Product Manager - Personal Care (Core) - Ashland Inc

Are you the kind of person that is always thinking, sketching, seeking, and adjusting? Who needs to understand how things work and then figure out how they can work better? Are you a passionate, tenacious, solver who loves to work with others who share your drive? Are you positive, constructive, and ingenious?

Are you always solving?

Then we'd like to meet you and bet you'd like to meet us.

Ashland has an exciting opportunity as Product Manager in our Personal Care Business. This position is located in Bridgewater NJ, or one of our Ashland US locations, and is part of a team managing the Core Products withing the Personal Care Business. This is a high visibility, significant role within Ashland. This position will report to the Core products Product Management Leader.

The responsibilities of the position include, but are not limited to, the following:

• Collaborate with global and regional marketing, operations, supply chain, procurement, regulatory, and commercial teams to achieve profit goals.
• Support annual business planning process, review and advise the marketing and sales teams on volume, costs, and capacity.
• Partner with global and regional marketing on portfolio optimization, NPI, product lifecycle SKU rationalization
• Allocation of material & production prioritization on constrained assets (Controlled Distribution)
• Conduct capacity studies and portfolio optimization actions (streamlining of products, specification changes, etc.)
• Manage tolling relationships.
• Liaison with supply chain, manufacturing, and regulatory to manage daily S&OP activities (i.e. forecast validation)
• Ownership and understanding of VCER and advising on the needs of the commercial side and the likelihood of approval.
• Manage customer communications regarding packaging changes, obsoleting, and supply issues (for example, force majeure, asset optimization, etc.)
• Management of portfolio product lifecycle including SMOG materials

In order to be qualified for this role, you must possess the following:

• Bachelor's Degree in a technical discipline or equivalent experience in a technical field (5 years minimum)
• 5 years experience in a product management role or related industry experience
• Strong influence management skills
• Industry background in batch and continuous chemical process manufacturing
• Demonstrated ability to analyze market trends, usage data, and customer feedback to develop and communicate strategic vision for products
• Excellent time management skills with a proven ability to meet deadlines
• Thorough understanding of or the ability to quickly learn about the project or product being developed
• Build strong relationships with both internal and external customers and colleagues
• Strong verbal communication skills to speak to customers and delivery team members daily as well as good written communication skills
• Ability to develop and maintain collaborative relationships with peers and colleagues across the organization, as well as, internal and external clients
• Ability to work well autonomously and within a team in a fast-paced and deadline-oriented environment.
• Ability to travel 30% of the time.
• Proficient with Microsoft Office Suite or related software.

The following skill sets are preferred by the business unit :

• Experience working in Personal Care or Chemical industry
• Experience working in a manufacturing or supply chain role

In more than 100 countries, the people of Ashland LLC. (NYSE: ASH) provide the specialty chemicals, technologies and insights to help customers create new and improved products for today and sustainable solutions for tomorrow. Our chemistry is at work every day in a wide variety of markets and applications, including architectural coatings, automotive, construction, energy, personal care and pharmaceutical. Visit www.ashland.com to see the innovations we offer.

At Ashland our vision is to be a leading, global specialty chemicals company whose inspired and engaged employees add value to all we touch. In fact our people, employees, customers and vendors define who we are. They are the driving force behind everything we do.

Not only do we value our customers but we value our employees, and we work to offer them a dynamic and challenging environment. We hold ourselves to high standards at Ashland, and we value integrity and honesty.

Ashland has a history of attracting the best people and keeping them. The reasons are simple: industry competitive salary and benefits, pay-for-performance incentive plans and a diverse work environment where employees feel challenged and valued. People come to Ashland and stay. As a growing Fortune 500 specialty chemicals company, we offer opportunities for development and advancement throughout our global organization. Our values define who we are and what we care about as a company. If you are looking for a relationship with a company instead of simply a job, this may be a great fit.

Ashland is proud to be an Equal Opportunity Employer Minorities/Women/Veterans/Disabled/Gender Identity/Sexual Orientation.

All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, gender identity, sexual orientation, national origin, or protected veteran status and will not be discriminated against on the basis of disability. NOTE: We do not accept resumes from external staffing agencies or independent recruiters for any of our openings unless we have a signed recruiting agreement in place to fill a specific position.