Technical Director

Technical Director – Design
1) Role Purpose
 
* Mandate:
Accelerate innovation and deliver new product Introduction (NPI) that is successful in existing and new markets through delivery of design strategy.
 
* Board Role:
Share high-level priority-setting with the board; translate strategy into decisive roadmaps, resources, and delivery.
 
* Team Context:
Lead a cross functional design engineering team; work through a direct report manager to remove blockers, focus effort, and raise the pace.
2) Outcomes
 
* NPI Throughput:
Increase NPD delivery (2–3 new product launches in first year)
 
* Innovation Pipeline:
Build a validated, Board‑aligned pipeline
 
* Market Fit & Customer Proof:
Systematic customer validation at key stages
 
* Design Quality & Reliability:
Prototype validation and prevention of scope creep
 
* Team Focus:
Reduce scope creep; establish weekly cadence and WIP limits; improve engagement scores and cycle predictability.
3) Accountability
 
* Owns:
Design strategy execution, engineering standards, resource allocation within design, stage‑gate discipline, technical risk management.
 
* Influences:
Product portfolio priorities, pricing/positioning, investment cases; collaborates with Ops and Finance on trade‑offs.
 
* Commits:
Delivery against Board‑agreed roadmaps; transparent reporting of risk/mitigation; escalation before schedule slips.
4) Core Responsibilities
 
* Set Pace & Focus:
Translate Board priorities into monthly design KPIs
 
* Gateway Leadership:
Install gateways with stakeholder validation, DFMEA, and reliability targets.
 
* Technical Direction:
Define architecture choices, platform strategy, and standards; arbitrate key technical decisions.
 
* Responsibility range:
Research and discovery to production ready.
 
* Resource & Capacity:
Balance team workloads through manager (direct report); consultant and specialist management; fix bottlenecks (test, tooling, supplier readiness).
 
* Customer & Market Integration:
Embed structured voice‑of‑customer; ensure requirements are testable, traceable, and risk‑rated.
 
* Standards and regulations:
Embed compliance with industry and business standards into team and product design structure.
 
* Technology Integration:
Embed structured AI, 3D printing and robotics into a design for manufacture structure.
 
* Quality & Lifecycle:
Drive design for manufacturability, serviceability, and cost; own design transfer to manufacturing.
 
* Board Engagement:
Provide clear dashboards on pipeline, risks, and investment needs; propose stop/go/accelerate decisions.
 
* Talent & Culture:
Coach senior engineers; encourage deep work and high‑leverage innovation; raise standards without micro‑managing