Senior Director, Product Engineering

Product Engineering Senior Director

A position at White Cap isn't your ordinary job. You'll work in an exciting and diverse environment, meet interesting people, and have a variety of career opportunities. The White Cap family is committed to Building Trust on Every Job. We do this by being deeply knowledgeable, fully capable, and always dependable, and our associates are the driving force behind this commitment.

The Product Engineering Senior Director will be responsible for benchmarking and developing high quality products with improved costs for the private brands organization. This will include setting requirements, specifications, and testing protocols for new products, re-engineering programs, and executing new product introductions. They will lead the Product Engineering, Engineering support, Testing Labs, and Field Service technician teams. Responsible for developing and validating factory and product assessments, tests, and inspections in coordination with suppliers, foreign sourcing offices, and service providers. Monitor the implementation of continuous improvement / corrective / preventive action plans throughout each process. Manage the two testing labs to efficiently execute testing as needed.

Major tasks, responsibilities, and key accountabilities include: partnering with the private brands product development team and category management to develop new products and offer product quality and cost insights; responsible for the integration of existing engineering teams into a new enterprise structure managing expectations, morale, and the transition of roles and responsibilities; develops standard operating procedures, reporting, metrics, and audit controls to support both product re-engineering and new product introduction; conducts quantitative and qualitative benchmarking analysis of manufacturing processes and product quality attributes; defines technical requirements associated with factory and product specifications; performs assessment, testing, and inspection of factories and products against standards of performance; reviews and resolves issues with suppliers, factories, service providers, category management, field operations, distribution, safety, and customers.

The nature and scope of the role includes complex problems that require high strategic level analysis and investigation. The role drives strategy and methodology and serves as the subject-matter expert for policies and practices. It manages via multiple layers or directly supervises a staff of professional individual contributors at the senior or technical advisor level. It directs budgetary responsibility at the enterprise level or for two or more businesses across the enterprise.

The work environment is located in a comfortable indoor area. Any unpleasant conditions would be infrequent and not objectionable. Most of the time is spent sitting in a comfortable position and there is frequent opportunity to move about. On rare occasions there may be a need to move or lift light articles. Typically requires overnight travel less than 5% of the time.

Education and experience typically require a BS/BA in a related discipline. Generally, 9+ years of experience in a related field, including several years in a management/supervisory capacity. Preferred qualifications include 15+ years of experience in product development, new concepts development, product quality testing, and supplier management. Proven ability to manage large scale projects in a complex environment. Proven experience building new processes, standards, and specifications. Leading continuous improvement programs development and execution. Experience managing testing labs, budgets, and schedules to ensure projects are on time and on budget. Experience in manufacturing, operations, quality control and/or quality assurance. Experience managing engineers balancing business strategy objectives with technical expertise and execution. Advanced understanding of internal and external sales drivers. Ability to manage change from a personnel and process perspective. Strong people management skills and leadership ability working in highly cross-functional environments. Strong executive communication skills. Strong analytical skills. Expert negotiation and collaboration skills. Experienced project management organization and execution skills. Comprehensive understanding of relevant products to make purchasing decisions. Ability and willingness to work in a highly cross-functional environment. Proficient with Microsoft Office, specialized with Excel.