Director of Engineering

Summary:

The Director of Design Engineering supervises the planning, coordination, and direction of all activities related to the operational, budgetary, staffing, project management, quality assurance, and training aspects of the Design Engineering Department. 

Essential Duties and Responsibilities:

• Actively lead, mentor, and manage the Design Engineering team, fostering a culture of innovation, accountability, and continuous improvement to establish a best-in-class operation in a dynamic vertical market with a high-growth, global company.
• Upgrades and maintains the skills of engineering personnel by developing and supervising an appropriate training program
• Promotes innovation within the department and maintains awareness of opportunities to implement patentable solutions
• Establish a key contributor role for development programs and maintain a strong business partnership with R&D/Test, Sales, and Product Management teams
• Is attentive to the voice of the customer, particularly regarding design features and department responsiveness
• Plans/schedules projects and organizes engineering personnel responsibilities according to project requirements.  Coordinates activities concerned with technical developments, scheduling, and resolving engineering design and test problems
• Assigns project personnel to support specific aspects of projects such as order configuration, product design, value engineering, research and development, and testing
• Represents Design Engineering in Executive meetings in NAM and coordinates with international engineering teams for global designs
• Generates reports and provides clear communications to management and with other departments on engineering projects and other engineering responsibilities
• Supervision of quality standards and measurement techniques  
  • Reviews product design for compliance with engineering principles, company standards, and customer contract requirements, and related specifications  
  • Evaluates and approves design changes, specifications, and drawing releases
  • Delivers on-time, on-budget designs to ensure speed to market and strategic alignment with executive leadership and business partners
  • Identifies the appropriate standards, measurement equipment and fixtures for product testing
• Leads efforts to upgrade and standardize design tools, templates, and workflows across Engineering to enhance consistency, reduce errors, and improve efficiency.
• Champions the integration of automation tools and rule-based configuration solutions (e.g., design automation, parametric modeling, CAD macros) to streamline repetitive tasks and accelerate product development.
• Maintains product master data in the ERP system to enable efficient production and accurate product costing
• Create and lead the implementation of an approved business plan to best position the department to ensure required deliverables are on time and on budget
• Establishes and directs Engineering operating and project/initiative budgets. Monitors actual expenditures to budgetary expenditures and provides cost justification for capital expenditures.
• Plans/schedules projects and organizes engineering personnel responsibilities according to project requirements.  Coordinates activities concerned with technical developments, scheduling, and resolving engineering design and test problems
• Assign project personnel to specific phases or aspects of projects such as order configuration, product design, value engineering, research and development, and product testing
• Supervision of the training program development to develop the skills of engineering personnel
• Generates reports and provides necessary communications with business partners and the Executive Leadership Team
• Represents Design Engineering in Executive Leadership meetings in NAM and coordinates with international engineering teams for global designs
• Other duties as assigned

Qualifications:

To perform this job successfully, an individual must be able to perform each essential duty satisfactorily.  The requirements listed below are representative of the knowledge, skill, and/or ability required. Reasonable accommodations may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform essential functions.

Education/Experience:

• B.S. in Engineering or a similar field
• 7+ years of experience in engineering management, engineering project management and/or design
• Experience working in a diverse (technical and non-technical) team
• Strong written and verbal communication skills preferred
• Strong demonstrable understanding of design engineering best practices
• Experience in a formal development process or PMP (Project Management Process)
• Experience in Lean manufacturing and corporate initiatives

Language Skills:

• Ability to read and understand English instructions

Mathematical Skills:

• Ability to provide solutions to complex engineering calculations/equations

Physical Requirements:

The physical demands described here are representative of those that must be met by an employee to successfully perform the essential functions of this job.  Reasonable accommodations may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform essential functions.

While performing the duties of this job, the employee is regularly required to stand, use hands to finger, handle or feel, reach with hands and arms, stoop, kneel, crouch, or crawl, and talk or hear. The employee is frequently required to walk and sit. Individuals may be required to provide manufacturing/test support through “hands-on” approaches. This involves working in and around the products and systems at the factory or installed at the customer site. Specific vision abilities required by this job include close vision, distance vision, color vision, peripheral vision, depth perception, and the ability to adjust focus.

Work Environment:

The work environment characteristics described here are representative of those an employee encounters while performing the essential functions of this job. Reasonable accommodations may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform essential functions.

While performing the duties of this job, the employee is exposed to moving mechanical equipment.  The noise level in the work environment is usually moderate. The employee is regularly exposed to an office environment.  It may be required that individuals work in the manufacturing area when providing manufacturing support.  This work environment may be at higher noise levels and lower air quality. Individuals may also be required to provide field support for equipment, whereby the outside environment may be encountered, as well as environments commonly encountered in air-conditioning equipment installations.