R&D Manager

A growing technology and manufacturing company in San Diego is seeking an experienced R&D Manager to lead product development, engineering execution, and process improvement across a highly technical product environment.

Compensation Range $180k-$200k Profit Sharing

This is an excellent opportunity for a hands-on engineering leader who enjoys solving complex problems, creating structure, and helping turn ideas into production-ready products. The ideal candidate will bring a strong technical foundation, sound project management skills, and the ability to communicate effectively with engineers, executives, vendors, and cross-functional teams.

This is not a highly polished corporate engineering environment. The right person will be comfortable with ambiguity, legacy challenges, evolving requirements, and the need to build better systems and processes as the company continues to grow.

Position Overview

The R&D Manager will be responsible for leading research and development initiatives from concept through commercialization, while also supporting production, documentation, troubleshooting, and continuous improvement efforts. This individual will help translate broad or incomplete requirements into clear specifications, manage timelines, support engineering priorities, and ensure products are designed with quality, manufacturability, and long-term scalability in mind.

This role requires a strong balance of technical depth, people leadership, project discipline, and practical execution.

Key Responsibilities

• Lead and manage R&D initiatives, including new product development, product improvements, technical problem-solving, and process enhancements.
• Help define product requirements and convert incomplete or evolving specifications into clear, designable, and production-ready documentation.
• Manage engineering priorities, timelines, resources, and deliverables across multiple projects.
• Partner with leadership to align R&D efforts with business goals, customer needs, market requirements, and operational realities.
• Work closely with engineering, manufacturing, quality, operations, vendors, and executive leadership to move projects from concept to production.
• Support the creation and improvement of engineering documentation, product specifications, drawings, work instructions, BOMs, testing requirements, and release processes.
• Provide leadership, guidance, and accountability to technical team members.
• Balance innovation and new product development with operational support, troubleshooting, and legacy product issues.
• Improve internal systems, processes, workflows, and communication standards within the R&D function.
• Communicate project status, technical challenges, risks, timelines, and recommendations clearly to both technical and non-technical stakeholders.
• Support continuous improvement efforts related to product quality, manufacturability, documentation, and development efficiency.
• Collaborate with domestic and international contacts as needed to support product development, production, and technical execution.
• Help foster a practical, accountable, and solutions-oriented engineering culture.

Ideal Background

The ideal candidate will bring a combination of engineering leadership, product development experience, and hands-on technical credibility. Experience in one or more of the following areas is highly valuable:

• Project management
• Systems engineering
• Mechanical engineering or machining
• CNC machining
• Sheet metal fabrication or bending
• Hardware assembly
• Electrical engineering
• Electronics design
• Electronics manufacturing
• Electronics troubleshooting
• Software programming or embedded systems
• Quality systems
• Manufacturing support
• Product documentation and product release processes

Mastery in every technical area is not expected. However, the successful candidate should have deep expertise in at least one technical discipline and enough cross-functional knowledge to effectively lead, communicate, and problem-solve across multiple engineering and manufacturing areas.

Qualifications

• 10 years of experience in engineering, R&D, product development, manufacturing engineering, systems engineering, or a related technical field.
• Prior leadership or management experience overseeing engineers, technical staff, project teams, or cross-functional initiatives.
• Bachelor’s degree in Engineering, Science, Technology, or a related discipline preferred.
• Strong understanding of the product development lifecycle, from concept and requirements definition through production release.
• Experience working in a hands-on technical environment where requirements may be incomplete, evolving, or loosely defined.
• Ability to create structure, improve processes, and drive accountability in a growing organization.
• Strong communication skills with the ability to work effectively with engineers, executives, vendors, production teams, and other stakeholders.
• Practical problem-solving ability and the confidence to make decisions in an environment where not every answer is clearly defined.
• Experience managing timelines, project expectations, technical tradeoffs, and competing priorities.
• Comfort working in a smaller or mid-sized company environment where flexibility, patience, and ownership are critical.

Ideal Candidate Profile

The right person for this role is a strong technical leader who enjoys building, improving, and solving. This individual should be comfortable working in a company where processes are still being refined and where the R&D team plays a broad role across innovation, product development, production support, and documentation.

This person will be successful if they are organized, technically credible, calm under pressure, strong with people, and able to bring clarity to ambiguous situations. They should be comfortable leading through influence, working through legacy issues, and helping create repeatable systems that improve execution over time.

Why This Opportunity

This is a meaningful leadership opportunity for someone who wants to make a visible impact. The company is looking for a person who can help shape the future of its R&D function, improve engineering execution, and support the development of products that require real technical problem-solving.

For the right candidate, this role offers the chance to lead, build, improve, and leave a lasting mark on the organization.