzone helps manufacturers operate with Champion Pace, achieving measurable productivity, resilience, and growth in just 90 days. QAD is committed to ensuring that every employee feels they work in an environment that values their contributions, respects their unique perspectives and provides opportunities for growth regardless of background. QAD’s DEI program is driving higher levels of diversity, equity and inclusion so that employees can bring their whole self to work. We are an Equal Opportunity Employer and do not discriminate against any employee or applicant for employment because of race, color, sex, age, national origin, religion, sexual orientation, gender identity, status as a veteran, and basis of disability or any other federal, state or local protected class. About QAD: QAD | Redzone is redefining manufacturing and supply chains through its intelligent, adaptive platform that connects people, processes, and data into a single System of Action. With three core pillars — Redzone (frontline empowerment), Adaptive Applications (the intelligent backbone), and Champion AI (Agentic AI for manufacturing) — QAD | Redzone helps manufacturers operate with Champion Pace, achieving measurable productivity, resilience, and growth in just 90 days. QAD is committed to ensuring that every employee feels they work in an environment that values their contributions, respects their unique perspectives and provides opportunities for growth regardless of background. QAD’s DEI program is driving higher levels of diversity, equity and inclusion so that employees can bring their whole self to work. We are an Equal Opportunity Employer and do not discriminate against any employee or applicant for employment because of race, color, sex, age, national origin, religion, sexual orientation, gender identity, status as a veteran, and basis of disability or any other federal, state or local protected class.