New Idea & Innovation Manager

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Date: Jun 26, 2025

Location: US Toronto, ON, CA, 13364 CA Surrey, British Columbia, CA, V3W 0H6

Company: Dorman Products

Dorman was founded on the belief that people should have greater freedom to fix motor vehicles. For over 100 years, we have been driving new solutions, releasing tens of thousands of aftermarket replacement products engineered to save time and money, and increase convenience and reliability. Founded and headquartered in the United States, we are a pioneering global organization offering an always-evolving catalog of automotive, heavy-duty and specialty vehicle products.  Today, we have more than 3,500 employees across 29 different locations, with a family of brands that also includes SuperATV and Dayton Parts. Publicly traded under the stock ticker DORM, reaching a revenue of $2 billion in 2024.

Everyone who works at Dorman is called a Contributor. We need everyone, regardless of role and experience, to contribute to our success. That means everyone has a unique ability to make an impact on the business. We encourage all our Contributors to bring their authentic selves to work. The freedom to pursue new ideas, offer different perspectives, and grow in your career is fundamental to working at Dorman.

Job Summary

Job Summary

The New Idea & Innovation Manager is a field-based role that partners closely with customers and service technicians to identify, capture, and manage the flow of new product ideas, ensuring clear visibility into idea sources and fostering innovation at the ground level. The ideal candidate for this role, will reside within a reasonable distance of a major airport, usually close to a major Metro Area.

Primary Duties

Ideation:

  • Leverage consumer knowledge and ability to identify emerging trends to highlight white space opportunities (availability champion, NEW ideas, line extensions, quality)  Find/recommend/advocate for NEW ideas to the aftermarket 
  • Strong analytical skills with the ability to mine, interpret, and organize large datasets to uncover trends, insights, and opportunities for new product ideas. Proficiency in using data to drive decision-making and support strategic innovation initiatives is essential.
  • Lead idea generation, screening and prioritization activities to develop robust pipelines
  • Explore new and alternative approaches to idea generation 
  • Develop and track KPIs linked to Ideation strategy
  • Liaise with your cross-functional counterparts within Dorman to leverage learnings and share best practices
  • Develop strategic relationships that encouraging Dorman Council recruiting; a dedicated group of select technicians nationwide that aid in the solicitation and advocation of NEW product ideas organic to the industry.
  • Assist and lead in the support of the stage gate development process with technician try-on programs 

Product Management:

  • Recommend/advocate NEW & Ideas for light-duty Automotive/passenger vehicle (LD) and/or Heavy-Duty (HD) Commercial applications to invest in and develop
  • Structure a clear strategy and go-to-market process working collaboratively with Sales & Marketing
  • Liaison to help re-prioritize line extension ideas/projects based on field feedback
  • Competitive insights (pricing & Inventory movement)
  • Identify, analyze, review & exploit new market trends for strategic review and commercialization
  • Identify strategic vendors for partnership and/or acquisition
  • Support the ‘try-on’ process for R&D & testing for new parts to market -- development and testing 
  • Open/closed forum research for new product ideas

Sales Engagement and Support:

  • Engage with ALL sales contributors to develop strategic relationships both internally and externally that may lead to new ideas submitters and new idea
  • Product training & education 
  • Brand ambassador – voice-of-the-customer
  • Competitive intelligence, analytics and data mining
  • Support in acquiring ‘Lost Sales’ & ‘Interchange’ insight reports
  • National and regional trade show support
  • Product training presentations (internal & external teams)
  • Relationship building amongst technicians/service professionals

Customer Support:

  • Act as a support liaison, and collaborate with marketing subject matter experts for related activities (NPA’s, SDG, OE FIX GUIDE, Webinars, etc.)
  • Content curator for brand ambassador program and ad-hoc marketing related initiatives 
  • Advisory partnership between council and brand ambassador program & all technician related activities 
  • Continuous feedback as voice-of-the-customer to develop relevant on-trend marketing campaigns and programs

Qualifications

    • Bilingual English/Spanish a plus
    • Intellectually Curious with a high level of accountability
    • Automotive background preferred
    • Industry experience is strongly preferred (WD, Jobber, Retailers, and/or automotive technician)
    • Must be a team player and possess demonstrated collaboration skills
    • Intermediate MS Office Skills (Word, Excel, and PowerPoint) required
      • Advanced user proficiency preferred
    • Must be willing to travel as needed up to 50% (Domestic & International)

    Physical Requirement: Capability to lift 20 pounds. 

    Working Conditions: While performing the duties of this job, the employee is regularly required to reach, swivel, carry items from one building to another, and speak and actively listen. Noise level is usually moderate. 

Education / Experience

  • An undergraduate degree in Business or a related course of study is preferred
  • 5+ years of industry experience, or a combination of applicable experience and education/certification, will be considered

Dorman Products is an equal opportunity employer; we value a combination of ideas, perspectives, and cultures at our company. We do not discriminate on the basis of race, religion, color, national origin, gender, sex, gender identity, sexual orientation, age, marital status, veteran status, or disability status.  EEO/AA Employer M/F/D/V.  www.DormanProducts.com

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