Product Manager, Quality and Innovation

Arbor Wood Co. manufactures premium thermally modified wood from domestically sourced, sustainably harvested lumber for exterior and interior applications, including siding, decking, wall and ceiling cladding, and architectural millwork. As the first and only certified Thermo Wood producer in the United States, we pair rigorous manufacturing discipline with a commitment to high-performance, sustainable wood products.

The Product Manager, Quality & Innovation ensures Arbor Wood Co. products are consistently made to specification, perform as intended, and evolve with customer and market needs. Reporting to the Chief Manufacturing Officer, this role owns quality systems and continuous improvement and leads cross-functional new product development from concept through commercialization and post-launch review.

This is a hands-on leadership role that moves between the production floor, quality data, customer feedback, and development projects. The right candidate brings the technical judgment and operating discipline to protect the performance of existing products while building scalable new offerings for the building-products market.

• Own quality management across incoming materials, in-process production, finished goods, packaging, third-party finishing, and field performance.
• Develop and maintain quality standards, inspection methods, control plans, SOPs, specifications, test methods, and other controlled documentation.
• Track and report quality KPIs (scrap, rework, claims, conformance), using production and inspection data to identify trends, variation, and risk.
• Lead root-cause analysis and corrective action for internal defects, process deviations, customer complaints, and warranty and field issues, translating findings into plant and product improvements.
• Partner with manufacturing leadership to improve yield, reduce waste, and strengthen repeatability across shifts.
• Serve as the internal owner of product quality standards and technical requirements, aligning operations, sales, and customer experience on manufacturing capability and customer requirements.
• Evaluate raw material, product, and process changes before they are implemented at scale.
• Train plant personnel on quality procedures, defect recognition, and standard work.

• Lead new product development from feasibility evaluation through prototyping, testing, commercialization, and post-launch review of quality, field, and customer performance.
• Build and run a structured development process with clear requirements, owners, milestones, decision points, and launch-readiness criteria; recommend when products are ready for commercial release.
• Evaluate new product opportunities brought forward by sales and marketing (species, profiles, finishes, applications, accessories, and value-added offerings) for technical feasibility, manufacturing capability, quality, and cost, and contribute ideas that emerge from production, quality data, and field performance.
• Define product requirements and specifications, including target applications, performance and quality standards, approved claims, installation, packaging, and controlled documentation for new products and product changes.
• Coordinate prototypes, production trials, and internal and external testing and certification to validate performance, claims, quality, and cost, partnering with manufacturing to confirm products can be made safely and consistently before release.
• Lead cross-functional development meetings and keep project plans, timelines, risks, and decisions visible.
• Hand off launches to sales, marketing, customer service, and production with technical information, specifications, and training…