Location: Birmingham, Alabama
Reports to: President, Autocar
Product Platform: Autocar DC-64 Severe-Service Conventional Truck
Autocar is seeking a senior vocational-truck expert to define what the DC-64 must be for every customer application and vocation we choose to serve.
Autocar does not build a generic truck and ask customers to adapt their operations around it. We start with the work the customer must perform, the operating environment, the body or equipment, the duty cycle, and the customer’s economic requirements. We then custom engineer, configure the complete truck to perform that work.
The Head of Class 8 Vocational Product Definition & Applications will own this process for the DC-64 conventional platform.
This person will become Autocar’s senior authority on how customers use severe-service conventional trucks in concrete, construction, dump, roll-off, logging, and other demanding applications. They will identify the problems customers face, determine which problems Autocar should solve, and translate those needs into measurable product requirements, optimized vehicle specifications, body-integration standards, and a multiyear product roadmap.
The role owns what the truck must accomplish, for whom, under what operating conditions, and what economic value it must create. Engineering owns how the solution is designed, validated, and released.
The objective is clear: make every Autocar DC-64 the best tool for the customer’s specific job and the strongest total-cost-of-ownership choice in its application.
Spend substantial time where the trucks actually operate. Ride with drivers, observe loading and unloading, visit jobsites, landfills, quarries, concrete operations and maintenance facilities, and work directly with fleet managers, technicians, body manufacturers, and equipment suppliers.
Develop a fact-based understanding of:
Go beyond what customers request. Identify the underlying operational problem and determine the best scalable solution.
Create clear product definitions for each priority vocation and major application.
Translate customer operating requirements into:
Every significant product requirement should connect:
Customer application → operating problem → field evidence → required truck performance → customer economic value
Autocar’s customer-engineered, build-to-order model is a competitive advantage. It must not become uncontrolled one-off engineering.
Build the systems that allow Autocar to deliver mass customization through:
Convert customer and engineering knowledge into repeatable tools and institutional knowledge that improve speed, quality, margin, and product performance.
Determine how the DC-64 can improve the customer’s economics through:
Partner with Finance, Sales, Service, and Engineering to build credible TCO, payback, and return-on-investment models.
Ensure that Autocar can demonstrate why a truck with a higher acquisition price may produce a lower operating cost and greater economic return over its working life.
Establish objective, application-level comparisons against Mack, Peterbilt, Kenworth, Freightliner, Western Star, International, Volvo, and other relevant competitors.
Go beyond published specifications. Understand:
Translate competitive findings into product requirements, investment priorities, sales tools, and differentiated customer value propositions.
Set the DC-64 Product Roadmap
Own the rolling three-to-five-year product-definition roadmap for the DC-64.
Prioritize product investments based on:
Recommend where Autocar should invest, what should be improved, and what should not be pursued.
Establish a disciplined product-definition process:
Field observation → operating data → problem definition → product requirement → engineering solution → validation → production → field measurement
Use warranty, reliability, telematics, service, quality, and installed-base data to verify whether the truck is delivering the intended customer outcome.
Ensure lessons from every truck and customer improve future product definitions and configurations.
During the first 12 to 18 months, the successful candidate will:
Candidates may come from:
Relevant current or previous titles may include:
Experience across several vocations is valuable, but deep expertise in one or two vocations combined with the ability to learn others is more important than superficial experience across all of them.
The right person is:
At a large truck OEM, this role might influence one component, feature, or narrow segment of a product plan. At Autocar, this person will define how an entire Class 8 vocational platform solves customer operating problems.
The role provides direct access to customers, Engineering, manufacturing, senior leadership, and product-investment decisions. It is an opportunity to build a differentiated product-definition system around Autocar’s customer-engineered, build-to-order model and turn deep application knowledge into trucks that deliver measurable economic value.
Job Duties Disclaimer:
The duties and responsibilities outlined here are representative but not exhaustive of the tasks that the employee may be required to perform. Management reserves the right to modify, add, or remove duties and to assign other tasks as necessary to meet business needs.
Autocar is an Equal Opportunity Employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, national origin, disability, or any other characteristic protected by law.
Reasonable Accommodations (ADA Compliance):
Autocar complies with the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) and provides reasonable accommodations to qualified individuals with disabilities. Employees who require assistance or accommodations should contact Human Resources.
Autocar is the only American truck manufacturer focused on trucks for severe-duty vocational applications. But above all, Autocar is focused on our customers: We don’t just build trucks, we provide a complete tool - a whole system - that helps our customers to be more successful and to achieve their challenging objectives.
Our slogan, “Always Up®” isn’t just some fancy promise – it’s a state of mind. Always Up means we work intimately with our customers so that every single one of our trucks is purpose-built to fit the specific needs of their business and stay in service. Always Up also means our Autocar Solutions® 24/7 service command center solves our customers' technical issues and coordinates our network of hundreds of authorized Autocar service locations across the United States and Canada.
Autocar’s hundreds of customers include every national waste-hauling fleet, major cities such as Chicago, Los Angeles, Houston, Miami, and Charlotte, and many of the largest retailers and freight handlers in North America.
With a steady stream of innovations ranging from improved ergonomic cabs, enhanced safety and productivity, and unsurpassed body-chassis integration, Autocar has staked out a position as the industry's technology and innovation leader.
We have a demanding legacy to live up to: Autocar is the oldest motor vehicle manufacturer in the United States and built America's first truck, in 1899. The many technical innovations first introduced by Autocar which are now standard in all cars and trucks around the world, plus its focus on custom-engineering trucks for the most demanding applications, led to Autocar’s reputation among truck professionals in the 20th Century as the "World's Finest".
A proudly American-owned company, Autocar is headquartered in Birmingham, Alabama and is affiliated with GVW Group, based in Highland Park, Illinois.
