Senior Manager, AI Product Innovation

at  Tekion

At Tekion, we’re building the only cloud-native platform that is transforming the automotive retail industry, leapfrogging it into the future and providing unparalleled customer experience. We’re creating seamlessly integrated, elegant, and intuitive solutions built with cutting edge technology and powered by Big Data, Machine Learning (ML)/ AI and Internet of Things (Connected vehicle to connected devices). We’re harnessing passion, entrepreneurial spirit, deep industry expertise and the latest technologies to create something very special. We’re inventing new technology along the way to overcome barriers and solve big problems, all while having a blast doing it!

• This is a hybrid role - candidates must be based within commuting distance of Pleasanton, CA

JOB DESCRIPTION

Tekion is looking for a Senior Manager, AI Product to join our team. Reporting to the VP of Product innovation, we are seeking a hands-on individual who is responsible to ensure AI and ML products are fully adopted by our customers to ensure product-market fit. The successful candidate will ensure all AI products are embedded into key product workflows that deliver multiple times value for businesses. The ideal candidate will have experience building new products, gathering requirements, and launching to customers. They will also be highly collaborative and will help influence AI and Product strategy and issues to drive product market fit for consumers. In this role, you will not directly manage product managers or Data Scientists, but work collaboratively with them to deliver AI Products to customers.

SKILLS AND EXPERIENCE

• Understanding of AI and ML lifecycle
• You have completed a Bachelor’s or Master’s degree in Computer Science, AI, Data Science, or Technical-related field, or a Business-related field
• 5+ years in a Product role
• 10+ years of experience in digital, data science and/or AI business transformation, with experience in delivering platforms and products to address complex business problems
• Basic understanding of statistics and hypothesis testing
• Proven technical, quantitative and critical-thinking skills, high level of independent judgment, initiative and creativity to identify and clearly communicate key performance drivers to management
• Ability to manage multiple projects and assignments with a high degree of autonomy and accountability for results
• Great communication skills, both written and verbal
• Able to think strategically and tackle open-ended problems
• Detail-oriented, organized, and a good team player
• Driven by working within a fast-paced environment with a diverse workforce

PREFERRED SKILLS

• Dealership operations – understand how dealerships operate, key metrics at a dealership by department, and what drives expenses and growth at a Dealership
• Highly proficient with SQL required , python and R preferred but not required
• 4+ years experience in data analysis working with DMS data across multiple areas (Retail, Accounting, Service, Parts, CRM)

• Daily collaboration with India-based Data Scientists, Data Analyst, and Product Managers to discuss data and new asks (evening or early morning calls)
• Collaborative co-ownership with Product Manager who own specific Product verticals (Service, Parts, Retail, Accounting, CRM) to ensure the Product workflows connect seamlessly with AI platform and models
• Help defining and prioritizing AI product features, AI platforms/solutions, and requirements
• Work closely with data scientists, AI engineers advanced analytics, hyper-automation, UX/UI designers, and project managers to help deliver high-quality AI products on time and within budget
• Build and maintain strong relationships with clients, and serve as a trusted advisor on AI strategy and implementation
• Focus on product adoption with customer (engaging with end users on dealer) to identify problems in the model and product workflows that are blocking product solutions from deriving full business benefit and value. Then, taking that feedback back to Product Manager and Data Scientists to discuss the problems, brainstorm solutions.
• Identify, validate, and track key KPIs for usage, business value of products which will be utilized to tell a clear story to customers to ensure value-based sales approach can be leveraged.
• Partnership with Data Science teams to design A/B test and experiments with Product teams to test different workflows. Analyze the data from those experiments to determine
• Project Management for overall AI/ML Projects and coordinate across multiple teams to ensure projects are being delivered together and on time including Product requirements, coordination with engineering teams, and ensuring overall product is delivered on time
• Quality check all AI solutions to validate that the workflows and end solutions are working as expected, share feedback with product/engineering/data scientists based on issues found both individually and also with customers.
• Leverage analytical tools (Excel to start, future will be a BI tool) to answer business questions
• Align with India Data and AI team to identify critical data models needed to be brought into a Business Insights (BI) tool and define metrics together
• Update Sales tools with the latest metrics and data
• Identify dealerships that are Testimonial worthy based on the data
• Provide regular monthly reports on highest value
• Collaborate with the Core Product teams to ensure the Dealer Dashboards create the right story for dealers every month
• Identify, define, and create industry reports based on Tekion dealerships and expand this over a roadmap