Director of Product Engineering (MX)

Kauffman Engineering, LLC.; Reynosa; On-site; MXN 700,000 - 1,000,000; Full time

Job summary

Kauffman Engineering, LLC. is seeking an experienced Engineering Leader for on-site roles in Reynosa. The role leads NPI activities, from onboarding new customers to ensuring on-time production launches across multiple plants.

You will drive process standardization, lean initiatives, and cross-functional collaboration to optimize cost, safety, and delivery. The candidate will manage cross-functional teams, develop capability within the engineering function, and ensure statistical tools and

Qualifications

• Must hold a Bachelor’s degree in Engineering (Industrial, Mechanical, Electrical, or related).
• Minimum 7 years engineering experience in manufacturing or industrial environments.
• Experience in design and manufacture of wire harness components in high-mix, low-volume settings.
• Experience leading engineering teams and multi-site coordination preferred.
• Proven experience with APQP, PPAP, and launch execution in production environments.
• Strong knowledge of Core Tools (APQP, PPAP, FMEA, SPC, MSA).
• Experience driving standardization, process improvement, and cost optimization.
• Understanding of material and labor costing, manufacturability, and cost drivers.

Responsibilities

• Ensure quotes reflect feasibility, costs, risks, and manufacturability.
• Lead cross-functional teams to speed up and improve quoting processes.
• Assure accurate engineering input into cost models, BOMs, labor estimates, and tooling.
• Lead NPI activities, own on-time delivery and launch lead times across plants.
• Ensure NPI teams execute APQP activities across all phases (PPAP readiness and launch).
• Drive lean, end-to-end improvements from quoting to NPI to enhance safety, speed, quality, and cost.
• Manage NPI timelines, resources, and on-time, on-budget launches.
• Lead governance, gate reviews, and escalation across sites for manufacturability of initial production orders.
• Develop and execute plans to upgrade engineering capability and build a future-state organization.

Skills

Leadership

Cross-functional collaboration

Problem solving

Communication

Project management

Education

Bachelor's degree in Engineering

Advanced degree a plus

Tools

APQP

PPAP

FMEA

SPC

MSA

Job description

Key Responsibilities

Quoting Engineering

• Ensure technical feasibility, cost assumptions, risks, and manufacturability considerations are incorporated into all quotes.
• Lead a cross-functional team to improve the speed and accuracy of the quoting process through process improvement and technology adoption.
• Ensure accurate engineering input into cost models, BOM assumptions, labor estimates, and tooling requirements.
• Challenge quoting assumptions to identify cost and improvement opportunities in Operations and the Supply Chain.
• Maintain a current view of the capabilities and capacity of each manufacturing site to make informed decisions when allocating quotes and programs.
• Establish a formal feedback loop that brings production and launch performance data back into quoting standards and assumptions.

Product Engineering

• Lead all New Product Introduction (NPI) engineering activities across all plants, including the onboarding of new customers and programs.
• Own NPI on-time delivery (samples, PPAP submissions, and first production run) and program introduction lead time, leading cross-functional teams to build a predictable, fast, and reliable launch process.
• Ensure NPI teams fully execute APQP activities across all phases, including PPAP readiness and launch execution.
• Lead continuous improvement projects that apply a lean, end-to-end approach from quoting through NPI, improving safety, speed to market, quality, delivery, and cost.
• Manage NPI timelines, resource planning (including equipment capacity, tooling, and other resources), and execution to ensure on-time, on-budget launches.
• Review and present NPI status, risks, and readiness to senior management on a regular cadence.
• Drive consistent launch governance, gate reviews, and escalation processes across sites, including confirming that initial production orders are manufacturable.

Process Standardization & Systems Development

• Develop, implement, and maintain standardized engineering processes.
• Reduce reliance on tribal knowledge by establishing repeatable workflows, documentation standards, and control points.
• Improve consistency and quality of engineering outputs across plants and teams.
• Identify and mitigate technical and execution risks early in the product lifecycle.
• Evaluate and adopt better engineering methodologies and tools, and strengthen cross-functional coordination.

Plant Integration & Cross-Functional Collaboration

• Act as a key engineering partner to plant leadership to support execution, troubleshooting, and readiness of new program launches.
• Drive alignment between engineering and operations to ensure manufacturability, capacity readiness, and process capability as part of the launch hand-off to the manufacturing sites.
• Support plant teams during launches, ramp-ups, and significant engineering changes.
• Collaborate with Quality, Supply Chain, Maintenance, and Operations to ensure integrated execution.
• Lead engineering CAPEX planning for new programs and long‑term capacity needs.

Talent Leadership & Capability Building

• Assess current engineering organization structure, skills, and capacity.
• Develop and execute plans to upgrade engineering capability through hiring, development, and role clarity.
• Lead, coach, and develop the engineering team, setting clear expectations and holding team members accountable for results.
• Build a future‑state product engineering organization capable of supporting multiple concurrent launches.
• Promote a culture of accountability, discipline, and continuous improvement.

Required Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in Engineering (Industrial, Mechanical, Electrical, or related discipline); advanced degree a plus.
• Minimum of 7 years of engineering experience in manufacturing or industrial environments.
• Demonstrated engineering experience in the design and manufacture of wire harness components in a high-mix, low-volume environment.
• Demonstrated experience leading engineering teams and managing engineering functions, preferably across multiple sites.
• Proven experience with APQP, PPAP, and launch execution in production environments.
• Strong knowledge of Core Tools (APQP, PPAP, FMEA, SPC, MSA).
• Experience driving engineering standardization and process improvement.
• Understanding of material and labor costing, manufacturability, and cost drivers.
• Project management and cross-functional leadership experience.
• Familiarity with Lean Manufacturing, continuous improvement, and Six Sigma methodologies preferred.
• Strong communication, organizational, and problem‑solving skills.

Work Environment

• This is an on-site role at our Reynosa, Mexico facility
• Ability and willingness to travel to U.S. and Mexico manufacturing locations (approximately 25-40%) to provide on-site plant support as business needs require.