Product Manager, HVAC & Ignition Controls

Salary Range: $120,000.00 To $160,000.00 Annually

Product Manager, HVAC & Ignition Controls — Hybrid in Ashland, MA

At KiddeFenwal, you’ll shape the next generation of life‑safety technologies that protect people, property, and critical infrastructure around the world. As a global leader in fire detection, alarm, and suppression solutions, we pair deep technical expertise with a culture built on integrity, collaboration, innovation, and customer focus.

Our Purpose

We protect lives, livelihoods, and iconic assets through innovative solutions, trusted relationships, and exceptional customer experiences. Guided by integrity and safety, our values—speed, innovation, excellence, and teamwork—shape how we work, lead, and grow.

Position Summary

We are seeking a Product Manager to lead our HVAC & Ignition Controls portfolio. This highly visible role is responsible for defining and executing the strategy, roadmap, and lifecycle management of embedded controls solutions used in heating and cooling equipment. The portfolio includes control boards, firmware, ignition systems, burner controls, connected devices, and digital services that improve equipment performance, safety, diagnostics, efficiency, and customer experience.

The Product Manager serves as the business leader for the portfolio, translating market needs, customer insights, and emerging technologies into innovative products and services. This role partners closely with sales, engineering, marketing, operations, and our leadership teams to deliver solutions that drive growth, profitability, and customer value.

The ideal candidate combines technical expertise in HVAC and combustion controls with strong product management, commercial, and strategic leadership skills. Experience with connected products, cloud platforms, analytics, and digital customer experiences is highly desirable.

Key Responsibilities

Product Strategy & Portfolio Management

• Develop and maintain the short- and long-term product roadmap in partnership with Controls Engineering.
• Define product vision, portfolio strategy, and investment priorities aligned with company objectives.
• Own portfolio business performance, including revenue growth, profitability, market share, and lifecycle planning.
• Identify new market opportunities, adjacent offerings, and growth initiatives across HVAC controls, ignition controls, connected devices, monitoring, analytics, predictive maintenance, and energy optimization solutions.
• Monitor industry trends, customer requirements, competitive offerings, regulatory developments, and emerging technologies.

Customer & Market Leadership

• Gather and translate Voice of Customer (VOC) insights from OEMs, contractors, distributors, service organizations, and end users into actionable product requirements.
• Develop business cases, product requirements, user stories, acceptance criteria, and release priorities.
• Evaluate customer adoption barriers and define strategies to increase market penetration and customer engagement.
• Represent the company through involvement with industry associations, customer advisory groups, standards development, and strategic partnerships.

Cross-Functional Leadership

• Lead collaboration across Controls Engineering, Embedded Software, Cloud Engineering, Hardware Development, Cybersecurity, UX Design, Manufacturing, Service, Marketing, and Sales teams.
• Drive alignment on product priorities, development schedules, and launch plans.
• Influence decision-making and guide teams through trade-offs, ambiguity, and competing priorities.
• Ensure products are designed for reliability, manufacturability, serviceability, interoperability, scalability, and long-term platform growth.

Connected Products & Digital Solutions

Define requirements for:

• Device onboarding and provisioning
• Connectivity and telemetry
• Alarms and notifications
• Dashboards and analytics
• APIs and systems integration
• Data access and governance

Collaborate with engineering teams to develop secure, scalable, and customer-centric connected solutions which support cloud-enabled applications, remote monitoring platforms, predictive maintenance tools, and digital customer experiences as required by the market.

Commercialization & Product Launch

• Support product positioning, pricing strategy, go-to-market planning, and product launches.
• Create sales enablement materials, training programs, and customer communications.
• Partner with sales and marketing teams to drive successful market adoption and revenue growth.

Performance Measurement

Define and monitor key performance indicators including:

• Revenue growth
• Gross margin
• Market share
• Product adoption and activation
• System uptime and reliability
• Feature utilization
• Customer satisfaction
• New product introduction success

Education & Experience

Required

• Bachelor’s degree in Engineering, Computer Science, Information Systems, Product Management, Business, or a related technical discipline.
• Significant product management experience in one or more of the following industries:
  • Commercial HVAC
  • Burner management systems
  • Combustion controls
  • Building automation systems (BAS)
  • Industrial controls
  • Connected industrial products

Preferred

• Engineering degree.
• MBA or advanced technical degree.
• Experience participating in industry organizations such as ASHRAE or similar standards-focused associations.
• Experience with standards development and regulatory compliance initiatives.

Knowledge, Skills & Abilities

Technical Knowledge

• Strong understanding of HVAC systems, combustion systems, ignition controls, flame safeguarding, and controls architecture.
• Knowledge of building automation, equipment communications, and connected-device ecosystems.
• Familiarity with communication protocols such as BACnet, Modbus, MQTT, and REST APIs.
• Understanding of cloud platforms, remote monitoring, edge computing, data analytics, and connected services.
• Working knowledge of cybersecurity principles, reliability engineering, interoperability, scalability, and data privacy for connected products.

Product Management & Commercial Acumen

• Demonstrated ability to transform customer needs, technical constraints, and market insights into product strategies and execution plans.
• Experience leading products through discovery, business case development, stage-gate processes, development, launch, lifecycle management, and continuous improvement.
• Strong commercial judgment with the ability to evaluate market opportunity, competitive positioning, pricing, adoption barriers, and profitability drivers.
• Proven analytical, organizational, and prioritization skills.

Leadership & Communication

• Excellent communication, facilitation, presentation, and stakeholder management skills.
• Ability to influence without direct authority and drive alignment across diverse teams.
• Proven success managing multiple strategic initiatives in complex technical environments.

Regulatory & Industry Knowledge

Familiarity with applicable regulations and standards including:

• UL
• CSA
• NFPA
• ASHRAE
• Building energy codes
• Product safety and efficiency regulations

Technology Tools

• Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) systems
• Product roadmap and backlog management tools
• Requirements management platforms
• Analytics and reporting tools

Core Competencies

• Strategic Thinking and Market Insight
• Product Management Excellence
• Cross-Functional Leadership and Collaboration
• Customer-Centric Innovation
• Growth Mindset and Continuous Improvement
• Technical and Commercial Problem Solving
• Results Orientation and Accountability

Why Join Us?

• Shape the future of intelligent HVAC and combustion control technologies.
• Lead products that improve safety, reliability, sustainability, and operational performance.
• Work across embedded controls, connected devices, cloud services, analytics, and digital customer experiences.
• Collaborate with talented engineering, commercial, and operational teams.
• Drive innovations that protect people, assets, and critical infrastructure worldwide.

Equal Opportunity Statement

KiddeFenwal, LLC is an Equal Opportunity/Affirmative Action Employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, disability, veteran status, or any other protected class.