Global Product Engineering Director

Brambles; Manchester; Hybrid; GBP 80,000 - 100,000; Full time

Job summary

A global supply chain leader in Manchester is seeking a Director of Product Engineering to lead their Global Product Innovation team. The role emphasizes the end-to-end development of physical products, requiring strategic leadership, engineering excellence, and collaboration across teams. Candidates should have over 7 years of experience in mechanical engineering, strong project management skills, and a commitment to sustainability. This position offers a hybrid work model and the chance to make a significant impact on product development.

Benefits

Flexible work arrangements

Professional development opportunities

Qualifications

• 7+ years’ experience in a high-performance product development environment.
• Hands-on experience with mechanical equipment for testing.
• Strong project management skills to oversee diverse stakeholders.

Responsibilities

• Drive the engineering lifecycle for product development.
• Ensure robust design and testing of new physical products.
• Lead global engineering teams for high-quality outputs.

Skills

Mechanical engineering design

Data analysis

3D CAD proficiency

Project management

Customer-centric thinking

Education

Bachelor's degree in Mechanical Engineering

Tools

Minitab

Pro/Engineer

SolidWorks

Job description

Join CHEP’s Global Product Innovation (GPI) team to lead the engineering backbone that turns ideas into scalable, sustainable physical products. You’ll own the end-to-end development lifecycle, elevate mechanical engineering excellence, and foster a culture of innovation and cross‑functional collaboration that drives growth, customer impact, and competitive advantage. This is a unique opportunity to shape the future of CHEP’s physical product portfolio within a global, mission‑driven organization known for sustainability leadership and real customer impact. You’ll operate at the nexus of innovation, engineering rigor, and commercial outcomes—empowering teams and delivering products that perform in the world’s most demanding supply chains.

Key Responsibilities May Include

• Drive the engineering lifecycle for new and existing physical products, ensuring robust design, testing, validation, and technical delivery.
• Translate strategic product innovation priorities into clear engineering roadmaps, plans, and workstreams aligned with organisational outcomes.
• Lead global engineering teams across product categories, providing coaching, direction, and support to deliver consistently high‑quality outputs.
• Oversee global testing and experimentation activities, ensuring appropriate test design, accurate data collection, and rigorous technical analysis.
• Manage escalations related to technical decisions, resource constraints, and operational challenges, ensuring continuity and delivery of engineering programmes.
• Partner with commercial, marketing, operations, and strategy teams to deliver customer‑focused solutions and support collaborative innovation projects.
• Manage engineering budgets, optimising utilisation of internal resources and external partners, including suppliers, consultancies, and test facilities.
• Strengthen engineering governance by defining success metrics, ensuring high‑quality reporting, and promoting collaboration and knowledge sharing across teams and regions.

Director, Product Engineering — Global Product Innovation (GPI)

Scope: Global: 45 Countries; CHEP and Brambles – all business units; Pallets, Totes, Containers, Auto,

New and Durability and Digital

Lead the global product engineering function within GPI—translating strategic directions into executable plans, delivering rigorous validation and testing, and scaling capabilities across Core and Specialty categories. This role blends strategic leadership with hands‑on mechanical engineering and program management to ensure market fit, commercial viability, and alignment with organizational objectives.

Major / Key Accountabilities

• Strategic alignment & planning: Support the Global Head of Product Innovation and GPI Category Leads in strategic directions and goals; convert GPI outcomes into actionable engineering plans, deliverables, success metrics, and governance (in partnership with GPI Product Operations).
• Lifecycle ownership: Drive the end‑to‑end development of new and existing physical products, ensuring market fit, sustainability impact, commercial viability, and compliance with standards.
• Innovation & collaboration: Foster a high‑performing, innovative culture across engineering, testing, product operations, Sales, Marketing, and Leadership; accelerate growth via experimentation, rapid prototyping, and data‑driven decision‑making.
• Engineering leadership: Line‑manage engineers across Core and Specialty categories; set clear objectives, remove impediments, resolve technical and resource escalations, and coach for performance.
• Metrics & performance: Define engineering success metrics aligned to overall GPI outcomes; monitor and report progress, risks, and course‑corrections.
• Program & facility leadership: Lead the global product innovation support team and facility (IC), acting as a role model in program management of critical technical programs for product development, testing, and experimentation.
• Global programs & delivery: Lead complex global engineering programs; supervise personnel and ensure on‑time delivery of diverse mechanical engineering and testing workstreams.
• Capacity expansion: Grow GPI capacity in innovation—product launches, testing throughput, and external collaboration to meet strategic demand.
• Customer impact: Partner with CHEP Sales, Marketing, and Leadership to scope and deliver customer projects at the Innovation Center from definition through execution, ensuring measurable value.
• Global collaboration: Manage and collaborate across countries; delegate effectively and contribute directly to cross‑functional teams.
• Budget ownership: Manage and optimize budgets for Innovation Center (IC) and Product Testing Team (PTT); track spend, ROI, and value creation.
• Talent management: Develop engineers and support staff; drive succession planning, skills growth, and engagement.
• Data leadership: Establish core data collection and reporting for product design and testing; ensure high‑quality technical documentation and traceability.
• External partnerships: Collaborate seamlessly with external engineering service providers for specialized analyses, testing, and scale‑up.
• Test program development: Define robust test programs—select the right tests, sample sizes, timelines, resources, and budget requirements.

Qualifications & Experience

• Bachelor’s degree in Mechanical Engineering preferred, Master’s in Engineering beneficial.
• ~7+ years’ mechanical engineering design and analysis experience in a high‑performance product development environment with strong exposure to product testing and performance analysis;
• 3+ years managing technical staff.
• Demonstrated strength in data analysis, experimental design, technical documentation, and stakeholder communication.
• Hands‑on experience with mechanical equipment, especially laboratory and materials testing equipment.
• Strong 3D CAD background (Pro/Engineer, SolidWorks) with CAE tools to optimize designs.
• Broad project management experience, interfacing with diverse stakeholders; proven ability to manage staff and a large project portfolio with composure and professionalism.
• Broad product design experience across materials and applications, with emphasis on plastics/composites components and assemblies; ability to evaluate material suitability based on mechanical properties.
• Statistics‑driven data analysis (e.g., Minitab, SAS, Statistica) in the context of experimentation, tolerances, and performance metrics.

Desired Experience

• Design/analysis with composites and laminates; packaging design.
• Diverse manufacturing process experience; complex product assembly/configuration management; product data management.
• Product and materials regulatory experience; intellectual property exposure.
• Cost estimating, spend management, and project financial analysis, knowledge of wood as an engineering material.
• Experience leading remote production/design engineering across multiple countries.

Skills & Knowledge

• Data management (databases, Product Data Management); technical presentations, analysis, documentation.
• Strong 3D CAD proficiency (Pro/Engineer, SolidWorks); mechanical design, product testing, and evaluation.
• Project management & leadership; customer‑facing credibility.
• Deep understanding of material properties for design & optimization; predictive engineering techniques (CAE), FMEA, statistical analysis, and data interpretation.
• Some experience with structural analysis (FEA) in mechanical engineering design.
• Strategic and original thinker; strong leadership and people management.
• Desire and ability to lead and grow technical and non‑technical staff.
• Outstanding verbal and written communication, including strong presentation skills and customer service.
• Skilled with office productivity tools—especially advanced MS Excel.

Remote Type

Hybrid Remote

Skills to succeed in the role

Chef de file en génie, Coaching, Collaboration, Conscience de soi, Direction inclusive, Établissement des priorités, Feedback, Ingénierie de produit, Innovation, Leading Customer Centric Teams, Mener le changement, Motiver les équipes, Pensée disruptive, Résolution de problème, Solutions de produit

Equal Opportunity Employer

We are an Equal Opportunity Employer, and we are committed to developing a diverse workforce in which everyone is treated fairly, with respect, and has the opportunity to contribute to business success while realizing his or her potential. This means harnessing the unique skills and experience that each individual brings and we do not discriminate against any employee or applicant for employment because of race, color, sex, age, national origin, religion, sexual orientation, gender identity, status as a veteran, and basis of disability or any other federal, state, or local protected class.