Product Manager - CAD Engineering Lead

Overview

The CAD Engineering Lead owns the digital backbone of how we design, develop, and deliver product. From the engineer’s first sketch in CAD through release into manufacturing and service, this role is responsible for the platforms, data, and processes that make product development fast, reliable, and scalable. It is a deliberate evolution beyond traditional CAD administration—less about keeping the lights on, and more about shaping how engineering works s is a strategic, business-aligned position with an operational role.

The person in this seat will be expected to think in terms of roadmaps, business cases, and measurable outcomes, while remaining close enough to the technology to make confident architectural decisions. They will partner across Engineering, IT, Supply Chain, and Manufacturing to ensure our engineering systems are a competitive advantage rather than a constraint on growth.

• Own the Engineering Systems Landscape: accountable for the architecture, configuration, performance, and roadmap of our CAD and PDM/PLM platforms—making sure they are stable on their own and integrated cleanly into the broader ecosystem.
• Establish Governance and Standards: define and enforce the standards that allow engineers across geographies to work as one team.
• Protect the Digital Thread: ensure product data flows accurately from design to manufacturing to service, without distortion, duplication, or loss of context.
• Drive Engineering Productivity: improve productivity through targeted automation and performance tuning, and serve as the escalation point when complex issues block the team.
• Lead Transformation and Continuous Improvement: lead PLM modernization and upgrade initiatives, drive cloud CAD / SaaS adoption, advance model-based engineering (MBE), and evaluate emerging engineering technologies.
• Manage Vendors and Partners: manage external partners for CAD/PLM support, upgrades, and implementations; own strategic vendor relationships; ensure SLA performance and cost optimization.
• Partner Across the Business: translate business needs into system capabilities and translate system constraints back into business-friendly language.

What We’re Looking For We are looking for someone with deep experience in engineering systems who has been through significant implementations from end to end.

• 8–12+ years in engineering systems, CAD administration, or PLM roles
• Hands-on depth with one or more major platforms:
• PTC Windchill / Creo
• Siemens Teamcenter / NX
• Dassault 3
  
  DEXPERIENCE / Solid Works PDM
• Proven track record leading system implementations or transformations

You should be technically credible across the full stack of engineering data—from CAD geometry through PLM lifecycle and into ERP integration—and comfortable getting hands-on with automation and configuration.

• Strong understanding of CAD data structures and large assembly management
• Working knowledge of PDM/PLM workflows and lifecycle models
• Practical experience with BOM management and ERP integration
• Automation skills (Python, VBA, APIs)
• Experience with data governance and system configuration
• Familiarity with cloud/SaaS engineering platforms is a plus

Above all, this role demands the ability to operate at both strategic and hands-on levels
—able to build a multi-year roadmap one day and debug a complex configuration issue the next.

• Strategic and hands-on: able to set direction and execute against it
• Strong stakeholder management across Engineering, IT, and Operations
• Data-driven mindset with a focus on measurable outcomes
• Experience building roadmaps and business cases—and delivering against them