Head of Design Engineering and Project Management

Head of Design Engineering and Project Management

Due to growth, diverse manufacturer is hiring a Head of Design Engineering and Project Management to lead design engineering and project management. Daily you focus on achieving revenue and profitability goals with a collaborative group of team members. Responsibilities will include, but not be limited to:

• Strategic Team Leadership: Supervise, mentor, and lead a high-performing team of managers across engineering and internal project management to hit key business objectives.
• Inner-Department Communication & Consistency: Heavily focus on improving communication between departments, breaking down silos, and driving organizational consistency across all teams under your purview.
• Process Optimization (Sales to Customer Service): Critically review, design, and establish seamless internal workflows and procedures from the initial sales handoff through engineering and customer service.
• Internal Capital & Systems Projects: Lead major internal initiatives for the organization, acting as the driving force behind software implementations, CapEx improvements, and potential facility upgrades.
• Cross-Functional Alignment & Meetings: Establish and lead regular staff meetings to keep teams aligned, while serving as the central liaison to senior management on project status, risks, and progress dashboards.
• Customer-Facing Escalations: Step in as the primary champion for customer satisfaction by directly handling escalated customer issues and providing a closed-loop feedback system for field observations.
• Operational & Schedule Prioritization: Partner closely with operations and scheduling to actively prioritize the production calendar, making the swift, necessary adjustments needed to keep projects moving.
• Financial & Budgetary Control: Oversee the engineering budget, manage project scope risks, and maintain strict accountability for documenting and following up on price adjustments.
• Optimized Product Design: Ensure all products are strategically designed for maximum efficiency in engineering, manufacturing, and installation while maintaining standards that serve internal and external stakeholders.
• Culture, Safety, & Sales Support: Run your departments with a sharp focus on safety and employee engagement, assist the sales team with technical product presentations, and provide back‑up leadership support when needed.

Candidates should enjoy streamlining and improving internal operating procedures. The qualified individual will be able to build teams by getting people "on board" while being charismatic and driven and have excellent follow through and strong problem solving skills. The company offers competitive medical, dental and vision benefits, as well as 401K, paid holidays and PTO, tuition reimbursement and bonus potential.

Requirements for the Head of Design Engineering and Project Management

1. Bachelor's degree, ideally in a technical or operations field
2. At least five years of similar engineering or operations leadership experience
3. Experience working in low volume, high mix, custom manufacturing environments
4. Experience overseeing direct and indirect reports
5. Project management, including budgets and timelines
6. Strong mechanical aptitude
7. Proven track record of continuous improvements
8. Working knowledge of ERP systems
9. Microsoft Office, including Excel

Skills preferred but NOT required

• MBA
• Power BI

Reasons to work for this organization

• Three tier medical plan with an HSA contribution
• Diverse business mix, supplying a growing industry
• Every project is different, never work on the same thing
• Excellent work schedule, with zero to no weekend work
• Adding headcount to their hourly team
• Casual work environment; wear jeans daily

There is not any relocation available for this position. There is not any hybrid or remote work available.