Engineering Manager

POSITION SUMMARY

The Director of Engineering is a hands-on technical leadership role responsible for serving as the company’s senior engineering authority while directly contributing to product design, technical problem-solving, engineering execution, regulatory coordination, and leadership of a small engineering team.

This is not a purely administrative or management position. The Director of Engineering is expected to remain actively involved in mechanical design, drawing review, product improvement, troubleshooting, technical decision-making, engineering documentation, and new product development.

The Director of Engineering works closely with Manufacturing, Sales, Marketing, Quality, Purchasing, vendors, customers, and outside testing laboratories to ensure that products are well-designed, manufacturable, properly documented, compliant with applicable standards, and aligned with business needs.

• Serve as the company’s senior technical authority for engineering matters.
• Personally contribute to product design, product improvement, troubleshooting, technical review, and engineering problem-solving.
• Review, check, and approve drawings, designs, specifications, engineering changes, and product documentation.
• Provide practical mechanical engineering expertise across sheet metal fabrication, mechanical assemblies, motors, castings, drives, and related components.
• Apply sound engineering judgment to evaluate how mechanical, electrical, and manufactured components work together in complete product systems.
• Provide technical direction and guidance to mechanical and electrical engineering personnel.
• Maintain and improve engineering standards, design practices, documentation quality, and technical review processes.
• Use Solid Works and related engineering tools to support design, review, documentation, and product development activities.
• Support the use and improvement of Solid Works PDM or similar product data management practices.

• Lead and manage engineering efforts for new product development, product enhancements, and improvements to existing product lines.
• Work with Sales and Marketing as a technical sounding board for new product ideas, customer needs, product opportunities, and product improvements.
• Proactively identify and recommend engineering-driven product improvements or new product concepts.
• Evaluate the technical feasibility of new product ideas, custom requests, product changes, and design alternatives.
• Partner with Sales and Marketing, who are responsible for commercial evaluation, to help determine whether product ideas are technically practical and supportable.
• Coordinate engineering priorities across new product development, custom engineering requests, production support, and product maintenance.

• Manage engineering responsibilities related to product compliance, certification, and technical documentation.
• Coordinate with outside testing laboratories for UL certification and related product testing.
• Support certified products, including products certified under UL 1204 and controls under UL 508, as applicable.
• Develop the ability to understand, interpret, and apply relevant UL, CSA, CE, RoHS, and other product-related requirements.
• Maintain organized compliance records, technical files, drawings, test documentation, and certification-related communications.
• Work with outside resources where appropriate for CE, RoHS, CSA, or other compliance requirements.

• Work closely with the Manufacturing Manager to ensure effective engineering-to-manufacturing handoffs.
• Ensure Manufacturing receives accurate drawings, bills of material, work instructions, specifications, and other technical documentation needed to build products correctly.
• Support Manufacturing in understanding and using engineering documentation properly.
• Help resolve production-related technical issues in a collaborative, fact-based manner.
• Promote constructive problem-solving between Engineering and Manufacturing, avoiding blame or finger-pointing.
• Support process improvements, quality improvements, and manufacturability improvements in partnership with Manufacturing and Quality.

• Serve as the first technical review point for custom engineering requests from Sales.
• Evaluate custom requests for technical feasibility, engineering effort, manufacturability, compliance impact, and fit with existing product platforms.
• Work with Sales, customers, vendors, and internal teams to clarify technical requirements and define practical solutions.
• Help balance customer-specific requests against production priorities, engineering capacity, and new product development goals.

• Lead, coach, and supervise the engineering team, currently including mechanical and electrical engineering personnel.
• Provide clear priorities,…