We are looking for a dynamic Product Portfolio Manager – Lubricants to lead and evolve our North America finished lubricants portfolio across iconic brands such as Pennzoil, Quaker State, Shell Rotella, and a broad range of Other Lubricating Products (OLPs) including coolants, greases, transmission fluids, hydraulic fluids, and gear oils.
In this critical role, you will own, shape, and govern the product portfolio, ensuring it is positioned to deliver profitable growth while remaining practical and executable within operational, regulatory, and supply chain constraints.
You will translate brand and commercial strategies into a clear, actionable portfolio roadmap, managing product architecture across viscosities, formulations, packaging, approvals, and customer segments. With a strong commercial mindset, you’ll continuously balance priorities such as volume growth, margin optimization, product complexity, OEM requirements, customer commitments, and supply reliability.
Acting at the center of a highly collaborative environment, you will serve as a key integrator across Sales, Marketing, Supply Chain, and Technology, ensuring portfolio decisions are aligned, well-sequenced, and effectively executed. You will also proactively identify risks and opportunities, drive data-driven decision-making, and lead cross-functional initiatives to continuously enhance the portfolio.
This is an exciting opportunity for someone who thrives in a fast-paced, matrixed organization, and brings strong commercial acumen, structured problem-solving, and stakeholder influence to drive impactful business outcomes.
What you’ll be doing?
Portfolio Strategy & Architecture:
- Own the finished lubricants portfolio architecture for Pennzoil and Quaker State across North America, including viscosity coverage, formulation tiers, approval strategies, and channel differentiation.
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- Define and maintain multi-year portfolio roadmaps that align brand strategy, vehicle parc trends, OEM requirements, and channel needs with operational feasibility.
- Ensure portfolio decisions are supported by clear business logic, data, and risk assessments, and are communicated effectively across stakeholders.
Portfolio Simplification:
- Identify and lead initiatives to reduce SKU, formulation, packaging, and approval complexity while protecting customer commitments and brand equity.
- Partner with Supply Chain, Technology, and Packaging teams to standardize where possible and reduce non-value-adding variation.
Commercial and Customer Enablement
- Support line reviews, customer transitions, portfolio resets, and pilots with clear recommendations, timelines, and mitigation plans.
- Collaborate with Sales, Key Account managers, and Channel Marketing to ensure portfolio assortments support customer strategies, contractual requirements, and growth targets.
- Balance national brand strategy with customer-specific needs across Retail, Distributor, OEM, and DIFM channels.
- Act as a key subject matter expert for portfolio-related questions from customers and commercial teams.
- Provide portfolio guidance and support for OLPs along with select adjacent brands as needed, outside of the core PQS PCMO portfolio.
Cross-Functional Execution
- Lead the NA PCMO Pyramid as the primary integrator across Sales & Marketing, Supply Chain, and Technology, for portfolio-related initiatives.
- Lead cross-functional project teams for major portfolio initiatives, pilots, and transitions to deliver on time and with minimal disruption to customers and operations.
- Translate commercial needs into executable requirements for formulations, packaging, testing, labeling, and readiness.
- Coordinate and implement new product launches, renovations, and portfolio changes across Marketing, Supply Chain, Technology, Regulatory, and Sales
- Drive alignment on priorities, sequencing, and trade-offs when resource or capacity constraints exist.
Risk, Compliance, and Governance
- Ensure portfolio compliance with OEM approvals (e.g., API, Dexos), regulatory requirements, labeling standards, and legal guidance.
- Identify and manage portfolio risks related to approvals, formulation changes, supply constraints, and customer impacts.
- Drive governance decisions on exceptions, trade-offs, and prioritization.
- Maintain portfolio data integrity across enterprise systems for TDS, labels and product data governance sources
Data, Insights, and Continuous Improvement
- Use market, car parc, OEM, and customer data to inform portfolio decisions and future requirements.
- Track performance metrics including SKU productivity, mix, approval coverage, and complexity drivers.
- Champion simplification, standardization, and repeatable portfolio processes.
What we need from you?
Key Interfaces
- Sales and Global Key Account Management
- Brand and Channel Marketing
- Supply Chain, Manufacturing, and Packaging
- Technology and Global Product Management teams
- Pricing and Finance
- Product Stewardship and Legal
Skills and Capabilities
- Working knowledge of the North America finished lubricants landscape, including PCMO productss, viscosity grades, approval frameworks (API, OEM approvals such as Dexos), and channel-specific requirements.
- Clear understanding of how portfolio decisions impact manufacturing, packaging, supply planning, inventory, labeling, and customer execution.
- Familiarity with key customer channels (Retail, DIFM, OEM, Distributor) and how portfolio architecture, assortment, and complexity trade-offs differ by channel.
- Comfort interpreting market data, car parc trends, OEM specifications, and financial metrics to support portfolio recommendations.
- Quickly builds context, relationships, and credibility across Sales, Marketing, Supply Chain, Technology, and Regulatory teams.
- Uses structured thinking and clear communication to align stakeholders and drive decisions in a matrix environment.
- Balances speed and rigor, moving initiatives forward while maintaining data integrity, compliance, and operational feasibility.
- Strong commercial judgment and ability to translate strategy into execution
- The ability to influence and deliver through others without formal authority
- Project leadership across complex, multi-year initiatives
- Creative and can think out of the box
- Strong drive and ability to work in an autonomous manner: be self-starter and delivery focused
This role will support the North America Lubricants Marketing portfolio and requires working in a shift aligned to Houston time, specifically 4:00 AM to 12:00 PM (Houston time), which corresponds to 2:30 PM to 10:30 PM IST.
What we offer
You bring your skills and experience to Shell and in return you work with talented, committed people on one of the most important challenges facing our planet. You’ll have the opportunity to develop the skills you need to grow in an environment where we value honesty, integrity, and respect for one another. You’ll be able to balance your priorities as you become the best version of yourself.
Progress as a person as we work on the energy transition together.
Continuously grow the transferable skills you need to get ahead.
Work at the forefront of technology, trends, and practices.
Collaborate with experienced colleagues with unique expertise.
Achieve your balance in a values-led culture that encourages you to be the best version of yourself.
Benefit from flexible working hours, and the possibility of remote/mobile working.
Perform at your best with a competitive starting salary and annual performance related salary increase – our pay and benefits packages are considered to be among the best
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