Design Engineering Director-Smart Energy

Role Description

The role is for a highly accomplished, entrepreneurial, and results-driven Director of Engineering to lead the development of market-focused solutions and strategic customer engagements in Smart Energy. This role demands a unique blend of technical expertise (ideally in power systems), commercial acumen, and a passion for architecting end-to-end solutions—consisting of services, technology, and products—from early-stage formation to full launch to deliver meaningful business impact. It is a high impact customer-facing, internally-liaising, and team-leading passionate person energized to enable the Smart Energy strategy.

This role is accountable for strategic customer engagement - this includes regular engagement with the customer’s engineering teams on emerging technical advances, product development phases, test & validation, and production. To be successful in the role, the individual will need to work closely with internal and external stakeholders globally.

The candidate will regularly interact with executives and/or major customers and product marketing. Interactions may involve readouts, technical direction setting or responding professionally and proactively to any potential escalations. The individual may also represent the organization in public speaking venues and/or community events.

Provides direct and indirect supervision to all subordinate managers and employees at multiple sites performing highly specialized roles in several major functions or departments. Participates with other senior managers to establish strategic plans and objectives. Has overall responsibility for planning, budgeting, implementing and maintaining costs, methods and employees in a functional area. Has P&L responsibility for engineering services and makes final decisions on administrative and operational matters to ensure achievement of objectives.

Job Overview

Perform tasks such as, but not limited to, the following:

• Driving market expansion and identifying revenue growth opportunities through engineering & technology led initiatives.
• Develops short- and long-term goals and identifies target customers.
• Identifies the organization's strengths as well as those of the competitors.
• Directs engineering design services from customer requirements through product obsolescence.
• Leads end-to-end engineering solution delivery, encompassing all service offerings: complex product development, commercialization, VAVE, new product introduction, and optimized manufacturing process.
• Works with potential customers to help define their needs and to present technical proposals to meet those needs.
• Ensures proposals meet requirements for design profitability, manufacturing profitability, supply chain etc.
• Directs all of the engineering activities for the segment, product & capability development and customer engagements.
• Defines the technology vision and develops the team's capabilities and the annual business plan.
• Interfaces with global design centers to develop complementary services and coordinate capabilities worldwide.

Knowledge/Skills/Competencies

• Proven techno-commercial leadership: Over fifteen years of in-depth experience in leading the development and market launch of high-risk, mission-critical, complex electro-mechanical product architectures (ideally depth in power systems)
• Exceptional negotiation and problem-solving: Demonstrated expertise in communication, negotiation, and conflict resolution in both the technical and commercial domains.
• Deep understanding of R&D and product development services: set project scope, pricing and contract structures. At least five years of track record in customer management leadership roles.
• Operational mastery: Extensive knowledge of high-reliability product development processes, lean manufacturing processes, and optimal supply chain management.
• Strategic acumen with tactical precision: Ability to think strategically while being able to deep-dive into day-to-day technical and operational issues as needed. Strong analytical skills with the ability to challenge assumptions and make decisions even with limited information.
• Strong business and financial acumen: Demonstrated ability to plan and achieve financial performance objectives in both revenue and profit.
• Influential leadership and interpersonal skills: Strong interpersonal skills coupled with the ability to effectively orchestrate high-stakes developments across a wide variety of internal and external stakeholders.
• Empowering and results-driven leadership: An effective leader, mentor, and motivator capable of inspiring a diverse group of employees and driving high performance in a direct management role and in a matrix organization.

Physical Demands

• Remote position with up to 50% domestic and international travel.

Typical Experience

• Fifteen plus (15+) years’ relevant experience

Typical Education

• Bachelor’s degree in STEM field. An advanced technical degree is a plus.
• Advanced studies in Business/Operations are a plus.

Notes

This job description is not intended to be an exhaustive list of all duties and responsibilities of the position. Employees are held accountable for all duties of the job. Job duties and the % of time identified for any function are subject to change at any time.