Director of Engineering

Engineering Manager, Kingston, NY area

The Engineering Manager is the leader of the mechanical, electrical & software engineering teams responsible for creating and executing high level roadmaps and activity schedules, developing, and executing design projects that meet safety, time, cost, quality, and customer satisfaction targets.

Main responsibilities:
1. Strategic Planning & Roadmap Ownership
· Define and maintain comprehensive engineering roadmaps aligned to Business Division requirements and overall product strategy.
· Establish and track OKRs and KPIs for the engineering function; report progress regularly to the General Manager and VP of Engineering Programs.
· Translate business objectives into actionable engineering plans with clear milestones, resource requirements, and risk mitigation strategies.
· Develop and maintains comprehensive plans to ensure product roadmaps, project schedules and support activities are aligned to Business Division requirements.

2. Project Delivery & Technical Execution
· Works with customers and customer facing personnel to ensure that all required information and specifications are available and clearly understood prior to starting a project.
· Drives effective cross-functional relationships to deliver competitive and reliable products to agreed time, quality and cost targets.
· Ensures all assigned projects are completed on time and to specification; raises issues promptly if requested changes will affect committed dates.
· Manages the engineering team through Kick-Off (Gate 1) and 3D model release at Gate 2; delivers complete 3D models and specification requirements to the manufacturing engineering team.
· Ensures that all appropriate procedures are followed including, but not limited to: Design Control, ECR, TCF, FTB, HAZOP, and FMEA.
· Works as delegated technical authority for Product Company products.
· Applies Design for Manufacturing principles throughout the engineering design process to ensure producibility, cost efficiency, and manufacturability of all solutions.

3. Hiring, Onboarding & Talent Development
· Leads full-cycle recruiting for engineering roles: defines job requirements, conducts interviews, and makes hiring recommendations in partnership with HR.
· Designs and executes structured onboarding programs to accelerate time-to-productivity for new engineering hires.
· Establishes and maintains individual development plans (IDPs) for all direct reports; provides regular coaching, mentoring, and feedback.
· Identifies skill gaps across the team and develops targeted training or cross-training initiatives to address them; supports clear career progression paths.

4. Team Leadership & Performance Management
· Owns day-to-day management of mechanical, electrical, and software engineering personnel including direct and indirect reports.
· Sets clear performance expectations; conducts regular 1:1s, mid-year reviews, and annual performance evaluations; addresses performance issues proactively in partnership with HR.
· Builds a strong, competent, effective and motivated team scaled to the agreed project deliverables; moves resources between projects to meet customer needs.
· Oversees timesheets for assigned personnel including time worked, vacation requests, sick time, etc.
· Maintains punctual, regular and predictable attendance; works collaboratively in a team environment with a spirit of cooperation; takes on other duties as assigned by manager.

5. Budget Planning & Cost Management
· Develops and manages the annual engineering budget, including labor, tooling, software licenses, and capital expenditures.
· Monitors cost performance against budget; identifies and implements corrective actions to address variances.
· Ensures all appropriate engineering hours are recovered to meet budget requirements and accurately tracked in the Engineering Worklist and entered in Routings as appropriate.
· Provides input to business case development for new product investments, including engineering cost estimation and resource forecasting.

6. Engineering Quality & Continuous Improvement
· Champions a culture of engineering excellence and continuous improvement across all teams and processes.
· Leads root cause analysis and corrective action processes for engineering-related quality escapes or field issues.
· Drives adoption of best practices, standard work, and lean engineering methodologies to improve efficiency and reduce waste.
· Collects, analyzes, and reports status including workload and performance metrics for assigned projects; uses data to drive decision-making.
· Drives digitalization initiatives and real-time KPI monitoring to enable data-driven business decisions across the engineering function.
· Incorporates environmental considerations into engineering plans and activities, supporting the company's sustainability goals and Science Based Targets initiative (SBTi) commitments.

7. Risk Management & Escalation
· Identifies, assesses, and proactively manages engineering risks across all active projects using structured risk registers.
· Defines escalation protocols and ensures the team understands when and how to surface issues to leadership.
· Facilitates design reviews, FMEAs, and HAZOP sessions to identify and mitigate technical risks before they impact delivery.
· Communicates risk status and mitigation plans clearly and regularly to the General Manager and other senior stakeholders.

Education level
o Bachelor of Science degree in Mechanical, Electrical, or Software Engineering, or a closely related field (required). Master of Science in Engineering or MBA highly preferred.

Relevant Previous Experience
o Minimum 7 years of progressive engineering experience, with at least 5 years in a people leadership role managing multidisciplinary technical teams.
o Demonstrated track record of delivering complex engineering projects on time and within budget.
Minimum 2 years experience in a Technical Customer contact role.
- Experience in a manufacturing or industrial product environment strongly preferred. Technical Skills
- Proficiency in 3D CAD systems including CATIA and Autodesk Inventor. o Familiarity with engineering change management processes (ECR, TCF, HAZOP, FMEA, Design Control).
- Working knowledge of Stage-Gate product development processes and Agile or Lean engineering methodologies.
- Proficiency in Microsoft Office suite; experience with project management and ERP tools preferred. Leadership Competencies o Proven ability to build, coach, and develop high-performing engineering teams.
- Strong skills in conflict resolution, influencing without direct authority, and cross-functional collaboration.
- Superior written and verbal communication skills; ability to effectively work with customers, customer-facing personnel, engineers, and operations personnel.
- Demonstrated ability to manage competing priorities, drive decisions under uncertainty, and manage multiple concurrent projects.
Salary range, $160k to $195k

It is the policy of GCR to provide equal opportunity to all qualified applicants and employees without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, age, protected veteran or disabled status, or genetic information. GCR is an Equal Opportunity/Affirmative Action Employer and embraces diversity in our employee population.

GCR Professional Services is an engineering and information technology staffing firm (direct-hire, consultants, contract-to-hire).