Director of Design Engineering

Director of Design Engineering

Findlay, Ohio Area

Why This is the Ultimate Next Step for Your Career:

📌 Massive Leadership & Authority: Take full command of an expanding department, overseeing a talented team of engineers and project managers. With both direct and indirect reports, this is a prime opportunity to steer the operational and technical direction of a growing organization.

📌 True Innovation (Zero Repetition): Step into a role where every single project is entirely different. If you want a workspace where you will never solve the same puzzle twice, this is your playground.

📌 Premium Work-Life Balance: Enjoy an excellent work schedule with virtually zero weekend work, a generous PTO bucket, and minimal travel (just 1–3 short trips per quarter).

📌 Immediate Security & Benefits: Get comprehensive three-tier medical coverage with a company HSA contribution, alongside clear pathways for future advancement.

📌 High-Resource, Casual Culture: Experience a supportive, collaborative environment where you can wear jeans daily—backed by an organization that is actively adding hourly headcount to support your team.

We will make it easy for you! Apply today so that we can lead you through the interview and hiring process! There is NEVER a cost to utilize our services!

Due to growth, diverse manufacturer is hiring a Director of Design Engineering to lead design engineering and project management. Daily you focus on achieving revenue and profitability goals with a collaborative group of team members. Responsibilities will include, but not be limited to:

• Strategic Team Leadership: Supervise, mentor, and lead a high-performing team of managers across engineering and internal project management to hit key business objectives.
• Inner-Department Communication & Consistency: Heavily focus on improving communication between departments, breaking down silos, and driving organizational consistency across all teams under your purview.
• Process Optimization (Sales to Customer Service): Critically review, design, and establish seamless internal workflows and procedures from the initial sales handoff through engineering and customer service.
• Internal Capital & Systems Projects: Lead major internal initiatives for the organization, acting as the driving force behind software implementations, CapEx improvements, and potential facility upgrades.
• Cross-Functional Alignment & Meetings: Establish and lead regular staff meetings to keep teams aligned, while serving as the central liaison to senior management on project status, risks, and progress dashboards.
• Customer-Facing Escalations: Step in as the primary champion for customer satisfaction by directly handling escalated customer issues and providing a closed-loop feedback system for field observations.
• Operational & Schedule Prioritization: Partner closely with operations and scheduling to actively prioritize the production calendar, making the swift, necessary adjustments needed to keep projects moving.
• Financial & Budgetary Control: Oversee the engineering budget, manage project scope risks, and maintain strict accountability for documenting and following up on price adjustments.
• Optimized Product Design: Ensure all products are strategically designed for maximum efficiency in engineering, manufacturing, and installation while maintaining standards that serve internal and external stakeholders.
• Culture, Safety, & Sales Support: Run your departments with a sharp focus on safety and employee engagement, assist the sales team with technical product presentations, and provide back-up leadership support when needed.

Candidates should enjoy streamlining and improving internal operating procedures. The qualified individual will be able to build teams by getting people "on board" while being charismatic and driven and have excellent follow through and strong problem solving skills. The company offers competitive medical, dental and vision benefits, as well as 401K, paid holidays and PTO, tuition reimbursement and bonus potential.

REQUIREMENTS for the Director of Design Engineering:

1. Bachelor's degree, ideally in a technical or operations field

2. At least five years of similar engineering or operations leadership experience

3. Experience working in low volume, high mix, custom manufacturing environments

4. Experience overseeing direct and indirect reports

5. Project management, including budgets and timelines

6. Strong mechanical aptitude

7. Proven track record of continuous improvements

8. Strong customer communication skills

9. Working knowledge of ERP systems

10. Microsoft Office, including Excel

Skills preferred but NOT required:

1. MBA

2. Previous design engineering background

3. Power BI

Reasons to work for this organization:

📌 Three tier medical plan with an HSA contribution

📌 Diverse business mix, supplying a growing industry

📌 Every project is different, never work on the same thing

📌 Potential future advancement opportunities

📌 Excellent work schedule, with zero to no weekend work

📌 Adding headcount to their hourly team

📌 Casual work environment; wear jeans daily

There is not any relocation available for this position. There is not any hybrid or remote work available.