Director of Engineering-New Product
On-siteBooneville, Mississippi, United States
Job Summary
Develop and execute a New Product Engineering strategy aligned with company goals, product roadmap priorities, and long-term platform direction. Lead the design, development, prototype build, testing, validation, and launch readiness of new refuse collection vehicle products, components, systems, and product platforms. Translate voice-of-customer insights, competitive benchmarking, and warranty feedback into actionable engineering specifications and design solutions. Recruit, interview, hire, train, and coach engineering staff while overseeing workflow, priorities, resource allocation, and technical output. Establish and maintain a disciplined stage-gate product development process to improve project visibility and cross-functional accountability. Manage new product engineering project schedules, budgets, and design deliverables to ensure programs deliver on time and within scope. Ensure new product designs comply with applicable industry standards, regulatory requirements, and safety expectations.
Required Qualifications
- Bachelor's degree in Mechanical Engineering, Electrical Engineering, Manufacturing Engineering, or related field
- Eight or more years of progressive engineering experience
- At least three years leading engineering teams
- Direct new product development experience in vehicles, heavy equipment, specialty vehicles, or complex manufactured products
- Strong understanding of product development discipline, design controls, prototype builds, validation, change management, and launch readiness
- Strong technical expertise in mechanical and/or electrical engineering principles, system integration, CAD, design analysis, engineering documentation, and product lifecycle management practices
- Solid understanding of regulatory requirements, safety expectations, and industry standards applicable to heavy manufacturing and vehicle design
- Practical, hands-on engineering mindset with the ability to balance innovation, manufacturability, quality, cost, reliability, and speed to market
Desired Qualifications
- Master's degree or advanced technical degree
- Experience with ERP-integrated engineering and bill of material management (Epicor/similar)
- Experience applying design-for-manufacturability, design-for-serviceability, design-for-quality, and cost-management principles to new product designs
- Strong project leadership skills, including the ability to manage priorities, schedules, budgets, technical tradeoffs, risk, and cross-functional alignment
- Excellent leadership, coaching, communication, and team-building skills with the ability to influence stakeholders across all functions and with senior leadership
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