Connected Customer Experience Future Product Planning Manager

SUMMARY

Leads the strategy, planning, and development of Subaru’s future connected vehicle (CV) ecosystem, including infotainment, telematics, digital cockpit, customer experience (CX), and emerging connected services across the Subaru vehicle portfolio. Partners closely with Subaru Corporation (SBR), North American Subaru, Inc. (NASI), Subaru of America (SOA) business teams, and external technology partners to define and champion future product roadmaps, business requirements, user experiences, and technology initiatives that support Subaru’s long-term CV vision. Directly manages one (1) full-time Future Product Planning Analyst and is responsible for guiding research, business planning, and product proposal activities that influence future vehicle programs and customer experiences.

MAJOR RESPONSIBILITIES

• Researches and studies the automotive and technology landscape. Creates strategic proposals to achieve competitive connected vehicle (CV) products and services that satisfy customer needs and expectations while strengthening Subaru of America’s (SOA’s) position in the U.S. market. Drives alignment of CV proposals across business and engineering teams to ensure feasibility, prioritization, and successful execution.
• Facilitates and manages user clinics, focus groups, and surveys to capture critical research.
• Maintains strong relationships with external business partners, vendors, and industry trade groups to facilitate identification of future products and technical trends.
• Collaborates with Product Management and Marketing Departments to identify customer and business opportunities, evaluate concepts, establish priorities, and ensure successful integration into vehicle development programs. Ensures that technology proposals and concepts are evaluated holistically with the rest of the vehicle development.
• Develops and maintains product requirements, business cases, feature definitions, and customer experience (CX) objectives for CV products and services. Ensures requirements maturity throughout the product lifecycle and alignment with cross-functional stakeholders. Leads Business Request Document (BRD) creation and Specification Description Document (SDD) review, alignment, negotiation, maintenance, and finalization with Subaru Corporation (SBR), ensuring development teams receive approved and actionable requirements.
• In conjunction with SBR and North American Subaru, Inc. (NASI), leads the definition and evolution of the CX, user experience (UX), and feature requirements for infotainment, telematics, and connected service products, ensuring alignment with SOA customer, business, and market needs. Owns the transition of CV concepts, requirements, and CX strategies from Future Product Planning into Product Development. Ensure seamless handoff of approved Next Generation initiatives to Product Development teams and associated stakeholders, enabling effective execution and delivery.

REQUIRED SKILLS & PERSONAL QUALIFICATIONS

• Strong analytic and decision-making skills, especially with incomplete information.
• Ability to produce results effectively under significantly restricted time and resource constraints.
• Ability to be flexible with constantly changing and challenging business and technology conditions.
• Ability to identify gaps and opportunities in the Subaru technology roadmap and propose solutions.
• Strong understanding of the Subaru brand and how technology can strengthen its core values.
• Passion for all things technology and automotive.
• Capacity for independent thinking and idea generation.
• Strong interpersonal and communication skills for a diversity of audiences and competency in cultural sensitivity, in part due to extensive interaction and coordination with Subaru Corporation (SBR) staff (at Subaru of America [SOA] and in Japan), multi-national suppliers, and executive members at SOA and SBR.
• Ability to build consensus across multiple departments with different business priorities and objectives.
• Strong understanding of SOA business operations, the automotive industry, and consumer electronics.
• Creativity and insight to manage short- and long-range planning cycles.
• Advanced technical skills and experience in order to effectively communicate with SBR and partner development engineers.
• Detailed operational knowledge of product planning and Microsoft Office software.
• Japanese language skills Preferred
• Effective Team Management: Ability to provide effect…