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Detroit, Michigan, United States
Onsite
The Global Product Manager (GPM) for Color serves as Axalta’s global leader for color strategy, dispersion development, and color portfolio execution across the Mobility business, while playing a pivotal influence role in other Axalta businesses such as Refinish and Industrial. Color is a foundational differentiator for Axalta, and this role ensures that our color development, processes, roadmaps, and investments maintain industry‑leading performance.
This role restores global governance and strategic leadership for the Color function, providing structured oversight of the Axalta Research and Development team’s color group, driving alignment between commercial needs and technical development, and ensuring resources and investments match the business priority. The GPM creates business cases for all major color and dispersion initiatives, manages project portfolios, and ensures timely delivery of color solutions for OEMs and emerging mobility segments.
Additionally, the GPM oversees Axalta’s global color leadership initiatives—including Color of the Year, Color Trend Reports, and the Color Trend Show—acting as Axalta’s external-facing color authority with OEM design teams, suppliers, and industry partners.
Essential Functions
Define and own Axalta’s global color strategy across Mobility, while providing strategic input to Refinish, Industrial, and other business units.
Establish formal management processes for the Axalta R&D Color Team, including governance, project intake, resource planning, prioritization, and performance metrics.
Ensure alignment between OEM color development and dispersion chemistry
Translate customer, design, and trend insights into actionable technical and commercial requirements.
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Guide Axalta’s dispersion development strategy, ensuring our dispersion technologies support color accuracy, durability, sustainability, and manufacturability across all segments.
Create business cases and investment proposals for new dispersion platforms and upgrades.
Partner closely with R&D to set clear performance, cost, and capability targets for dispersion roadmap programs.
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Own the full portfolio of global color and dispersion projects, ensuring resources are allocated to the highest-value initiatives.
Lead cross-functional alignment (R&D, Operations, Marketing, Product Management, Quality) to move projects through to completion on schedule.
Monitor lifecycle performance of color technologies and guide strategic transitions across platforms.
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Lead the development and global rollout of Color of the Year, Color Trend Reports, and the Color Trend Show.
Engage directly with OEM design studios, color designers, and value-chain partners to represent Axalta’s vision and understand emerging color demands.
Provide strategic color guidance to marketing, sales, and regional product teams for customer engagement and OEM RFQs.
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Act as the global integrator for color across Mobility, ensuring consistency, scalability, and alignment of color platforms and technologies.
Partner with regions to understand local color trends, manufacturing constraints, and customer requirements.
Qualifications
Bachelor’s degree in chemistry, materials science, engineering, design, or related technical field; advanced degree preferred.
7+ years of experience in color science, dispersion chemistry, automotive color development, or pigment technologies.
Demonstrated experience working with OEM color development, design studios, or coatings color platforms.
Proven ability to define strategy, influence cross-functional teams, and manage complex global project portfolios.
Strong business acumen to build investment cases and link technical decisions to commercial value.
Familiarity with Stage-Gate or equivalent innovation governance methods.
Travel: Moderate global travel required for OEM engagement, VOC, color events, and global coordination.
Travel: Moderate global travel expected to support regional alignment, gate reviews, and VOC initiatives.
Our Company:
Axalta has remained at the forefront of the coatings industry by continually investing in innovative solutions. We engineer technologies that protect customers’ products – whether they are battling heat, light, corrosion, abrasion, moisture, or chemicals – and add dimension and beauty with colorful finishes. We have a vast and ever-evolving portfolio of brands primed to play an important part in everything from modernizing infrastructure around the world to enabling the next generation of electric and autonomous vehicles.
Axalta operates its business in two segments: Performance Coatings and Mobility Coatings, which serve four end markets, including Refinish, Industrial, Light Vehicle and Commercial Vehicle, across North America, EMEA, Latin America and Asia-Pacific. Our diverse global footprint allows us to deliver solutions in over 140+ countries and coat 30 million vehicles per year. We’ve recently set an exciting 2040 carbon neutrality goal, in addition to 10 other sustainability initiatives, and we take pride in working with our customers to optimize their businesses and achieve their goals.
Axalta may use technology-assisted tools, including artificial intelligence (AI), to support certain aspects of the recruitment and selection process. These tools may be used to help manage applications, identify job-related qualifications, and assist recruiter review. All hiring decisions involve human oversight and review.
Recruitment Fraud Alert: We take candidate safety seriously. If you believe you’ve encountered a fraudulent job posting claiming to represent our company, please include a link or screenshot and report it to TA-Support-Center@axalta.com.
2 - Professionals (EEO-1 Job Categories-United States of America)