Lead Product Manager

As a Lead Product Manager for the Recon Solutions and Services release train within Cox Automotive, you will serve as a strategic driver behind the One Recon platform - a modern, unified technology hub consolidating fragmented legacy recon tools and manual processes into a single, seamless experience for Manheim auction sites and their reconditioning operations.

In this role, you will set strategic direction and shape the long-term vision for aligning existing legacy processes into the One Recon platform, translating organizational objectives and deep operational insight into a prioritized, outcomes-driven roadmap. You will lead alignment across multiple teams and work streams - partnering with release train leadership, engineering, UX, and operations - while providing coaching and mentorship to other product managers on the team.

Your responsibilities will span product strategy, platform vision, cross-functional leadership, stakeholder engagement at a senior level, go-to-market planning, and the identification of transformative opportunities that advance Manheim's reconditioning capabilities.

This role demands a seasoned product leader with strong platform instincts, deep knowledge of APIs and integrations, and a proven ability to drive strategic clarity while maintaining execution accountability across a complex stakeholder landscape - ensuring the One Recon platform delivers lasting operational impact and supports Cox Automotive's leadership in auction reconditioning services.

Primary Duties & Key Responsibilities

Product Strategy & Vision

• Own the strategic vision and multi-horizon roadmap for the One Recon platform, ensuring alignment with Cox Automotive's organizational goals and Manheim's operational priorities.

• Define and communicate a clear platform strategy that guides prioritization decisions, investment trade-offs, and long-term capability development.

• Lead quarterly and annual planning cycles in partnership with product leadership, shaping the direction of the release train and influencing resource allocation.

• Proactively identify and champion opportunities to modernize retail recon operations, replace legacy tooling, and eliminate manual processes at scale across Manheim's auction network.

• Drive innovation across platform capabilities, recon workflow tooling, and vendor and auction system integrations.

Stakeholder & Market Insight

• Lead product discovery efforts to deeply understand the strategic and operational challenges facing auction site operators, translating insights into platform-level opportunities.

• Build and manage senior-level relationships with auction operators, operations partners, and internal stakeholders, ensuring the platform roadmap reflects both site-level needs and enterprise-wide priorities.

• Synthesize platform usage patterns, operational trends, and stakeholder feedback into strategic recommendations that inform roadmap decisions and investment priorities.

• Serve as the organizational authority on recon workflows, auction operations, and the systems and integrations that underpin the One Recon platform.

Execution & Delivery Oversight

• Provide strategic oversight of delivery across the release train, ensuring engineering, UX, and architecture teams are aligned on priorities and equipped to execute with quality and speed.

• Guide the definition of work at a platform level, ensuring work is scoped to deliver maximum business value and operational impact.

• Hold accountability for the health and integrity of the product backlog, partnering with product leadership and PMs to maintain clear requirements and delivery standards.

• Remove strategic blockers and make high-impact prioritization decisions that keep the team focused and moving forward.

Cross-Functional Leadership & Alignment

• Lead alignment across multiple teams and work streams, driving a shared understanding of platform strategy, priorities, and progress among engineering, UX, operations, and product leadership.

• Represent Recon Solutions and Services in senior forums, communicating roadmap direction, platform health, and key decisions with clarity and confidence.

• Champion go-to-market readiness, including release communications, operator enablement, and documentation that drives adoption of new platform capabilities.

• Cultivate strong cross-functional partnerships across Cox Automotive to advance the One Recon platform's role in the broader recon ecosystem.

Team Development & Mentorship

• Mentor and coach product managers on the team, elevating their skills in product discovery, prioritization, stakeholder management, and roadmap communication.

• Model best practices in product management and help establish team norms, frameworks, and ways of working that improve consistency and quality of output.

• Act as a thought partner and sounding board for PMs navigating complex stakeholder dynamics, ambiguous problem spaces, or competing priorities.

Minimum Requirements

• Bachelor's degree in Business, Engineering, Computer Science, Communications, or a related discipline…