Product Manager - Chicago, IL

About the role

<div class="content-intro"><p><strong>About MISUMI Americas</strong></p> <p>MISUMI Americas, a division of MISUMI Group, is a leading provider of standard, configurable, and custom manufacturing solutions. By integrating a vast catalog of components with a world-class digital manufacturing platform, MISUMI Americas empowers engineers and procurement teams to accelerate innovation across the entire product lifecycle. With operations in the San Francisco Bay Area and Chicago, the company serves as a vital partner for the most innovative companies in the Americas.</p></div><p><span style="font-family: verdana, geneva, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;"><strong>Impact In This Role:<br><br></strong></span><span style="font-family: verdana, geneva, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">As a Product Manager at MISUMI Americas, you will own a defined product area — whether a feature set, a workflow, a capability, or a segment of our platform — and be responsible for delivering strong, well-executed product work within it. You will gather and synthesize customer, stakeholder, and performance insights; write clear requirements; partner closely with Engineering and Design on delivery; and track outcomes to drive continuous improvement.</span></p> <p><span style="font-family: verdana, geneva, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">This role is designed for someone who is serious about the craft of product management and is ready to build the depth of judgment and business understanding needed to take on broader ownership over time. You will be expected to deliver reliably, communicate clearly, build credibility with your cross-functional partners, and show increasing independence as you develop fluency in the domain. The best PMs in this role will grow into Senior PMs who own full product areas with strategic autonomy.</span></p> <p><span style="font-family: verdana, geneva, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">You will report to the VP, Product Management.&nbsp;</span></p> <p><span style="font-family: verdana, geneva, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;"><strong>Areas of Responsibility:</strong></span></p> <ul> <li style="font-family: verdana, geneva, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;"><span style="font-family: verdana, geneva, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;"><strong>Business acumen and domain awareness</strong></span> <ul> <li style="font-family: verdana, geneva, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;"><span style="font-family: verdana, geneva, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">Develop a deep understanding of the customers, internal users, and business context relevant to your product area — including how your work connects to broader platform goals and company priorities</span></li> <li style="font-family: verdana, geneva, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;"><span style="font-family: verdana, geneva, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">Research and synthesize customer needs, stakeholder feedback, and operational realities to build a clear, grounded point of view on the problems your team should be solving</span></li> <li style="font-family: verdana, geneva, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;"><span style="font-family: verdana, geneva, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">Assess the needs of internal users across Operations, Sales, and other functions, identifying opportunities to improve efficiency and remove friction in workflows that touch your area</span></li> <li style="font-family: verdana, geneva, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;"><span style="font-family: verdana, geneva, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">Stay current on how your product area is performing — tracking metrics, monitoring trends, and developing hypotheses about where the biggest opportunities for improvement lie</span></li> <li style="font-family: verdana, geneva, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;"><span style="font-family: verdana, geneva, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">Build familiarity with the competitive landscape and with how MISUMI Americas' platform capabilities compare to alternatives available to our customers</span><br><br></li> </ul> </li> <li style="font-family: verdana, geneva, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;"><span style="font-family: verdana, geneva, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;"><strong>Roadmap contribution, work analysis, and scoping</strong></span> <ul> <li style="font-family: verdana, geneva, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;"><span style="font-family: verdana, geneva, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">Contribute to roadmap development within your area with increasing independence, translating high-level goals into clearly scoped objectives, projects, and requirements</span></li> <li style="font-family: verdana, geneva, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;"><span style="font-family: verdana, geneva, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">Develop and maintain a framework for tracking input and output metrics that provide a quantitative view of the success and impact of your work</span></li> <li style="font-family: verdana, geneva, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;"><span style="font-family: verdana, geneva, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">Build business cases for prioritized initiatives, articulating the customer value, business rationale, and expected outcomes in a way that earns stakeholder confidence</span></li> <li style="font-family: verdana, geneva, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;"><span style="font-family: verdana, geneva, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">Scope and define requirements for roadmap items with clarity and specificity — ensuring Engineering and Design have what they need to build the right thing, efficiently</span></li> <li style="font-family: verdana, geneva, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;"><span style="font-family: verdana, geneva, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">Proactively identify trade-offs and risks associated with scope and sequencing decisions, and work collaboratively with your team to develop pragmatic mitigation approaches</span></li> <li style="font-family: verdana, geneva, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;"><span style="font-family: verdana, geneva, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">Establish and communicate a well-reasoned point of view on the problems your team should prioritize and why</span><br><br></li> </ul> </li> <li style="font-family: verdana, geneva, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;"><span style="font-family: verdana, geneva, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;"><strong>Cross-functional collaboration</strong></span> <ul> <li style="font-family: verdana, geneva, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;"><span style="font-family: verdana, geneva, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">Build strong working relationships with Engineering, Design, Operations, Sales, and other functions — earning trust through clear communication, good judgment, and consistent follow-through</span></li> <li style="font-family: verdana, geneva, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;"><span style="font-family: verdana, geneva, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">Lead cross-functional meetings within your area to align on scope, priorities, and requirements — ensuring that all relevant perspectives are heard and decisions are made with shared understanding</span></li> <li style="font-family: verdana, geneva, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;"><span style="font-family: verdana, geneva, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">Actively seek feedback from stakeholders and adjust plans accordingly, fostering a responsive and collaborative approach to product development</span></li> <li style="font-family: verdana, geneva, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;"><span style="font-family: verdana, geneva, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">Work with cross-functional partners to develop and evaluate hypotheses about customer needs and solutions, bringing both rigor and creativity to discovery</span></li> <li style="font-family: verdana, geneva, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;"><span style="font-family: verdana, geneva, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">Communicate team progress and results to stakeholders with transparency — celebrating wins and ensuring the organization learns from setbacks</span><br><br></li> </ul> </li> <li style="font-family: verdana, geneva, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;"><span style="font-family: verdana, geneva, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;"><strong>Execution and risk management</strong></span> <ul> <li style="font-family: verdana, geneva, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;"><span style="font-family: verdana, geneva, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">Apply Agile methodologies to organize and manage sprints, supporting a streamlined and efficient development process within your team</span></li> <li style="font-family: verdana, geneva, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;"><span style="font-family: verdana, geneva, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">Partner closely with Engineering to estimate scope and timelines, continuously refining plans as work progresses and new information emerges</span></li> <li style="font-family: verdana, geneva, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;"><span style="font-family: verdana, geneva, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">Keep stakeholders informed of project status, proactively flagging risks or deviations from plan and proposing solutions rather than just surfacing problems</span></li> <li style="font-family: verdana, geneva, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;"><span style="font-family: verdana, geneva, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">Drive product launches by ensuring that all relevant parts of the organization — Engineering, Operations, Sales, Marketing, and Support — are prepared and aligned</span></li> <li style="font-family: verdana, geneva, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;"><span style="font-family: verdana, geneva, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">Analyze metrics post-launch to evaluate impact, identify gaps, and inform the next iteration of your roadmap</span></li> <li style="font-family: verdana, geneva, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;"><span style="font-family: verdana, geneva, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">Travel up to 10% annually for team collaboration, customer research, and training</span></li> </ul> </li> </ul> <p><span style="font-family: verdana, geneva, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;"><strong>Desired Traits and Qualifications, Education and Experience Equivalency:</strong></span></p> <ul> <li style="font-family: verdana, geneva, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;"><span style="font-family: verdana, geneva, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;"><strong>Past Experience:</strong></span> <ul> <li style="font-family: verdana, geneva, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;"><span style="font-family: verdana, geneva, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">2–4 years of product management experience, ideally in a B2B software, e-commerce, or platform environment</span></li> <li style="font-family: verdana, geneva, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;"><span style="font-family: verdana, geneva, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">Demonstrated experience owning a defined product area from discovery through delivery — including writing requirements, managing scope, and tracking outcomes</span></li> <li style="font-family: verdana, geneva, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;"><span style="font-family: verdana, geneva, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">Experience working closely with Engineering and Design teams in an Agile development environment</span></li> <li style="font-family: verdana, geneva, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;"><span style="font-family: verdana, geneva, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">Track record of building productive working relationships with cross-functional stakeholders and earning credibility through clear communication and reliable execution</span></li> <li style="font-family: verdana, geneva, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;"><span style="font-family: verdana, geneva, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">Experience using data and customer insights to inform prioritization decisions and evaluate the impact of product changes</span></li> <li style="font-family: verdana, geneva, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;"><span style="font-family: verdana, geneva, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">Familiarity with defining and tracking product metrics — both leading indicators and business outcomes</span><br><br></li> </ul> </li> <li style="font-family: verdana, geneva, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;"><span style="font-family: verdana, geneva, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;"><strong>Desired&nbsp;</strong></span> <ul> <li style="font-family: verdana, geneva, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;"><span style="font-family: verdana, geneva, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">Experience in one or more of the following domains: catalog and search, e-commerce platform, supply chain or order management, customer experience, or internal business systems</span></li> <li style="font-family: verdana, geneva, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;"><span style="font-family: verdana, geneva, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">Exposure to platforms with large or complex catalogs, configurable products, or high-SKU-count inventory — where search relevance, attribute structure, and navigation design are meaningful product challenges</span></li> <li style="font-family: verdana, geneva, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;"><span style="font-family: verdana, geneva, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">Familiarity with industrial manufacturing, hardware product development, or engineering procurement workflows — or a genuine interest in developing that knowledge quickly</span></li> <li style="font-family: verdana, geneva, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;"><span style="font-family: verdana, geneva, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">Experience with operational tooling or business systems (e.g., ERP, CMS, CRM, PIM) and how they interact with customer-facing product experiences</span><br><br></li> </ul> </li> <li style="font-family: verdana, geneva, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;"><span style="font-family: verdana, geneva, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;"><strong>Skills</strong></span> <ul> <li style="font-family: verdana, geneva, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;"><span style="font-family: verdana, geneva, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">Strong analytical skills: able to break high-level goals into actionable requirements by synthesizing data, customer insights, and stakeholder input to drive sound product decisions</span></li> <li style="font-family: verdana, geneva, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;"><span style="font-family: verdana, geneva, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">Clear written and verbal communication: able to write crisp requirements and PRDs, facilitate productive cross-functional discussions, and give stakeholders the information they need to act</span></li> <li style="font-family: verdana, geneva, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;"><span style="font-family: verdana, geneva, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">Structured thinking: approaches ambiguous problems with a clear process — defining the problem, gathering evidence, framing options, and making a reasoned recommendation</span></li> <li style="font-family: verdana, geneva, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;"><span style="font-family: verdana, geneva, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">Results orientation: focused on outcomes and impact, not just completing tasks — takes ownership of the success of their work end to end</span></li> <li style="font-family: verdana, geneva, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;"><span style="font-family: verdana, geneva, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">Collaborative working style: builds relationships across functions with empathy and accountability, and earns credibility through consistency and follow-through</span></li> <li style="font-family: verdana, geneva, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;"><span style="font-family: verdana, geneva, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">Active and growing AI practice: uses AI tools as a genuine accelerant for drafting, research synthesis, and ideation — and demonstrates intellectual curiosity and learning velocity in developing new AI-assisted workflows as the tooling landscape evolves</span></li> <li style="font-family: verdana, geneva, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;"><span style="font-family: verdana, geneva, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">Builder mindset: comfortable experimenting with AI-assisted prototyping to communicate product ideas, test assumptions, and accelerate the feedback loop — treating working artifacts as a complement to written documentation, not a replacement for it</span></li> <li style="font-family: verdana, geneva, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;"><span style="font-family: verdana, geneva, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">Curiosity and learning agility: proactively seeks to understand the business, the customer, and the technical context — and applies new knowledge to improve their product decisions</span></li> </ul> </li> </ul> <p><span style="font-family: verdana, geneva, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;"><strong>Physical Demands</strong></span></p> <p><span style="font-family: verdana, geneva, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">The physical demands described here are representative of those that must be met by an employee to successfully perform the essential functions of this job. Reasonable accommodations may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform the essential functions.</span></p> <p><span style="font-family: verdana, geneva, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">While performing the duties of this job, the employee routinely is required to sit; walk; talk and hear; use hands to keyboard, fingers, handle, and feel; stoop, kneel, crouch, twist, crawl, reach, and stretch.</span></p> <p><span style="font-family: verdana, geneva, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">Salary Range: $108,000 to $120,000 per year, depending upon experience&nbsp;</span></p> <p><span style="font-family: verdana, geneva, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;"><strong>Interested in learning more?&nbsp; We look forward to hearing from you soon.</strong></span></p><div class="content-conclusion"><p>We’re actively seeking teammates who:</p> <ul> <li>Bring diverse perspectives and experience to our culture and company.&nbsp;</li> <li>Excel at being part of a strong, empathetic team.</li> <li>Thrive in an environment emphasizing respect, honesty, collaboration, and growth.</li> <li>Have an ‘always learning’ mindset that celebrates learning, not just wins.&nbsp;</li> <li>Help us continue to build a world-class organization that values the contributions of all of our teammates</li> </ul> <p>We encourage applications from members of underrepresented groups, including but not limited to women, members of the LGBTQ community, people of color, people with disabilities, and veterans.</p></div>