Product Manager / Technical Marketing Engineer

Reporting: Cisco Line of Business
Location: Raleigh, NC

Company Overview

Fast Lane Consulting and Education Services, Inc. (Fast Lane) is a full service training company specializing in developing and delivering high quality training courses based on a public schedule as well as private custom courses for larger clients. Fast Lane is Cisco’s fastest growing worldwide learning partner and is Network Appliance’s only worldwide learning partner. In addition, Fast Lane supports a number of partners with courseware, instructors, and remote labs access.

As part of our rapid expansion, we are recruiting a technical marketing engineer / product manager who will be responsible for a subset of our product portfolio. It is of utter importance to understand that when we are talking about a product then we are talking about a training offering and not a piece of hard- or software.

Fast Lane is uniquely positioned and we are looking to consolidate this position to continue to be recognized as leaders in our field.

Position Overview

We are looking for an entrepreneurial and motivated individual who is interested in joining a small but dedicated team which is responsible for defining, managing, and communicating Fast Lane’s product portfolio.

A successful candidate will combine an in-depth understanding of the products and solutions of our major vendor partners (e.g. Cisco Systems) and corresponding training offerings into a marketing message to promote interest, generate leads, and increase revenue. This position requires a solid technical background, exceptional writing and communication skills, go-to-market skills, and project management skills.

The primary role of this position is to manage and communicate all aspects of a subset (e.g. all data center & virtualization offerings) of our product portfolio. This includes communication with our vendor partners, identification of new products, engagement and consolidation of all necessary resources, managing all aspects of a product from start to end, internal and external communication, pre-sales support and ultimately, responsibility for the generation of profitable revenue.

Key Responsibilities


Product Management
  • Definition, development, documentation, implementation, maintenance, and marketing of various products assigned to the corresponding product manager
  • Communication with our vendor partners
  • Ongoing communication with business units, product specialists, etc. in order to identify training needs that may lead to new Fast Lane training offerings (products)
  • Ongoing communication with training departments and content development teams in order to identify and launch new vendor developed training offerings (products)
  • Ongoing communication with the vendor’s training department regarding the maintenance of existing products including modification of existing content (derivative works)
  • Market analysis, suggesting new products as well as the integration of new products into our portfolio
  • Coordination of our pricing strategy
  • Coordination of resources (internal instructors, partner instructors, contractors, remote labs, etc.) required for product definition and product development
Product Marketing
  • Product descriptions and product marketing activities
  • Product launch and ongoing management including public offering, remote labs, trainer readiness
  • Providing input to enable ongoing communication with partners and customers
  • Providing technical input to marketing brochures, web pages, course descriptions, product presentations, etc.
  • PM support of trade shows, etc.
Sales Support - supporting our sales team regarding
  • Customer specific training programs
  • Technical / content related questions
  • Pricing of customized programs
Internal Communication

The role involves intense internal communication with the following teams: [/list][*]Business Development: Strategic directions and decisions [*]Subject matter experts: Coordination of course outlines, content, curricula, etc. [*]Marketing: All marketing aspects of our products are guided by product management [*]Operations: Instructor development / certification, labs, etc. [*]Sales: Market input & feedback, sales support[/list]

Personal Attributes

We are looking for a committed, flexible and highly motivated individual who will do whatever it takes to make the business a success. While this job description outlines the key functions of the position, the selected individual must be prepared to take on any task that will contribute to helping make the company a success.

The key attributes of the person we are looking for include:

  • Solid technical background (e.g. Cisco Systems, NetApp, etc.)
  • The ability to absorb and utilize technical information
  • Strong verbal, written & presentation communication skills, with ability to translate technical & customer information into marketing materials
  • Project management experience with an excellent delivery record
  • Track record of managing a technical training portfolio
  • Demonstrated sound business skills
  • The ability to find solutions to challenges and not accept second best
  • Strong customer relationship skills
  • Ability to “multi-task”
  • Ability to work to deadlines
  • 5+ years of relevant experience
  • Exceptional computer literacy
  • Bachelors Degree in a relevant area of study

Send resume to HR@fastlaneus.com.