Vice President of Engineering - Research & Development Engineering

What you’ll do:

Eaton is hiring a Vice President of Engineering to lead the engineering function for the Assemblies & Residential Solutions (ARS) Group.

This executive will provide technical leadership, strategic direction, and engineering execution across Power Distribution Controls and Assemblies (PDCA), Commercial Products and Assemblies (CPA), Residential and Wiring Devices (RWD), Energy Transition, and Fibrebond. The role has responsibility for innovation, new product development, sustaining engineering, value analysis/value engineering (VA/VE), and Engineer-to-Order (ETO) front-end engineering across electrical power distribution assemblies, circuit protection, wiring devices, and energy transition solutions.

The Vice President of Engineering will develop and execute an integrated technology and product engineering strategy across ARS, aligning innovation, product roadmaps, engineering investments, program management, and codes and standards with business priorities. This leader will support growth across data centers, residential, commercial, and industrial markets through scalable product platforms, AC and DC power distribution, intelligent and connected products, and energy transition technologies.

This role will also establish a consistent engineering execution model across the product lifecycle, partnering with division leadership, operations, supply chain, marketing, and enterprise engineering teams to standardize product architectures, designs, processes, and tools. A key priority will be improving engineering quality, productivity, and cycle time while enabling multisite manufacturing, capacity expansion, and repeatable programmatic production.

Essential Functions

•    Technology Strategy: Establish and execute the ARS technology and engineering strategy, aligning innovation priorities, product roadmaps, and engineering investments with Group and Division business objectives.
•    Product Development & Innovation: Lead engineering teams to accelerate time-to-market for ARS products and assemblies while meeting customer requirements, quality standards, technical requirements, and program commitments.
•    Engineering Talent & Organization: Build and execute the talent strategy for the ARS engineering organization, ensuring the technical capabilities, leadership pipeline, organizational structure, and succession plans required to support current programs and future growth.
•    Technology Roadmaps & R&D Investment: Oversee integrated technology roadmaps and product platform architectures across ARS. Lead the annual product roadmapping and waterlining process and manage an R&D budget exceeding $100 million.
•    Engineering Execution & Program Management: Establish a disciplined engineering execution model incorporating program and portfolio management, technical reviews, performance metrics, resource planning, global engineering capabilities, and cross-functional governance.
•    ProLaunch: Drive rigorous and consistent application of ProLaunch, Eaton’s stage-gate process, across ARS product lines and Divisions through a standardized operating rhythm.
•    ETO & Front-End Engineering: Continuously improve front-end engineering processes, systems, and tools across ARS, including ETO design automation, standardized engineering deliverables, and engineering quality practices. Improve ETO productivity while ensuring high-quality designs are delivered on time for customer approvals and manufacturing releases.
•    Programmatic Manufacturing & Capacity Expansion: Enable growth and capacity expansion in historically Engineer-to-Order product lines by developing scalable, repeatable programmatic build methodologies. Align product architectures and engineering deliverables with multisite manufacturing, production replication, and new-site launch readiness.
•    Engineering Collaboration & Innovation Ecosystem: Build a collaborative innovation environment and leverage resources including Eaton Research Labs (ERL), Eaton Centers of Excellence, Global Product Lines (GPLs), universities, strategic technology partners, and other external resources.
•    Codes & Standards: Provide leadership and engagement with relevant standards organizations, including UL, NEMA, IEEE, and IEC, to anticipate regulatory and industry requirements and ensure business objectives are effectively represented.
•    Intellectual Property: Strengthen Eaton’s intellectual property portfolio while protecting the company’s intellectual capital and improving the quality of patents, trademarks, trade secrets, and other proprietary technologies.
•    Safety: Foster an engineering culture in which employee and product safety are fundamental expectations and ensure employees work safely.

The expected annual salary range for this role is $227000 - $333000 a year. This position is also eligible for a variable incentive program.

Please note the salary information shown above is a general guideline only. Salaries are based upon candidate skills, experience, and qualifications, as well as market and business considerations. 

Basic Qualifications:

•    Bachelor’s degree in engineering from an accredited institution.
•    Minimum 15 years of progressive engineering experience.
•    Minimum 10 years of direct people-management experience.
•    Must be legally authorized to work in the United States without company sponsorship now or in the future.

Preferred Qualifications

•    Significant experience leading large, complex, global engineering and/or R&D organizations.
•    Demonstrated experience in electrical components and/or systems design, new product development, and engineering program management.
•    Experience developing and executing technology strategies, product roadmaps, and product platform architectures.
•    Demonstrated experience managing significant R&D budgets and investment portfolios.
•    Experience leading engineering across the full product lifecycle, including new product development, sustaining engineering, VA/VE, and Engineer-to-Order environments.
•    Experience applying structured stage-gate and program management methodologies to complex product development portfolios.
•    Experience improving engineering productivity through standardization, automation, design reuse, common platforms, and engineering process transformation.
•    Experience supporting multisite manufacturing, capacity expansion, and new manufacturing site or production-line launches.
•    Strong knowledge of power distribution products and technologies, including low- and medium-voltage assemblies, switchboards, panelboards, busway, motor control, circuit protection, miniature circuit breakers (MCBs), residential load centers, wiring devices, connected products, and energy transition applications.
•    Working knowledge of applicable electrical codes and industry standards, including UL, NEMA, IEEE, and IEC.
•    Demonstrated success building engineering organizational capability through recruiting, coaching, leadership development, succession planning, and organizational design.
•    Experience developing and protecting intellectual property, including familiarity with patents, trademarks, trade secrets, and product-liability considerations.
•    Experience working across engineering, operations, supply chain, marketing, product management, and business leadership within a complex matrixed organization.