THE COMPANY

Our client is a private equity backed manufacturer.

THE POSITION

The Head of Product Development leads the vision, strategy and direction of innovation and process. The role will challenge the status quo, develop innovative solutions, optimize current processes and produce new value-adding products for customers.

ESSENTIAL DUTIES & RESPONSIBILITIES:

• Understand current state of products and processes along with limitations of the current solutions to fulfill delivery commitments, minimize lead times, minimize costs and optimize customer value.
• By leveraging Lean practices, this person will apply change management protocols to drive breakthrough improvement in all enterprise-wide operations.
• Leverage practices to ensure cross-functional collaboration in identifying and developing new products that maximize competitiveness, quality and value.
• Conduct and leverage “value engineering” methodologies to enhance product manufacturability and quality.
• Own new product development, productivity, time-to-market and new product revenue / margin metrics to ensure alignment with growth objectives.
• Identify capital needs for Operations and Engineering to achieve productivity improvement and revenue growth objectives.
• Grow innovation engineering talent through training; role rotations; customer interactions; presentations skills; coaching on analysis and engineering processes; and exposure to new technologies.
• Lead and partner with cross-functional peers to drive efficiency and accountabilities.
• Conduct research on emerging technologies in support of systems development efforts and recommend technologies that will increase cost effectiveness and systems flexibility.
• Drive enhancements to product performance.
• Develop innovative product experimentation with a willingness to iterate and progress technological development through frequent and fast failures that lead to product disruption and success.

BASE SALARY RANGE:

$130,000 -- $160,000

• Bachelor’s degree in engineering; master’s degree is preferable.
• At least 15 years in engineering and cross-functional roles that includes the development of a continuous improvement culture.
• Experience in reshaping the product engineering vision and strategy using data and trends while helping shop floor production adopt new practices to support that innovation.
• Experience directly interacting with key market influencers and translating that voice of the customer into a plan for fate-changing and market differentiating products.
• Must be a hands-on leader with experience implementing Lean manufacturing and driving a continuous improvement culture.
• A Solid grasp of Lean tools and concepts including hoshin, visual management, 5S, standard work, kaizen, value stream mapping, pull systems, A3, etc.
• Lean manufacturing training through a reputable source, entrepreneurial spirit and a passion for change management.