About this role
At Zimmer Biomet, we believe in pushing the boundaries of innovation and driving our mission forward. As a global medical technology leader for nearly 100 years, a patient’s mobility is enhanced by a Zimmer Biomet product or technology every 8 seconds. As a Zimmer Biomet team member, you will share in our commitment to providing mobility and renewed life to people around the world. To support our talented team, we focus on development opportunities, robust employee resource groups (ERGs), a flexible working environment, location specific competitive total rewards, wellness incentives and a culture of recognition and performance awards. We are committed to creating an environment where every team member feels inspired, invested, cared for, valued, and have a strong sense of belonging.
What You Can Expect Paragon 28 (Zimmer Biomet) is hiring a Senior Product Development Manager, NPI strategy. The Senior Product Development Manager, NPI Strategy leads the opportunity assessment, clinical research, and product-definition work needed to select and define new foot and ankle product development programs. The role identifies unmet clinical needs, evaluates development opportunities, builds investment cases, and converts surgeon and user evidence into documented inputs for design-control and phase-gate decisions. This position is an individual contributor within Product Development and reports to the Director of Engineering. Its accountability spans opportunity identification through design transfer and product release readiness. The role does not own product promotion, campaign execution, field sales enablement, sales quotas, or ongoing revenue and unit-volume performance; those responsibilities remain with downstream commercial functions.
How You'll Create Impact NPI Opportunity and Portfolio Planning • Product Roadmaps: Build and update multigenerational roadmaps based on clinical gaps, technology shifts, and company priorities. • Opportunity Evaluation: Assess projects using clinical metrics, procedure volumes, workflows, regulatory pathways, patents, and development costs. • Prioritization: Recommend development pathways, including internal builds, partnerships, acquisitions, licensing, or cancellation. • Domain Expertise: Maintain deep knowledge of relevant anatomy, surgical procedures, devices, and emerging competitive tech. Clinical Research and Development Inputs • User Research: Lead primary and secondary research via surgeon interviews, clinical observations, surveys, and literature reviews. • Evidence Translation: Turn research into clear problem statements, user needs, target profiles, and requirements with engineering and quality teams. • Concept Validation: Drive prototype testing, cadaveric labs, and usability trials to validate assumptions before heavy investment. • Traceability: Maintain detailed evidence packages linking source research directly to design decisions. Investment Case and Governance • Financial Models: Create business cases detailing market opportunity, development costs, unit economics, risks, and ROI. • Phase-Gate Reviews: Update project assumptions to recommend funding approvals, program accelerations, pivots, or cancellations. • Strategic Diligence: Assess external technologies and partners for potential acquisitions or strategic alliances. Cross-Functional Core Team Leadership • Strategy Ownership: Act as the NPI lead on core teams, owning the business case, user needs, and phase-gate deliverables. • Cross-Functional Alignment: Partner with engineering, regulatory, quality, and finance to guide design reviews and risk management. • Executive Influence: Present complex clinical and financial data to leadership to drive consensus without direct authority. • Mentorship: Coach associate managers and improve organizational NPI research templates and governance processes. Release Handoff and Lifecycle Learning • Commercial Handoff: Provide downstream marketing and sales teams with product definitions, clinical rationale, and adoption risks. • Advisory Continuity: Maintain relationships with surgeon advisors through product launch without managing promotional campaigns. • Feedback Loop: Capture post-release data to update future product requirements and next-generation roadmaps. Compliance • Regulatory Adherence: Execute all duties in compliance with company policies, Quality Management Systems, and healthcare laws.
Your Background Qualifications Required • Bachelor's degree in engineering or another related technical discipline. • Five or more years of experience defining or developing products in orthopedic medical devices or a closely related regulated-device field. • Demonstrated success leading clinical or user research, opportunity assessment, product definition, and investment-case development for new products. • Experience working on cross-functional medical-device development teams and working knowledge of design controls, user needs, design inputs, risk management, usability engineering, phase-gate governance, and design reviews. • Strong clinical and technical aptitude with the ability to understand surgical procedures, anatomy, instrumentation, implants, and customer workflows. • Strong analytical and financial skills, including opportunity modeling, forecasting, investment-case development, and proficiency with Excel and PowerPoint. • Excellent written, verbal, presentation, and facilitation skills with the ability to influence decisions without direct authority. • Ability to manage multiple complex development programs with limited supervision in a fast-paced environment. • Ability to obtain and maintain hospital credentialing and a valid driver's license with a driving record acceptable under company policy. Preferred • Advanced degree in engineering, biomedical innovation, or business. • Direct foot and ankle or extremities experience and established relationships with orthopedic surgeons or key opinion leaders. • Experience with global product development, human-factors research, reimbursement or health economics, and external technology evaluation. Work Environment This job is based in a professional office environment and requires work in clinical, laboratory, cadaveric, and operating-room settings. The role routinely uses standard office equipment and may require participation in surgeon meetings, clinical observations, research activities, and product-development work outside normal office hours. Physical Demands The physical demands described here are representative of those required to perform the essential functions of this job, with reasonable accommodation as applicable. While performing this job, the employee must communicate with individuals inside and outside the organization, move about office and clinical facilities, and may be required to lift up to 40 pounds. The employee must be able to wear a 7-9-pound protective lead apron for extended periods in the operating room and may sit, stand, or walk for extended periods, with bending, stooping, squatting, and balancing as required. Position Type and Expected Hours of Work This is a full-time position requiring occasional evening and weekend work for customer research, clinical observation, surgeon meetings, cadaveric labs, and time-sensitive product-development activities.
Travel Expectations Approximately 20% overnight travel, including customer visits, clinical observations, surgeon meetings, advisory groups, conferences, research activities, and product-development events.
Compensation Data Salary Range: $150,000 - $165,000 USD annually depending on skills and experience
EOE