Sr Manager Design & Development

Position Overview

The Sr. Manager of Design & Development (D&D) serves as the functional leader for the product design and engineering development team within Wanzl North America. Operating in a matrixed organizational structure, this manager ensures that D&D processes, engineering standards, methods, and technical competencies are consistently applied across all business segments and product portfolios.

The Sr. Manager of D&D is responsible for team capability, functional excellence, and technical execution, while the Head of each Segment will maintain primary ownership of program priorities, budget decisions, product roadmaps, and final project approvals.

The Senior Manager of Design & Development supports multiple concurrent new product and product enhancement initiatives across various business segments. This role collaborates cross-functionally with Sales, Product Management, Operations, Quality, Manufacturing Engineering, Supply Chain, and global Wanzl engineering teams to drive successful project execution. The Design & Development function is tightly integrated into the Sales process, playing a key role in delivering customer‑specific solutions, especially for Engineer‑to‑Order (ETO) offerings and product enhancements within the portfolio.

The D&D team regularly engages with customers to understand their needs, ensure requirements are met, and deliver tailored solutions, making them vital to achieving customer fulfillment and satisfaction.

This position will be located at Wanzl’s North American headquarters in Denver, NC and will require infrequent travel to the manufacturing plants in North America including Newton, NC and Queretaro, Mexico, Wanzl’s Group headquarters in Germany (WDE) as well as visits to customers and global manufacturing facilities.

Wanzl North America's (WNA) vision is to be a leading entrepreneurial player in terms of market share, agility, and game‑changing solutions. WNA is a solution provider, creating value along the supply chain of our customers, from online purchase to delivery to their customers.

WNA is headquartered in the Charlotte Metro Area of North Carolina. With nearly 500 employees and $175M of sales, WNA focuses on the retail and distribution of market segments with marquee customers such as Walmart, Amazon, and most large grocers and retailers.

In addition to being the largest manufacturer of shopping carts in North America, WNA has three additional main product segments as well as a Service business, providing turnkey solutions for customer guidance (Access Systems), Shop Solutions in the form of high‑end shelving, and Material Handling products. Additionally, WNA offers a range of digital solutions integrated into our products, including advanced shopping cart containment systems, smart exit gate technology, and innovations for autonomous and semi‑autonomous retail stores.

We are continuously expanding and enhancing our digital offerings to meet evolving customer needs and drive industry advancement.

WNA is part of the Wanzl group, headquartered in Germany, and has 12 plants in 8 countries, providing comprehensive, solutions‑driven service and expert knowledge of local markets for customers across the globe through their 360° service.

• Fully ownership of the D&D function across segments, establishing and maintaining engineering standards, best practices, design processes, and documentation requirements.
• Responsible for the development and compliance of the technical capabilities of Design & Development engineers, including training, performance management, mentoring, and career development.
• Ensure consistent application of design methodologies such as:
  • Requirements definition
  • CAD modeling and drafting (Solid Works/AutoCAD)
  • Design for manufacture (DFM)
  • Design‑to‑cost (DTC)
  • Prototyping and testing
  • Version and change control
• Lead functional resource and capacity planning for the D&D team by recommending and coordinating resource allocation to ensure flexible and effective support for Segment needs during periods of high demand, collaborating closely with Segment Leaders for final resourcing decisions.
• Own…