Product Manager

Location: La Vergne, TN (Hybrid/On-site expected)

Company Overview

The Coats Company is a leading U.S.-based manufacturer of automotive service and shop equipment, with a legacy spanning more than 75 years. Coats designs, builds, and services a comprehensive portfolio of tire changers, wheel balancers, alignment systems, lifts, inspection tools, and shop productivity solutions, all engineered for durability, safety, and ease of use in high-performing automotive service environments. Coats’ equipment is proudly designed and built in the United States and supported by a nationwide network of factory-trained service technicians.
Headquartered in La Vergne, Tennessee, Coats serves repair shops, tire dealers, car dealerships, and commercial fleets across North America. In 2024, Coats became an independent company backed by Victor Capital Partners, accelerating investments in innovation, portfolio expansion, and service capabilities while continuing to be led by its experienced executive team.

Role Overview

The Product Manager at Coats is responsible for the end-to-end lifecycle management of assigned product lines within the company’s automotive service equipment portfolio. This role bridges customer needs, market insights, and product roadmap execution, ensuring products deliver measurable customer value, strong financial performance, and alignment with Coats’ brand promise of safety, durability, and ease of use.
This role requires 5+ years of product management experience in a capital equipment or engineered hardware environment, ideally serving professional or industrial customers.  Automotive aftermarket experience is highly desirable.

Key Responsibilities

Product Strategy & Roadmap

• Own and execute the product vision, strategy, and multi-year roadmap for assigned equipment lines.
• Identify growth opportunities through customer insights, market analysis, and competitive intelligence.
• Translate market needs into clear business cases, product requirements, and prioritization frameworks.

Product Development & Execution

• Lead cross-functional product development teams (engineering, operations, sourcing, quality, service).
• Define and maintain product requirements documents (PRDs), use cases, and value propositions.
• Balance performance, cost, manufacturability, safety, and serviceability in product designs.
• Support stage-gate and new product introduction (NPI) processes from concept to launch.

Customer & Market Engagement

• Act as the voice of the customer, leveraging direct customer interaction, field feedback, and service data.
• Partner with Sales, Marketing, and Service to ensure products solve real workflow and uptime challenges.
• Support key customer visits, trade shows, and distributor interactions as a product expert.

Commercial & Lifecycle Management

• Drive pricing, positioning, and packaging strategies to maximize profitability and market adoption.
• Manage product lifecycle decisions, including line extensions, refreshes, and end-of-life planning.
• Collaborate with marketing on product launches, training content, and customer-facing messaging.

Desired Skills & Competencies

Product Management & Business Acumen

• 5+ years of product management experience in capital equipment, industrial machinery, or engineered products.  Automotive aftermarket knowledge and experience is highly desirable.
• Strong understanding of hardware product lifecycles, manufacturing constraints, and cost structures.
• Experience building ROI-driven business cases and managing P&L-impacting decisions.

Technical & Analytical Skills

• Ability to translate customer problems into clear, actionable technical requirements.
• Comfort working closely with engineering teams on tradeoffs involving performance, reliability, and serviceability.
• Proficiency in market analysis, competitive benchmarking, and financial modeling.

Leadership & Collaboration

• Proven ability to lead through influence in a matrixed organization.
• Clear, confident communicator capable of aligning stakeholders from shop floor to executive leadership.
• Bias toward action, accountability, and continuous improvement.

Customer-Centric Mindset

• Deep empathy for professional users and technicians.
• Commitment to safety, quality, and ease of use—core principles of the Coats brand.

Measurements of Success

Success in this role will be measured by:

• On-time, on-budget delivery of new and enhanced products.
• Achievement of revenue, margin, and growth targets for assigned product lines.
• Increased market competitiveness and differentiation of Coats products.
• Strong cross-functional alignment and execution throughout the product lifecycle.

 

The Coats Company is an equal opportunity employer that evaluates qualified applicants without regard to race, color, national origin, religion, ancestry, sex (including pregnancy, childbirth and related medical conditions), age, marital status, disability, veteran status, citizenship status, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, and other characteristics protected by law.