Director of Digital-Enabled Product Solutions

John Crane, a business of Smiths Group, is a global leader in mission-critical flow control solutions for energy and process industries that enable efficient and sustainable operations. Our products include mechanical seals and systems, couplings, filtration systems, and predictive digital monitoring technologies. 

We have a global network of more than 200 sites in over 50 countries and employ more than 6,000 people worldwide. We partner with our customers to help them keep their operations safe, reduce downtime, improve efficiency, and meet the latest environmental standards. 

John Crane is part of Smiths Group. For over 170 years, Smiths has been pioneering progress by engineering for a better future. We serve millions of people every year, helping to create a safer, more efficient, productive, and better-connected world across four global markets: energy, security & defence, space & aerospace, and general industrial. Listed on the London Stock Exchange, Smiths employs approximately 16,000 colleagues in over 50 countries. 

John Crane is accelerating its ambition for sensor-enabled, data-driven services across its mechanical product portfolio. This role takes end-to-end ownership of that ambition for the relevant product line, acting as the accountable leader for strategy, roadmap, commercial performance and lifecycle outcomes – creating a coherent and commercially viable business line.

The Director of Digital-Enabled Product operates as the de facto general manager of a digital-enabled product line – with virtual P&L responsibility, ownership of strategic partners and matrix leadership across product, technology, commercial, service and manufacturing teams globally.

Purpose of the Role

To define, shape and deliver a commercially viable digital-enabled product strategy across the full lifecycle – from proposition and roadmap through go-to-market, customer adoption, data insight and service performance.

The role exists to ensure that digital capability translates into measurable customer value and sustainable commercial outcomes.

Specifically, the Director will:

• Define a clear, outcome-led product and commercial strategy grounded in explicit customer needs and use cases.
• Convert existing investment and installed base into tangible value and learning.
• Establish and deliver a roadmap that balances near-term performance with long-term differentiation.
• Integrate digital capability seamlessly into the broader mechanical product strategy and customer offer.

Key Responsibilities

• Drive End-to-End Product Ownership

Own the strategic positioning, commercial intent and roadmap for the digital-enabled product line. Define and deliver a multi-year capability plan across platform, analytics, hardware integration and service layers, ensuring alignment with mechanical product strategy and customer commitments.

• Lead Commercial Strategy and Virtual P&L Performance

Act as the accountable owner of a virtual P&L, shaping pricing, packaging and value propositions to drive adoption, revenue growth and margin performance. Ensure that product decisions are grounded in product-market fit and that digital capability translates into measurable commercial and operational outcomes.

• Shape Market Insight and Competitive Positioning

Develop a deep understanding of global market dynamics, competitor moves and innovation cycles. Make deliberate choices about where differentiation is driven by product capability, service model or brand positioning, balancing long industry cycles with a forward-looking, proactive market stance.

• Unlock Installed Base and Data Value

Assess and maximise value from the existing installed base and current digital platforms. Ensure operational data and customer insight are systematically captured and used to inform roadmap decisions. Leverage predictive analytics and reliability data to drive both customer value (uptime, maintenance optimisation, risk reduction) and cross-customer learning.

• Integrate Go-to-Market and Lifecycle Delivery

Align sales, marketing, service, manufacturing and OEM stakeholders around a coherent go-to-market model. Embed digital capability across the full customer lifecycle – discovery, sale, onboarding, commissioning, service and renewal – ensuring execution matches strategic intent.

• Own Strategic Partner Relationships

Lead and govern key digital, platform and sensor partnerships. Define clear accountabilities, performance expectations and knowledge retention mechanisms, ensuring partner capability strengthens rather than dilutes John Crane’s strategic ownership.

• Build Capability and Lead Change

Design and grow a focused, high-impact team to support product, analytics and commercial integration. Operate through a blend of direct leadership and matrix influence. Raise digital awareness and maturity through delivery, results and collaborative engagement, challenging inertia constructively while maintaining organisational alignment.

• 10+ years’ experience in product, digital, commercial or general management roles within industrial, engineering, manufacturing or adjacent sectors.
• Demonstrated ownership of product strategy and roadmap with measurable commercial outcomes.
• Experience integrating digital, IIoT or analytics capabilities into physical product or asset-heavy environments.
• Strong commercial acumen, with evidence of driving adoption, revenue growth and product-market fit.
• Extensive experience in partner and supplier management, capable of orchestrating cross-functional collaboration to successfully bring digital products to market in a B2B manufacturing environment
• Deep customer orientation – comfortable engaging directly with customers, understanding operational pain points and translating them into clear value propositions.
• Experience operating in complex, global, matrix organisations, with the ability to influence senior stakeholders without relying solely on authority.
• Track record of building and leading small, high-performing teams.
• Pragmatic and action-oriented – able to shape direction while delivering tangible progress in parallel.
• Confident working across engineering, commercial and service functions, earning credibility through clarity, substance and results.

With colleagues stretching across the globe, we are proud of our diversity. To foster inclusivity, we run employee resource groups (ERGs) to provide a safe space for employees to connect and support each other. Our cross-business ERGs include Veterans, Pride Network, Black Employee Network, Women@Work Network, and Neurodiversity. 

Across our company, we recognize excellence, culminating in the Smiths Excellence Awards, our annual celebration of the most extraordinary activities, people, and projects that best showcase our strengths and help drive our business forward. We announce these on our annual Smiths Day, a global celebration of Smiths around our network. 

Join us for a great career with competitive compensation and benefits, while helping engineer a better future. 

We believe that different perspectives and backgrounds are what make a company flourish. All qualified applicants will receive equal consideration for employment regardless of color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, economic status, disability, age, or any other legally protected characteristics. We are proud to be an inclusive company with values grounded in equality and ethics, where we celebrate, support, and embrace diversity.

At no time during the hiring process will Smiths Group, nor any of our recruitment partners ever request payment to enable participation – including, but not limited to, interviews or testing. Avoid fraudulent requests by applying jobs directly through our career’s website (Careers - Smiths Group plc)