Senior Director, Solutions

Job Description

Wabtec’s Advanced Technologies team is seeking a technically versatile Senior Director, Intelligent Solutions to lead early-stage development of rail automation, energy performance, and system-optimized solutions. This role oversees Systems Architecture, Automation Engineering, Artificial Intelligence, and Cloud Engineering/Development. It is also the global point of contact for sustainability efforts within the Chief Technology Office.

This role will drive cross-functional collaboration to define and develop innovative projects and product platforms that support both current offerings and long-term growth, leveraging existing and emerging technologies. Bold technical leadership and boundary-pushing innovation are essential.

• Lead the Systems Engineering function and integrate emerging automation technologies by driving teams through early concept development, system definition, and technical maturation, then transitioning initiatives for commercialization.
• Guide teams in developing system concepts, defining solution architectures, and managing system-level requirements across hardware and software to deliver cohesive, scalable, and robust designs.
• Collaborate with Business Development to identify innovative solutions to product pain points and maintain strong business cases for owned projects, ensuring alignment of technical scope, cost, value, and strategic priorities.
• Facilitate and lead technical design reviews, risk assessments, validation planning, and trade studies to ensure disciplined engineering decisions and measurable technical progress.
• Define talent development plans and staffing strategies that reflect business needs, technical complexity, and resource capacity.
• Own technical, schedule, and budget tracking, ensuring alignment with product milestones, program goals, and readiness for transition to commercialization.
• Engage and manage third-party vendors and technical partners, ensuring external deliverables fully integrate with Wabtec’s internal systems, architecture, and engineering standards.
• Apply systems engineering best practices—including DFMEA/SFMEA, safety assessments, and human-factors considerations—throughout the entire product lifecycle.
• Influence, align, and motivate cross-functional teams around a unified technical vision, ensuring consistent progress across hardware, software, and systems-integration work streams.
• Contribute to global sustainability efforts by leading technical and market research and advising on company strategy.
• Maintain sustainability claims database and approve technical claims for all external communications.

You may also be asked to perform other duties outside of your function or trade, for which adequate training will be provided if necessary.

• 15+ years of engineering experience, including 10+ years of progressive experience in engineering leadership capacity.
• Demonstrated success delivering complex automation solutions that integrate hardware, software, and advanced controls from concept through deployment.
• Strong grounding in systems integration, architecture development, system-level requirements, and risk analysis methodologies (DFMEA, SFMEA).
• Experience with safety-critical system development, including safety assessments, validation strategies, and fail-safe design principles.
• Technologically curious, innovative, and skilled at challenging assumptions to identify new solutions and business opportunities.
• Expertise in one or more key automation and robotics domains, such as:
  • Perception, planning, and control for autonomous or semi-autonomous systems
  • Industrial automation (PLC, PAC, DCS) and real-time control of electromechanical systems
  • Robotic manipulation, mobile robotics, or automated material handling
  • Machine vision, sensor fusion, and advanced sensing technologies
  • Embedded and real-time software platforms
  • Functional safety and safety-critical automation
  • HMI, supervisory control, and operator-in-the-loop systems
  • Integration with enterprise, cloud, or edge computing platforms
• Domain…