What are the responsibilities and job description for the Head of Mechanical Design Engineering position at Virginia Transformer Corp?
Head of Mechanical Design Engineering
Location: Roanoke, Virginia (On-Site)
On the heels of achieving 3X growth, Virginia Transformer is hiring to do it again!
We're strategically building our team for the next 3X growth cycle—a phase that is both intense and incredibly rewarding. We're highly selective about who joins us because this journey isn't for everyone.
If you have the drive, technical depth, and leadership experience to transform an engineering organization while helping secure America's electrical grid, we'd love to speak with you.
Who We Are
Virginia Transformer is the largest U.S.-owned producer of power transformers in North America. For more than 50 years, we've built our reputation by delivering premium-quality power transformers in the industry's shortest lead times.
Today, we are a privately held company generating billions in annual revenue with more than 6,000 employees across six manufacturing facilities—and we're continuing to grow. Our culture rewards ownership, innovation, speed, and technical excellence.
Position Summary
Virginia Transformer is seeking an exceptional Head of Mechanical Design Engineering to lead the transformation of our mechanical engineering organization.
This highly visible leadership role is responsible for establishing engineering excellence, driving design standardization, improving product quality, reducing engineering rework, and developing the next generation of mechanical design engineers.
The successful candidate will build a world-class mechanical engineering organization capable of supporting rapid expansion while improving manufacturability, product reliability, automation, and engineering efficiency.
What You'll Do
- Lead and develop the Mechanical Design Engineering organization.
- Establish engineering best practices, design standards, and governance.
- Standardize design methodologies across multiple transformer platforms.
- Reduce engineering rework through improved design quality and tolerance management.
- Build scalable engineering systems supporting rapid company growth.
- Lead design reviews ensuring manufacturability, serviceability, quality, and cost optimization.
- Develop engineering roadmaps supporting automation and digital engineering initiatives.
- Improve CAD standards, documentation quality, drawing consistency, and revision control.
- Partner with Electrical Engineering, Manufacturing, Quality, Supply Chain, and Field Engineering.
- Mentor and recruit high-performing mechanical engineers.
- Champion Design for Manufacturing (DFM), Design for Assembly (DFA), and continuous improvement.
Technical Leadership Responsibilities
Candidates should possess comprehensive knowledge of large electromechanical equipment, power transformers or similar heavy industrial products, structural analysis, metallurgy, weldments, forgings, castings, sheet metal design, engineered plastics, industrial connectors, GD&T, tolerance analysis, manufacturing processes, and CAD systems. This leader understands not only how to design, but why designs succeed in manufacturing and in the field.
Required Qualifications
- Bachelor's degree in Mechanical Engineering required; Master's preferred.
- 15 years of mechanical engineering experience.
- 8 years leading engineering organizations.
- Experience leading large mechanical design teams.
- Strong electromechanical product knowledge.
- Expert understanding of GD&T and tolerance analysis.
- Demonstrated success reducing engineering rework.
- Experience scaling engineering organizations in high-growth manufacturing.
Preferred Industry Experience
Power transformers, electrical equipment manufacturing, power generation, industrial equipment, switchgear, motors and generators, heavy electrical equipment, electro-mechanical manufacturing, and other large industrial OEMs.
Leadership Competencies
- Builds high-performing teams
- Raises technical standards
- Drives accountability
- Develops engineering leaders
- Balances innovation with execution
- Thrives in fast-paced manufacturing
Why Virginia Transformer?
You'll have the opportunity to build one of the premier mechanical engineering organizations in the power industry while directly influencing the future of America's electrical infrastructure.