Vice President of Engineering

Vortex Companies is seeking an experienced Vice President of Engineering to provide strategic leadership and enterprise-level oversight for engineering operations across it's portfolio of brands, including Vortex, Spectrum, Fortress, Hamar, and SolidEx.

This role will be responsible for setting direction, establishing alignment, and ensuring engineering functions effectively support the organization's long term objectives.

The Vice President of Engineering will lead and own the development of shared standards, engineering processes, and platforms that enhance consistency and efficiency, while enabling individual brands to operate with the appropriate autonomy.

Major Responsibilities:

Leadership & Oversight:

• Direct and manage engineering managers and teams across Vortex, Spectrum, Fortress, Hamar, and SolidEx.
• Provide leadership that balances brand-specific requirements with corporate engineering objectives.
• Drive consistency in engineering practices while ensuring that local teams can execute efficiently and independently.

Multi-Site engineering Governance:

• Establish and maintain common engineering standards, processes, and design methodologies across all brands and facilities.
• Ensure each engineering team has the autonomy needed to support brand-specific products while aligning to shared systems, tools, and best practices.
• Facilitate structured collaboration between facilities on shared technical challenges, resource balancing, and design improvements.
• Implement scalable engineering workflows (design reviews, revision control, documentation standards) to ensure consistency and quality.

Product Development & Innovation

• Lead research and development efforts for new products and technologies.
• Oversee design modifications to existing products to meet customer-specific requirements and market demands.
• Identify opportunities to leverage common platforms, components, or technologies across brands to reduce cost and improve manufacturability.

Cross-Functional Collaboration:

• Partner with Sales, Operations, and Supply Chain to provide technical expertise and ensure timely engineering solutions.
• Serve as a central technical resource for enterprise-wide initiatives, ensuring engineering alignment between facilities and departments.

Strategic Planning:

• Participate in executive-level planning and decision-making.
• Develop long-term engineering strategies to support growth and competitive advantage.
• Develop and maintain a long-term roadmap for engineering process improvement (CAD standards, PDM/PLM use, documentation control, DFM initiatives).

Customer Engagement & Field Support:

• Represent the company in customer meetings, site visits, and technical consultations.
• Provide on-site support for complex applications, warranty issues, and customer satisfaction initiatives.

Talent Development & Culture:

• Recruit, mentor, and develop engineering leaders and teams across all facilities.
• Build a unified engineering culture while developing strong local leadership.
• Promote a culture of innovation, collaboration, and continuous improvement.

Supervisory Responsibilities:

• Direct oversight of engineering managers and teams located at multiple facilities.
• Responsible for coordinating workload, ensuring consistent application of engineering processes, and developing leaders capable of managing brand-specific engineering teams.

This position is a salary-exempt position that will be full-time from Monday-Friday, with flexibility for extended hours and travel as required.

Requirements

Preferred Qualifications:

• Bachelor's degree in Engineering or related field (Master's preferred).
• 10 years of progressive engineering leadership experience, including multi-site management.
• Experience in dry bulk material handling and industrial equipment design preferred.
• Proven track record in product development, process optimization, and team leadership.

Key Competencies:

• Leadership & Influence
• Strategic Vision
• Technical Expertise
• Collaboration & Communication
• Innovation & Continuous Improvement
• Multi-Site Leadership & Organizational Alignment
• Process Development & Systems Thinking

Benefits

• Medical Insurance
• Voluntary: Dental, Disability, Vision, Cancer and Vol Life
• Company paid Vol Life
• Paid vacation and holidays
• Wellness program
• Quarterly company sponsored events