Engineering Manager

DCE Solar; Cornelius (NC); On-site; USD 120,000 - 180,000; Full time

Job summary

DCE Solar is seeking an Engineering Manager to lead our structural engineering team, ensuring technical integrity and driving continuous improvement of our solar racking systems. This hands-on leadership role blends people development with design oversight to reduce cost, improve quality, and accelerate field performance.

You will mentor engineers, review calculations, and coordinate with Sales, Procurement and Operations to deliver feasible, code-compliant solutions for both ground-mount and

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree in Structural Engineering and at least 5 years of related experience.
• Experience leading, mentoring or developing engineers and technical professionals.
• Strong fundamentals in wind and snow loading, deflection and foundation reactions.
• Proficiency with structural analysis software and CAD tools.

Responsibilities

• Lead, coach and develop the engineering team, including workload planning and performance expectations.
• Provide technical direction for ground-mount and roof-mount racking systems; review designs and calculations.
• Maintain design-review and quality-control practices; ensure documentation is production-ready.
• Collaborate with Sales, Project Management, Procurement and Operations for technical solutions.
• Ensure compliance with ASCE 7, AISC, ASTM, IBC and related codes; drive cost and quality improvements.

Skills

Structural analysis

Engineering leadership

Design review

Communication

Cost awareness

Education

Bachelor’s degree in Structural Engineering

5+ years of relevant engineering experience

Experience mentoring or developing engineers

Tools

RISA

AutoCAD

Inventor

SolidWorks

Job description

We are Privately-Owned Solar Engineering Services firm, focusing exclusively on the development of industry-leading solar racking solutions. We develop, design, and sell racking products that are highly efficient and customized for each installation solutions that enhances the overall adoption of solar.

The Engineering Manager leads DCE Solar’s engineering team and is responsible for the technical integrity, continuous improvement, and development of our solar racking systems. This is a hands-on leadership role that combines team development, structural engineering oversight, product innovation, and cross-functional technical support. The ideal candidate can lead engineers while remaining close enough to the work to challenge designs, improve products, solve complex technical issues, and drive measurable improvements in cost, quality, and field performance.

Key Responsibilities

Engineering Leadership & Technical Oversight:

• Lead, coach and develop the engineering team, including workload planning, performance expectations, technical development and design review.
• Build team capability beyond drafting by developing engineers in structural analysis, member and connection design, engineering judgment and product ownership.
• Establish goals and metrics for quality, throughput, on-time delivery and rework while building bench strength across critical engineering capabilities.
• Maintain strong design-review and quality-control practices and ensure drawings, calculations, Bills of Materials and permitting packages are accurate and ready for release.
• Provide technical direction for DCE Solar’s ground-mount and roof-mount racking systems, including array configuration, spans, bracing, member selection, connections and foundations.
• Perform and review structural analysis using RISA or equivalent software, including loading, member capacity, connections, deflection and foundation reactions.
• Ensure designs comply with applicable ASCE 7, AISC, AISI S100, ASTM, IBC, UL and other relevant codes and standards.
• Lead product and component improvements that optimize structural performance, steel usage, part count, manufacturability, installation efficiency and total installed cost.
• Drive engineering improvements from concept through analysis, validation, documentation and release, incorporating feedback from installers, vendors and customers.
• Maintain and improve engineering standards, calculators, load tables, span charts, section libraries and other technical tools.

Cross-Functional & Manufacturing Support:

• Serve as a senior technical partner to Sales, Project Management, Procurement and Operations, supporting feasibility reviews, technical solutions, RFIs and field issues.
• Work directly with customers, AHJs, inspectors, Professional Engineers of Record and third-party engineers to resolve technical questions and support project approvals.
• Partner with manufacturing and fabrication vendors on design for manufacturability, material selection, tolerances, forming, fabrication and coating requirements.
• Evaluate material, sourcing and design alternatives based on structural performance, cost, availability, compliance and durability.
• Develop scalable engineering processes, identify opportunities for automation and use field issues, quality data and lessons learned to drive continuous improvement.

Required Education:

• Bachelor’s degree in Structural Engineering or a related engineering discipline.
• 5+ years of relevant engineering experience with demonstrated technical, project, and people leadership.
• Experience leading, mentoring or developing engineers or technical professionals.
• Strong structural engineering fundamentals, including wind and snow loading, member and connection design, deflection criteria and foundation reactions.
• Experience with RISA or comparable structural analysis software and AutoCAD, Inventor, SolidWorks or similar design tools.
• Ability to balance hands-on technical work with team leadership and business considerations such as cost, schedule, risk and customer needs.
• Strong communication skills with the ability to explain and defend technical decisions across engineering and non-engineering audiences.
• Demonstrated ability to improve products, designs or engineering processes.

Skills/Experience:

• Solar racking, renewable energy, structural steel, cold-formed steel or another engineered-product environment.
• Commercial and/or utility-scale solar experience.
• Product development, value engineering and design-for-manufacturing experience.
• Ground-mount foundations, roll-formed steel, fabrication processes and/or coating systems.
• Engineering automation using advanced Excel, VBA, iLogic, parametric modeling or similar tools.
• EIT or PE licensure.

Our Core Values

We are looking for a talented and experienced individual that can generate new business, inspire their colleagues, and embody the company culture. We want a problem solver to interact ambitiously with our business and not just accomplish a task.

The ideal individual will align well with our Core Values: