Product Portfolio & Development Manager

Hybrid working - travel and accommodation will be expensed

The Product Line Manager will own the end-to-end process that turns product strategy into a briefed, commercially-sound product line — managing line architecture, product lifecycle management and NPD/EPD planning, and translating market and commercial requirements into clear, well-evidenced briefs for the Design team.

This is a process and programme-management role at its core: the Product Line Manager will build and maintain the line architecture, run stage-gate forecasting and commercial analysis, and manage the flow of work through each stage — from strategy articulation, through brief generation, into design, and back again for sign-off against brief — before handing finished output into Product Marketing.

Working closely with the Product/Catgory lead (who brings category and product knowledge, and a strong sense of what a winning line looks like), the Product Line Manager will bring the commercial rigour, sales analysis and cross-market connectivity needed to underpin product decisions with solid numbers, and the administrative discipline to keep multiple lines moving through the process on time and to a consistently high standard.

Key Responsibilities

Line Architecture & Lifecycle Management

• Build and maintain the product line architecture across the portfolio, ensuring a coherent structure that reflects brand and commercial strategy.
• Own product lifecycle management end-to-end — tracking products through introduction, growth, maturity and phase-out, and flagging where action is needed.
• Manage the NPD (New Product Development) and EPD (Existing Product Development) pipelines, ensuring each initiative is properly scoped, resourced and sequenced.

Commercial Analysis & Forecasting

• Conduct Stage 1 forecasting for new and existing lines, working with commercial and sales teams to ensure numbers are robust and defensible.
• Analyse sales performance, market data and commercial trends to inform line decisions and prioritisation.
• Bring a strong evidence base to every stage-gate, ensuring strategy and briefs are underpinned by solid commercial rationale rather than opinion.
• Work with sales, commercial and market teams to understand what each market requires from the product line, and translate this into clear input for strategy and briefs.
• Act as the connective link between commercial/market teams and the wider product function
• Translate strategy and market/commercial input into clear, well-structured briefs for the Design team.
• Manage the process of briefing into Design, tracking progress through each stage gate.
• Review Design output against brief, assess whether it meets requirements, and manage the sign-off process before handing over into Product Marketing.

Process & Programme Management

• Own and manage the stage-gate process for each product line, ensuring a coherent, disciplined path from strategy through to sign-off.
• Provide the administrative and programme management backbone across multiple concurrent lines — tracking timelines, dependencies and decisions.
• Present strategy, forecasts and progress clearly to internal stakeholders at each stage gate.