Director of Engineering (Operations)

Key Responsibilities

1. Strategic Leadership & Organizational Scaling

• Lead, scale, and develop a multi-disciplinary engineering organization comprising engineering managers, NPI leads, and specialized engineers (mechanical, electronics, and process).
• Define the long-term engineering strategy, roadmap, and infrastructure to support business growth and technological scaling.
• Manage the department’s budget, capacity planning, and resource allocation to align with corporate milestones.

2. Strategic NPI Governance & Technology Transfer

• Own the overarching New Product Introduction (NPI) framework, ensuring seamless, risk-mitigated transition from R&D to full-scale serial production.
• Establish and enforce strict gate-reviews (PDR, CDR, PRR) and drive advanced DFX (DFM, DFA, DTC) methodologies corporate-wide to optimize yield and reduce manufacturing costs.
• Act as the final engineering authority on design maturity and production readiness.

3. Manufacturing Infrastructure & Process Innovation

• Drive operational excellence across the manufacturing lines by implementing advanced production technologies, ATE, and optimized process controls.
• Oversee the global configuration management system, ensuring flawless execution of change control processes (ECO/ECR/FCR/BOM management) across multi-tiered bills of materials with multi suppliers.
• Lead root-cause analysis (RCA) task forces for complex, systemic engineering failures on the production floor or in the field.

4. Vendor Ecosystem & Global Supply Chain Strategy

• Partner with procurement to qualify, evaluate, and manage multiple critical global subcontractors and production lines (precision CNC machining, plastic injection molding, EMS/PCBA, ATE, and specialized coatings).
• Standardize global Engineering-to-Vendor interfaces, ensuring seamless transfer of manufacturing packages (technical data packages/TDPs) and strict FAIR (First Article Inspection Review) compliance.

5. Defense Compliance & Security Governance

• Ensure all engineering processes, documentation, and tooling comply with strict military and aerospace standards (e.g., AS9100, ISO 9001, ITAR, and relevant MIL-STDs).

Job Requirements

Education & Experience

• B.Sc. in Mechanical Engineering / Electrical Engineering / Aerospace Engineering – Mandatory. M.Sc. or MBA – a significant advantage.
• At least 10 years of engineering leadership experience, with at least 3–5 years in a director-level or senior management role overseeing multi-disciplinary hardware environments (electronics, mechanics).
• Roots in the Defense or Aerospace Industry – Advantage. Thorough understanding of ruggedized systems, environmental testing, and military standard compliance.
• Proven track record of scaling production lines from low-rate initial production to high-volume manufacturing.

Technical & Strategic Skills

• High-level mastery of PLM, and CAD ecosystem strategies (e.g., Agile, Arena, SolidWorks).
• Expert-level understanding of diverse manufacturing processes, ATE including high-precision CNC, advanced sheet metal fabrication, precision machining, and PCBA assembly.

Leadership & Competencies

• Executive Presence: Strong communication and negotiation skills; ability to influence C-level executives, and global tier-1 suppliers.
• Systems Thinker: Ability to balance aggressive R&D timelines with manufacturing stability, cost, and strict quality constraints.
• Strategic problem solver who thrives in highly demanding, mission-critical, and confidential environments.