Lead for Design Manufacturing (DFM

Job

Newell Brands is a leading consumer products company with a portfolio of iconic brands like Graco®, Coleman®, Oster®, Rubbermaid®, Sharpie® and Yankee Candle® - and 24,000 talented teammates around the world. Our culture is built on values in action:
Integrity, Teamwork, Passion for Winning, Ownership, and Leadership. We work together to win, grow, and make a real impact—supported by a high‑performing, inclusive, and collaborative environment where you can be your best, every day.

Newell Brands is a leading global consumer goods company with an iconic portfolio that includes Rubbermaid, Sharpie, Graco, Coleman, Oster, Contigo, Yankee Candle and more, serving consumers and commercial customers in 200+ countries. Engineering, Reliability & Automation (ERA) partners with product development, supply chain and operations across six business segments to build manufacturing excellence, in sourcing capability and competitive cost into every new product.

The Manager, Design for Manufacturing (DFM) is an individual contributor leadership role that owns the development, deployment and continuous improvement of Newell’s DFM program within ERA. Working with New Product Development (NPD), Manufacturing Development & Commercialization (MDC), Operations and cross‑functional teams, this role embeds manufacturability into NPD decisions where cost, lead time and supply chain risk can be most effectively shaped.

This role owns the DFM review cadence: calling the reviews, setting agendas, driving cross‑functional conversations to decisions and initiating escalation when a program is at risk of missing gate criteria.

• Manage and improve Newell DFM materials, including the Program Manual, phase definitions, RACI, KPI framework and template library.
• Own DFM gate criteria from Idea through Launch; drive programs to meet them and deliver the DFM readiness assessment at each gate, concentrating on the decisions that most affect cost, lead time and complexity.
• Support make‑vs‑buy and in sourcing decisions by helping teams quantify capital, capability and risk trade‑offs and grounding design choices in data.
• Support consistent DFM application across segments while developing product‑type guidance for discrete electromechanical, discrete mechanical/formed, process/batch and high‑volume discrete products.
• Act as the DFM lead on priority NPD programs during rollout; guide business teams and MDC through day‑to‑day execution and hold programs accountable to the DFM standard.
• Lead cross‑functional DFM reviews with Product Development, ERA, Packaging, Industrial Engineering, Plant/Production, Quality, Procurement and Finance; own the cadence, set agendas, drive reviews to decisions and initiate escalation when program timing or gate readiness is at risk.
• Build and maintain a Subject Matter Expert (SME) network supporting DFM reviews across Product Development, MDC, Manufacturing, Quality, Packaging, Procurement, Finance and plant teams.
• Define and maintain SME engagement guidelines for DFM reviews, including timing, cadence and role clarity by program phase.
• Capture and codify SME guidance, lessons learned and manufacturing constraints, including closeout learnings, into DFM materials and training to continuously improve effectiveness.
• Define, track and communicate DFM KPIs, including manufacturability risk, cost‑to‑target, supplier readiness, design‑freeze compliance, pilot first‑pass yield and skills readiness.
• Build and deliver DFM training and develop the skills‑and‑training‑readiness approach so operator, technician, engineering and supplier capabilities are assessed and closed before launch.

• Bachelor's degree in Mechanical, Manufacturing, Industrial or a related Engineering discipline.
• 5+ years of progressive experience in manufacturing engineering, product development or operations in consumer products or discrete/process manufacturing.
• Experience applying DFM and/or other Design for Excellence (DFX) disciplines, such as Design for Assembly, Cost, Quality, Reliability or Supply Chain.
• Experience with concurrent…