Product Engineering Manager

The Wittern Group; Des Moines (IA); On-site; USD 120,000 - 180,000; Full time

Job summary

The Wittern Group is seeking a Product Engineering Manager to build and lead the hardware engineering organization for new product development and continuous improvement of dispensing and inventory management products.

This leader sets priorities, builds capabilities, and enforces operating discipline so engineering teams can convert customer needs, market opportunities, and business goals into reliable, manufacturable, scalable, and profitable solutions.

Qualifications

• Proven leadership of multidisciplinary product engineering teams in a manufacturing environment.
• Experience building teams and leaders that deliver through others.
• Experience bringing physical products from concept through industrialization, manufacturing, launch, and lifecycle support.
• Working knowledge of embedded controller devices, firmware, electrical systems, and connected-device architecture.
• Practical knowledge of sheet metal product development, design for manufacturability, tooling, fabrication, assembly, and production readiness.
• Experience with APQP or similar product development process, verification and validation, design controls, risk management, root-cause analysis, change control, and continuous improvement.
• Clear executive, technical, customer, and cross-functional communication skills.

Responsibilities

• Build, lead, mentor, and retain a high-performing multidisciplinary product engineering team responsible for new product development, product sustainment, and technical excellence.
• Establish team structure, capacity plans, resource allocation, budgets, and development paths that support product roadmaps, business objectives, and long-term organizational growth.
• Foster a culture of accountability, innovation, continuous improvement, customer-focused problem-solving, and disciplined product development while developing future technical leaders.
• Lead through the team by setting priorities, removing barriers, reviewing outcomes, and driving cross-functional collaboration with Product Management, Manufacturing, Quality, Customer Support, Sales, Marketing, and Software Development to deliver successful product outcomes.
• Partner with Product Owners to translate product vision, customer requirements, and roadmap priorities into engineering plans, technical solutions, and actionable development activities.
• Lead the execution of product development from concept through design, prototyping, validation, manufacturing readiness, launch, and post-launch support while ensuring alignment to product objectives and business outcomes.
• Drive disciplined engineering practices including APQP, design reviews, verification and validation, risk management, change control, documentation, and quality standards to deliver reliable and manufacturable products.
• Collaborate with Manufacturing, Supply Chain, Quality, and Software Development teams to ensure products are successfully commercialized, effectively supported, and continuously improved throughout their lifecycle.

Skills

Leadership

Cross-functional collaboration

Embedded systems knowledge

Design for manufacturability

APQP experience

Risk management

Technical communication

Education

Bachelor's degree in Mechanical Engineering, Electrical Engineering, Manufacturing Engineering, or related discipline

10 years in Engineering, and 5 years of Engineering leadership experience in development and manufacture of integrated consumer products

Demonstrated experience leading multidisciplinary engineering teams

Job description

Engineering Organization and Team Development

• Build, lead, mentor, and retain a high-performing multidisciplinary product engineering team responsible for new product development, product sustainment, and technical excellence.
• Establish team structure, capacity plans, resource allocation, budgets, and development paths that support product roadmaps, business objectives, and long-term organizational growth.
• Foster a culture of accountability, innovation, continuous improvement, customer-focused problem-solving, and disciplined product development while developing future technical leaders.
• Lead through the team by setting priorities, removing barriers, reviewing outcomes, and driving cross-functional collaboration with Product Management, Manufacturing, Quality, Customer Support, Sales, Marketing, and Software Development to deliver successful product outcomes.

New Product Development and Commercialization

• Partner with Product Owners to translate product vision, customer requirements, and roadmap priorities into engineering plans, technical solutions, and actionable development activities.
• Lead the execution of product development from concept through design, prototyping, validation, manufacturing readiness, launch, and post-launch support while ensuring alignment to product objectives and business outcomes.
• Drive disciplined engineering practices including APQP, design reviews, verification and validation, risk management, change control, documentation, and quality standards to deliver reliable and manufacturable products.
• Collaborate with Manufacturing, Supply Chain, Quality, and Software Development teams to ensure products are successfully commercialized, effectively supported, and continuously improved throughout their lifecycle.

Product Sustainment and Continuous Improvement

• Build the team and operating model responsible for the long-term performance and sustainability of released products.
• Improve product quality, reliability, serviceability, manufacturability, availability, compliance, cost, and margin throughout the product lifecycle.
• Use customer and product owner feedback, warranty data, field service information, manufacturing performance, support trends, and product telemetry to identify and prioritize improvements.
• Lead root-cause problem solving, corrective action, value engineering, component lifecycle planning, obsolescence management, and technical debt reduction.
• Ensure existing products remain supportable, competitive, profitable, and aligned with changing customer and regulatory requirements.

Success Measures

• Engineering portfolio balance and delivery against committed priorities.
• New product development milestones, APQP gate completion, launch readiness, and time to market.
• Post-launch performance, product adoption, customer outcomes, and revenue or margin contribution.
• Quality, reliability, warranty, field issues, serviceability, and corrective-action trends.
• Hardware-software integration quality, release coordination, system validation, and connected-product performance.
• Team capability, leadership development, retention, succession readiness, and employee engagement.

Knowledge, Skills, And Leadership Capabilities

• Proven leadership of multidisciplinary product engineering teams in a manufacturing environment.
• Demonstrated experience building teams and leaders that deliver through others.
• Experience bringing physical products from concept through industrialization, manufacturing, launch, and lifecycle support.
• Working knowledge of embedded controller devices, firmware, electrical systems, and connected-device architecture.
• Practical knowledge of sheet metal product development, design for manufacturability, tooling, fabrication, assembly, and production readiness.
• Experience with APQP or similar product development process, verification and validation, design controls, risk management, root-cause analysis, change control, and continuous improvement.
• Clear executive, technical, customer, and cross-functional communication skills.

Education and Experience

• Bachelor's degree in Mechanical Engineering, Electrical Engineering, Manufacturing Engineering, or a related discipline. Equivalent relevant experience may be considered.
• 10 years in Engineering, and 5 years of Engineering leadership experience in the development and manufacture of integrated consumer products.
• Demonstrated experience leading multidisciplinary engineering teams.

Requirements

• Bachelor's degree in Mechanical Engineering, Electrical Engineering, Manufacturing Engineering, or a related discipline. Equivalent relevant experience may be considered.
• 10 years in Engineering, and 5 years of Engineering leadership experience in the development and manufacture of integrated consumer products.
• Demonstrated experience leading multidisciplinary engineering teams.

Summary

The Product Engineering Manager builds and leads the hardware engineering organization responsible for new product development and the continuous improvement of the company's controlled dispensing and intelligent inventory management products. This leader sets priorities, builds capabilities, and enforces operating discipline so engineering teams can turn customer needs, market opportunities, emerging technologies, and business goals into reliable, manufacturable, serviceable, scalable, and profitable solutions.

The role leads multidisciplinary capabilities across mechanical engineering, electrical engineering, refrigeration, sheet metal development, testing, validation, product documentation, and manufacturing readiness. The team manager works closely with the software applications manager and product owners so that hardware, embedded systems, cloud services, data, and connected-device capabilities develop as one integrated product system rather than as separate functions.