What are the responsibilities and job description for the Product Engineering Manager position at Accelerate Professional Talent Solutions?
We are seeking an experienced Manager, Product Engineering to lead our Product Engineering team in Centerville, IA, responsible for factory support, product quality, and sustaining engineering activities across our Specialty product lines. This role is critical to ensuring stable production, rapid resolution of field and manufacturing issues, and continuous improvement of existing products.
The Product Engineering Manager will lead a team focused on supporting factory operations, resolving product and quality issues, and driving design improvements that enhance manufacturability, cost, and reliability. This individual will serve as the key connection point between Engineering, Manufacturing, Quality, and Supply Chain to ensure issues are addressed with urgency and root cause rigor.
This role requires a strong balance of technical engineering judgment, execution discipline, and team leadership. The ideal candidate is highly responsive, thrives in a fast-paced environment, and is capable of driving clarity and prioritization across a wide range of competing demands. This position reports to the Director of Engineering.
Product Engineering Manager Responsibilities:
- Lead and develop a team of Product Engineers supporting day-to-day factory operations across multiple sites
- Drive rapid response and resolution of production issues, RFIs, and field quality concerns
- Establish clear prioritization and accountability for incoming engineering support requests
- Ensure strong root cause analysis and implementation of corrective actions for product and manufacturing issues
- Partner with Manufacturing, Quality, and Supply Chain to improve product manufacturability, reliability, and cost
- Support production readiness for new product launches, ensuring smooth handoff from NPD to sustaining engineering
- Own sustaining engineering activities including design updates, ECNs, and BOM accuracy
- Improve engineering processes that support factory operations, including documentation, communication, and issue tracking
- Provide technical guidance on product design, buildability, and system-level performance
- Support customer and field issue resolution, including direct interaction when required
- Identify and drive continuous improvement initiatives that reduce defects, scrap, and rework
- Develop team capability in problem-solving, engineering judgment, and cross-functional collaboration
- Collaborate with NPD, DTV, and Lab teams to ensure alignment across product lifecycle activities
- Track and report key performance metrics related to quality, responsiveness, and operational efficiency
Requirements for Product Engineering Manager:
- Bachelor of Science in Mechanical Engineering or related engineering discipline; MBA or Master’s degree in Engineering or related discipline is a plus
- Minimum 8 years of engineering experience in product engineering, manufacturing support, or related field
- Minimum 3 years of experience leading or managing technical teams
- Strong sense of urgency and ownership in addressing production and customer issues
- Demonstrated ability to prioritize and manage a high volume of competing demands
- Practical engineering judgment with a focus on real-world, manufacturable solutions
- Proven ability to lead teams in fast-paced, execution-focused environments
- Effective communicator who can translate technical issues clearly across functions
- Ability to influence without authority and drive alignment across Manufacturing, Quality, and Engineering
- Hands-on problem solver who is comfortable engaging directly with products, factories, and issues
- Strong organizational skills with the ability to bring structure to ambiguous situations
- Commitment to developing team members and improving overall team capability
- Focus on continuous improvement and delivering measurable business impact
Salary : $110,000 - $130,000