Director Product Management ID/AST

Position Summary

The Director, Product Management – ID/AST Portfolio serves as the strategic and commercial leader for a critical portfolio within the microbiology business segment, with end-to-end accountability for Identification (ID) and Antimicrobial Susceptibility Testing (AST) solutions.

This role owns the global portfolio strategy and execution across the Phoenix M50 system, Phoenix consumables/menu portfolio, and portfolio partners, driving growth, innovation, and market leadership. The leader will balance instruments, menu, software, and workflow tradeoffs to optimize customer value, clinical impact, and business performance.  This leader will also be responsible for the long-term product innovation roadmap and priorities supporting this portfolio globally.

The role requires deep understanding of clinical microbiology workflows, including organism identification and susceptibility testing, and the ability to translate market needs into impactful product strategies. This leader will work cross-functionally and externally to ensure strong partnership execution, particularly with Bruker, and alignment across commercial, service, and R&D teams.

Key Responsibilities

Portfolio Strategy & Vision

• Define and own the global ID/AST portfolio strategy, aligned to microbiology segment priorities and overall customer needs.
• Develop and maintain a multi-year roadmap across:
  • AST instrument platform inclusive of legacy Phoenix M50
  • AST Consumables inclusive of Phoenix ID/AST consumables/menu
• Drive instrument vs. menu tradeoff decisions, ensuring optimal balance of:
  • Clinical value
  • Customer workflow impact
  • Financial return

• Identify growth opportunities through market, customer, and competitive insights

• Positioning the portfolio competitively, driving clear differentiation across ID and AST workflows

Portfolio Ownership & Lifecycle Management

• Own P&L accountability for the ID/AST portfolio, including revenue growth, margin expansion, Market share.
• Lead portfolio performance management against: Budget and financial targets, KPIs (placement, utilization, menu pull-through, win rates),
• Drive data-driven decisions on:
  • Portfolio optimization
  • Lifecycle management (launch, sustain, rationalization)
  • Align installed base strategy with service models and long-term innovation

Strategic Partnership Leadership

• Serve as the primary business interface with key partners in Regions & ADx Leadership
• Drive strong engagement between partners and internal commercial teams,
• Ensure alignment on customer commitments, supply, field readiness, issue resolution and escalation
• Maximize partnership value through coordinated go-to-market execution

Innovation & New Product Development

• Lead new product opportunity assessments, including business cases, market sizing, and ROI analysis.
• Translate customer needs into clearly defined product requirements in collaboration with R&D and systems engineering.
• Prioritize development initiatives to maximize customer and business impact, balancing short-term gains and long-term innovation.
• Ensure solutions are designed for integrated workflows, automation, and digital connectivity.

Launch Strategy & Commercialization

• Partner with Global/Regional Marketing to transition from strategy to launch execution, ensuring consistency and effectiveness.
• Support key customer engagements, strategic accounts, and early adopter programs.
• Serve as the primary portfolio liaison with core functions including:
• R&D
• Quality & Regulatory Affairs
• Clinical Affairs
• Supply Chain & Operations
• Finance
• Lead cross-functional governance to ensure alignment on priorities, timelines, and trade-offs.

Customer & Market Engagement

• Maintain strong connections to laboratory customers, KOLs, and healthcare systems.
• Lead efforts in customer journey mapping and unmet needs identification, particularly in lab automation and workflow efficiency.
• Translate insights into solutions that improve productivity, reduce labor burden, and enhance clinical decision-making.

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree required; advanced degree (MBA, MS, PhD) preferred.
• 15+ years of experience in product management, marketing, or business leadership within IVD, diagnostics, life sciences, or healthcare technology.
• Proven experience managing complex portfolios (instrument + consumables + software).
• Strong understanding of IVD regulatory environment (e.g., FDA, CE-IVDR).
• Proven track record managing complex portfolios (instrument + consumables + partnerships)

Waters Corporation (NYSE:WAT) is a global leader in analytical instruments, separations technologies, and software, serving the life, materials, food, and environmental sciences for over 65 years. Our Company helps ensure the efficacy of medicines, the safety of food and the purity of water, and the quality and sustainability of products used every day. In over 100 countries, our 7,600+ passionate employees collaborate with customers in laboratories, manufacturing sites, and hospitals to accelerate the benefits of pioneering science. 

Diversity and inclusion are fundamental to our core values at Waters Corporation. It benefits our employees, our products, our customers and our community. Waters complies with all applicable federal, state, and local laws. Qualified applicants are considered without regard to sex, race, color, ancestry, national origin, citizenship status, religion, age, marital status (including civil unions), military service, veteran status, pregnancy (including childbirth and related medical conditions), genetic information, sexual orientation, gender identity, legally recognized disability, domestic violence victim status, or any other characteristic protected by law. Waters is proud to be an equal opportunity workplace and is an affirmative action employer. All hiring decisions are based solely on qualifications, merit, and business needs at the time.