Market Development Specialist, IBN

Role Purpose

The Market Development Specialist role will be part of the In-Building Networks Business Unit.  This position will provide Market Development support for key In-Building, Campus, and Industrial accounts.  The primary function is driving new innovations within the target geographies which provide value to our end users through our technology vectors of speed of deployment, labor savings, safety/risk reductions, and sustainability. 

Working closely with the commercial account team, this role is the primary liaison between customer engagements and Corning’s greater organization. The customer engagement activities would involve an in-depth understanding of network switch architecture along with cabling solutions deployed to support the architecture. Routine engagement with both regional and global accounts is required to identify both current pain points with existing solutions, along with identification of new industry requirements created from new applications or network speeds. 

Working closely with the Product Line Management (PLM) organization, this role will spearhead activities required to support regional customers such as defining product/solution development opportunities, prototype requests, issuing an IPP request (Market and Product requirements Documents along with NPV), and supporting validation field trials.  In addition, this role will support Corning Fiber to the Edge initiatives including DC Power, Actifi Hybrid Fiber, and Media Conversion portfolios.

Key Responsibilities

• Detailing customer specific network switch architecture and cabling solution leveraged to support those architectures.
• Identify and analyze customer problems and pain points through routine engagements within assigned accounts.
• Identify potential inflection points in network design which allow for innovation.
• Preparing, presenting, & aligning the organization to create compelling value-props which leverage the full COC portfolio.
• Working closely with marketing, sales and customers to drive adoption of new solutions to include supporting critical field-trials and customer qualification processes.
• Ensure multifunctional cross-division collaboration in the discovery/ideation and solution selection process (ART, PLM, COC Technology, S&T etc.)

Experiences/Education - Required

• A bachelor's or master's degree in a relevant field such as engineering, computer science, business, or a related discipline
• At least 5 years working in the telecommunications industry at OEM, end user, contractor, etc.

Skills

• Customer-Centric Approach: Excellent customer engagement mindset with the goal of building trust through open conversation and a display of subject mastery.  Capability to identify and discuss customer needs and pain points effectively.
• Technical Curiosity and Aptitude: That desire to understand at a fundamental level and not willing to settle for surface level details. 
• Analytical Logic: Ability to take complex applications and break them down to smaller building blocks of logic which can be put back together to easily communicate the larger picture in a simplistic manner; not being overwhelmed by complexity.
• Driver Mentality: Proven ability to lead an engagement effort by taking leadership role to define problem, identification of next steps, and follow-through to conclusion.  Wired to look for engagement, rather than participate when engaged.
• Cross-Functional Collaboration: Ability to work collaboratively with cross-functional teams, including engineering, marketing, and sales, to drive innovation projects to success. 
• Communication: Excellent communication skills, both written and verbal, to present ideas, project updates, and innovation strategies effectively at an executive level.
• Problem-solving: Proficiency in identifying complex problems and devising effective solutions.