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Director of Engineering

FAWN ENGINEERING CORPORATION - 3.0

Clive, IA Job Details 9 hours ago Qualifications Product design project leadership Bachelor's degree in mechanical engineering Succession planning Customer communication Managerial strategic planning Performance improvement leadership Strategic management New product introduction engineering projects Resource allocation (project management tasks) Defect resolution root cause analysis Electro-mechanical components Engineering phase involvement Bachelor's degree in electrical engineering Tooling Sheet metal fabrication Embedded systems Regulatory compliance Employee engagement strategy Mechanical Engineering Firmware Engineering process optimization Employee retention Cost control Electrical engineering Leadership development Product vision management Team development Collaboration with product development teams Bachelor's degree in engineering Managing engineering teams Full Job Description This position is on-site in Des Moines, Iowa. Key Duties and Responsibilities Engineering Organization and Team Development Build, organize, mentor, and retain a high-performing multidisciplinary engineering team with clear ownership for new product development, product sustainment, and technical excellence. Develop engineering leaders and technical experts who can independently manage programs, make sound technical decisions, and collaborate across the business. Establish capacity plans, role clarity, resource allocation, succession plans, budgets, and development paths that support the product portfolio and long-term business strategy. Create a culture of accountability, curiosity, practical innovation, disciplined execution, continuous learning, and customer-focused problem solving. Lead through the team by setting direction, removing barriers, reviewing outcomes, and developing capability rather than becoming the primary individual contributor. New Product Development and Commercialization Lead the engineering organization from product concept through design, prototyping, validation, industrialization, launch, and post-launch stabilization. Ensure disciplined execution of APQP, design reviews, verification and validation, risk management, change control, documentation, and manufacturing readiness. Guide the development of manufacturable products using sheet metal, electrical systems, refrigeration systems, embedded controllers, firmware, sensors, connectivity, and related technologies. Partner with Manufacturing and Supply Chain to ensure designs can be produced consistently, efficiently, safely, and at the required quality, volume, cost, and margin. Bring products to market with clear ownership, launch criteria, technical support plans, and feedback loops for rapid post-launch learning. Product Sustainment and Continuous Improvement Build the team and operating model responsible for the long-term performance and sustainability of released products. Improve product quality, reliability, serviceability, manufacturability, availability, compliance, cost, and margin throughout the product lifecycle. Use customer feedback, warranty data, field service information, manufacturing performance, support trends, and product telemetry to identify and prioritize improvements. Lead root-cause problem solving, corrective action, value engineering, component lifecycle planning, obsolescence management, and technical debt reduction. Ensure existing products remain supportable, competitive, profitable, and aligned with changing customer and regulatory requirements. Success Measures Engineering portfolio balance and delivery against committed priorities. New product development milestones, APQP gate completion, launch readiness, and time-to-market. Post-launch performance, product adoption, customer outcomes, and revenue or margin contribution. Quality, reliability, warranty, field issue, serviceability, and corrective-action trends. Cost reduction, value engineering, manufacturability, production efficiency, and product margin improvement. Hardware-software integration quality, release coordination, system validation, and connected-product performance. Team capability, leadership development, retention, succession readiness, and employee engagement. Product sustainment health, obsolescence risk, technical debt reduction, and lifecycle supportability. Knowledge, Skills, and Leadership Capabilities Proven leadership of multidisciplinary product engineering teams in a manufacturing environment. Demonstrated experience building teams and leaders that deliver through others. Experience bringing physical products from concept through industrialization, manufacturing, launch, and lifecycle support. Working knowledge of embedded controller devices, firmware, electrical systems, and connected-device architecture. Practical knowledge of sheet metal product development, design for manufacturability, tooling, fabrication, assembly, and production readiness. Experience with APQP, verification and validation, design controls, risk management, root-cause analysis, change control, and continuous improvement. Ability to connect mechanical, electrical, refrigeration, embedded, firmware, cloud, and software development into a coordinated product strategy. Strong business judgment with the ability to balance innovation, customer value, technical risk, cost, quality, margin, capacity, and speed. Clear executive, technical, customer, and cross-functional communication skills. Education and Experience Bachelor's degree in Mechanical Engineering, Electrical Engineering, Manufacturing Engineering, or a related discipline. Equivalent relevant experience may be considered. Progressive engineering leadership experience in the development and manufacture of integrated electromechanical products. Demonstrated experience leading multidisciplinary engineering teams. Being able to partner with software development teams to deliver integrated hardware and software products is strongly preferred. The Director of Engineering builds and leads the engineering organization responsible for both new product development and the continuous improvement and long-term sustainability of the company's controlled dispensing and intelligent inventory management products. This leader establishes the vision, priorities, capabilities, and operating discipline that enable engineering teams to turn customer needs, market opportunities, emerging technologies, and business goals into reliable, manufacturable, serviceable, scalable, and profitable solutions. The role leads multidisciplinary capabilities across mechanical engineering, electrical engineering, refrigeration, embedded controllers and firmware, sheet metal development, testing, validation, product documentation, and manufacturing readiness. The Director works in close alignment with Software Development so hardware, embedded systems, cloud services, data, and connected-device capabilities develop as one integrated product system rather than as separate functions. This position is on-site in Des Moines, Iowa.