Job Title: Director of Engineering
Job Duration: Direct Hire
Job Location: McHenry County, IL
Pay Range: $100k-$140k/yr
Job Description:
- Lead the Engineering department as the company’s senior technical authority for product design, application engineering, R&D, and technical problem solving.
- Develop and maintain a multi-year engineering roadmap focused on new designs, product enhancements, standardization, cost reduction through design, and technical differentiation in the marketplace.
- Establish engineering priorities that support company growth, customer requirements, high-reliability applications, and long-term competitiveness.
- Build a disciplined engineering culture based on accuracy, accountability, innovation, documentation, technical rigor, and practical manufacturability.
- Mentor engineers, designers, and technical staff; develop succession depth and improve department capability over time.
- Lead R&D initiatives for new blower designs, product platforms, components, assemblies, materials, and performance improvements.
- Identify opportunities to improve airflow performance, efficiency, reliability, manufacturability, serviceability, noise reduction, durability, and cost competitiveness.
- Create structured new product development processes, including concept review, feasibility analysis, design review, prototype planning, testing, validation, release, and post-launch review.
- Evaluate emerging technologies, materials, manufacturing methods, and design tools that can improve product performance or reduce total product cost.
- Develop design concepts that support high-reliability markets such as aerospace, defense, nuclear, clean rooms, mining, medical, satellite, and other mission-critical applications where applicable.
- Own engineering design standards, drafting standards, calculation methods, design templates, technical specifications, and product documentation requirements.
- Director of Engineering Job Description | R&D and New Designs
- Ensure drawings, bills of material, calculations, specifications, and technical releases are accurate, complete, controlled, and suitable for manufacturing and customer submission.
- Strengthen design review discipline to reduce errors, rework, late changes, warranty exposure, and avoidable production disruption.
- Drive standardization of parts, assemblies, designs, and engineering practices to reduce complexity and improve repeatability.
- Maintain technical integrity of product designs while balancing customer needs, cost, schedule, manufacturing feasibility, and quality requirements.
- Partner with Production, Quality, Purchasing, Sales Engineering, Project Management, and Scheduling to ensure designs can be built efficiently and meet customer expectations.
- Provide technical support during design-to-production transitions, including drawing release, engineering change control, manufacturability reviews, and resolution of technical issues.
- Collaborate with Quality on root cause analysis, corrective actions, inspection requirements, customer technical issues, and design-related quality improvements.
- Support Purchasing with technical evaluation of alternate materials, components, vendors, and fabrication methods, while Purchasing retains ownership of vendor management and commercial negotiations.
- Assist Operations with technical problem solving when engineering input is required, without assuming ownership of day-to-day operational execution.
- Serve as a senior technical resource for strategic customers, complex applications, technical reviews, design clarifications, and high-value opportunities.
- Support Sales Engineering in evaluating customer specifications, technical exceptions, design feasibility, and application-specific requirements.
- Participate in customer meetings when senior engineering credibility is required, particularly for new designs, highly engineered products, or mission-critical applications.
- Help translate customer needs into practical, profitable, and technically sound engineering solutions.
- Strengthen engineering change management, revision control, drawing release processes, and documentation discipline.
- Improve the use of engineering systems, CAD tools, ERP/MRP engineering data, technical libraries, and knowledge management practices.
- Establish clear gates for design release, drawing approval, bill of material accuracy, and engineering change implementation.
- Maintain organized technical records for product designs, testing, calculations, customer-specific requirements, and historical engineering decisions.
- Define and oversee testing and validation requirements for new products, redesigned components, and critical engineering changes.
- Use field feedback, warranty history, quality data, production issues, and customer input to drive continuous product improvement.
- Develop practical engineering metrics, including engineering release accuracy, design cycle time, drawing revision frequency, R&D project milestones, design-related quality issues, and new product development progress.
- Production department management, shop labor supervision, daily workflow execution, or production scheduling.
- Purchasing department management, vendor negotiations, bracket pricing, supply chain execution, or purchase order approval.
- Facilities, maintenance, plant safety ownership, or day-to-day operational compliance management.
- Ownership of company-wide lean manufacturing initiatives, operational KPIs, throughput management, or labor utilization metrics, except where engineering support is required.
- Direct ownership of the Quality department, although the role must support design-related quality improvement and technical corrective actions.
Qualifications:
- Bachelor’s degree in Mechanical Engineering or a related engineering discipline required; advanced degree preferred.
- Minimum of 10 years of engineering experience in a manufacturing environment, with significant experience leading engineered product design or custom equipment design.
- Proven experience developing new products, improving existing designs, and leading technical teams through design, validation, release, and continuous improvement.
- Strong understanding of mechanical design, rotating equipment, airflow systems, fabricated assemblies, machining, welding, materials, tolerances, and design-for-manufacturability.
- Experience working in a high-mix, low-volume, engineered-to-order or custom manufacturing environment strongly preferred.
- Demonstrated ability to lead engineers, designers, and cross-functional technical teams with clarity, urgency, and accountability.
- Strong customer-facing technical communication skills, including the ability to explain complex engineering decisions to customers, executives, and non-engineering stakeholders.
Preferred Qualifications:
- Experience with industrial blowers, fans, air movement systems, rotating equipment, pressure vessels, heavy fabrication, or related engineered products.
- Familiarity with ISO 9001, AS9100, ITAR-controlled environments, defense/aerospace customer expectations, or other high-reliability market requirements.
- Experience establishing stage-gate product development processes, engineering standards, and formal design review practices.
- Working knowledge of ERP/MRP systems, engineering bills of material, CAD/PDM systems, and engineering change control workflows.
- Lean, Six Sigma, root cause analysis, or structured problem-solving experience as applied to product design and engineering processes.
Pay: $100,000.00 - $140,000.00 per year
Benefits:
- 401(k)
- Health insurance
- Paid time off
Work Location: In person
