Sr Lead Engineer, Product Development - Plumbing (Remote)

Harbor Freight Tools; Calabasas (CA); Hybrid; USD 100,000 - 130,000; Full time

Job summary

Harbor Freight Tools is seeking a Senior Lead Engineer responsible for providing technical leadership to develop exceptional products delivering premium performance and value. The role involves coordinating efforts of global teams to ensure product functionality and quality.

Key responsibilities include managing project schedules, defining product specifications, maintaining high QA standards, and supporting vendor processes. The ideal candidate will have a strong collaborative style and decision-making skills, along with the ability to manage multiple complex tasks effectively.

Qualifications

• Experience in managing multiple projects with urgency.
• Strong understanding of product specifications and QA standards.
• Ability to collaborate with various teams and external vendors.

Responsibilities

• Drive project tasks to completion while managing risks.
• Support vendor selection and improvement processes.
• Prepare and update testing protocols and plans.
• Manage product complaints and analyze root causes.

Skills

Project management

Quality assurance

Collaborative teamwork

Vendor management

Job description

The Senior Lead Engineer will be responsible for providing technical leadership to develop best-in-class products that deliver premium performance at a great market value. As an individual contributing team member in the Quality Assurance group, the Lead Engineer coordinates efforts of a global product team, including domestic and overseas colleagues as well as vendors. Delivery of the highest level of product functionality, quality, and speed to market is critical in the success of this position. Successful execution of duties requires a balance of driving to meet aggressive project goals while maintaining high standards of professionalism and collaborative partnership with other valued team members.

Duties and Responsibilities

• Driving Schedules: Read schedules and drive project tasks to completion with urgency. Identifies actions that accelerate completion with acceptable risk.
• Support Vendor Selection and Enhancement: Provide project specifications and global sourcing in selection of factories for development & manufacturing. Audits issues through factory corrective actions. Provides recommendations to improve vendor capability.
• Organization: Optimizes work flow to improve efficiency.
• Adaptation: Sense of urgency, collaborative team style, and adapts to changes in priorities.
• Defining Product Specifications: Knowledge of market landscape, corporate objectives, and product needs to communicate expectations to vendors for quotation and development.
• Quality Assurance: High standards of quality for each product for customer satisfaction. Measures success by online reviews and returns %.
• Product Testing: Supports testing group by preparing test methods, instructions, and plans. Updates test protocols. Reviews reports, interacts with test team, generates appropriate corrective action plans.
• Completion of tasks: Complete multiple parallel tasks. Works with time constraints and deliver on multiple advanced tasks. Creates processes that enhance task completion. Mindful of how completion affects others.
• Inspections: Update and publish list of items to be inspected. Works with overseas inspection team to identify inspection process improvement areas and create solutions to improve quality.
• Mature Product Support: Support complaint handling group in resolving product complaints by analyzing product and market comparisons. Read and respond to customer reviews directly and through FAQs. Review product and related literature to identify root causes and viable solutions. Drive corrective actions.
• Individual Contribution: Actively completes assignments as an individual contributor to 25 or more projects with elevated complexity. Assists manager with tasks assigned to manager.
• Teamwork: Ability to work collaboratively in a team setting with various departments and outside parties such as Global Sourcing, Merchant, Asia teams, and vendors. Understands how their work, and the way they work, affect others.
• Visibility and Escalation to Leadership: Provides constant and timely updates on project status and systems improvements to manager, cross functional team, and leadership team using appropriate communication methods. Anticipates events and prepares leadership in advance.
• Management Responsibilities: Models responsible behavior and coaches others in their work.
• Decision Making: Works independently and exercises independent judgment and good decision-making skills. Solves project and system problems with little support. Leverages collaborative culture and escalations, understanding when and how to appropriately involve others.
• Reliability: Consistently present, attentive and engaged in daily operations to effectively reach defined goals
• Safety Mindedness: Understand and be involved in workplace safety to ensure all employees follow safety rules and procedures.

Scope

• Staff supervision and development: No
• Decision making
• Travel: Up to 25%
• Flex Designation: Anywhere