Director of Engineering - New Product Development/Engineering Operations/People Leadership

Description

Harmar is a leading manufacturer of mobility and accessibility products, including automobile wheelchair lifts, stair lifts, and residential and commercial vertical platform lifts. We are inspired by the people we serve and driven to create products that help individuals go where they want, when they want, and how they want.

Thanks to our people, Harmar is proud to be Great Place to Work® Certified™. Our culture and the employee experience are business priorities.

NON-NEGOTIABLE EXPERIENCE 

This role requires substantial, hands-on new product development (NPD) leadership and the ability to run the day-to-day engineering function with precision. This is not a strategy-only position; candidates must be equally strong at setting direction and driving disciplined execution.

The Opportunity

The Director of Engineering leads Harmar's design engineering organization and is accountable for both new product growth and dependable daily execution. This leader will translate the voice of the customer and business strategy into a compelling, manufacturable product portfolio while ensuring that engineering priorities, resources, schedules, risks, documentation, and deliverables are actively managed every day.

The successful candidate is a detail-oriented operator who stays close to the work, creates clear accountability, and follows initiatives through to completion. The role owns NPD, new product introductions, sustaining engineering, cost reduction, technology research, and lifecycle product support in close partnership with Product Management, Operations, Quality, Supply Chain, Sales, and executive leadership.

What Success Looks Like

• NPD execution: A reliable development pipeline that moves products from customer need and concept through design, verification/validation, industrialization, launch, and post-launch support.
• Sustaining execution: A ranked sustaining system that moves savings, customer needs and manufacturing improvements through design, verification/validation, industrialization, launch, and post-launch support.
• Daily operating discipline: Clear priorities, realistic schedules, visible metrics, timely decisions, and rigorous follow-through across the engineering portfolio.
• Design quality and manufacturability: Products that meet specifications and customer needs while achieving quality, cost, manufacturability, serviceability, and compliance targets.
• Team performance: An accountable, collaborative engineering team with strong technical depth, clear expectations, and a continuous-improvement mindset.

Key Responsibilities

• Own the NPD portfolio. Lead multiple new product programs from concept through commercial launch, establishing scope, stage-gate expectations, schedules, budgets, resources, technical requirements, product cost targets, and quality objectives. Own the Engineering of all NPD programs.
• Run engineering day to day. Establish the operating cadence for priorities, project reviews, resource allocation, issue escalation, risk management, and performance metrics; ensure commitments are specific, documented, tracked, and completed.
• Maintain technical and execution rigor. Review designs, specifications, calculations, drawings, bills of material, test plans, design reviews, and project documentation with close attention to accuracy, completeness, and change control.
• Design for the factory and the customer. Partner with Operations, Quality, Supply Chain, Service, and Product Management to build manufacturability, reliability, serviceability, cost, and customer requirements into each product.
• Lead sustaining engineering. Balance NPD with lifecycle support, quality improvements, cost reduction, value engineering, technical problem-solving, and timely response to production and field issues.
• Build a high-performing team. Set objectives, clarify roles, coach and develop talent, manage performance, plan succession, and create a culture of ownership, urgency, collaboration, innovation, and continuous improvement.
• Shape the product roadmap. Partner with executive leadership and Product Management team to translate customer insight, competitive intelligence, emerging technology, and commercial opportunities into a focused development roadmap.
• Communicate with clarity. Provide concise, fact-based updates on portfolio status, resource needs, tradeoffs, risks, decisions, and results to executive and cross-functional stakeholders

Requirements

 Required Qualifications

• Demonstrated NPD leadership is required. Substantial, hands-on experience leading engineered products through the full development lifecycle—from customer need and concept through design, verification/validation, manufacturing release, launch, and post-launch support. Candidates without this experience will not be considered.
• Proven engineering operations leadership is required. Experience running the daily work of an engineering function, including portfolio prioritization, project controls, schedules, resources, metrics, risk management, design reviews, documentation, and issue resolution.
• Exceptional attention to detail and follow-through. A consistent record of identifying gaps, asking the next question, maintaining accurate project and technical information, and ensuring commitments are completed to standard.
• Experience. At least 10 years of progressive engineering experience, including at least 7 years leading NPD and sustaining engineering teams in a manufactured-products environment.
• Education. Bachelor's degree in mechanical engineering, electrical engineering, or a related engineering discipline.
• Leadership. Strong people-management, cross-functional influence, business judgment, and executive communication skills.

Preferred Experience

• Engineering leadership in mobility, medical, industrial, durable, or other complex manufactured products.
• Experience operating within a formal quality system and working with applicable product safety or regulatory requirements.
• Track record of improving product development processes, engineering metrics, time to market, product cost, and launch performance.

Harmar Mobility is an equal opportunity employer and does not discriminate against otherwise qualified applicants on the basis of race, color, creed, ancestry, religion, orientation, age, sex, marital status, national origin, disability, genetic information, or veteran status.