Vice President of Engineering

AbleForce, Inc.; Durham (NC); On-site; USD 230,000 - 320,000; Full time

Job summary

AbleForce, Inc. is seeking a Vice President of Engineering to lead a cross-functional hardware and software organization in Durham, NC. You will set direction, build leadership, and drive a culture of accountability across hardware, mechanical, R&D, firmware, and DevOps teams.

You will own hiring, develop the technology roadmap with the CTO, and ensure production readiness from design through release, while managing cost and schedule commitments with senior leadership.

Qualifications

• 10+ years in hardware, mechanical engineering, or manufacturing with people leadership.
• Proven track record from concept through high-volume production.
• Deep expertise in mechanical design, systems architecture, DFM, and validation.
• Experience leading multi-disciplinary teams across mech, electrical, firmware, software, manufacturing, and supply chain.
• Proficiency with design tools and simulation (SolidWorks, FEA, CFD).
• Hands-on background in test, calibration, or measurement instrumentation development.
• Experience leading or closely partnering with software and DevOps teams on modern practices (CI/CD).
• Experience overseeing customer-facing software products: cloud APIs, databases, web apps, and mobile apps.
• Supplier relationships and managing supply chain risk.
• Executive-level communication of trade-offs and cost implications.

Responsibilities

• Lead and develop a cross-functional engineering organization spanning hardware, mechanical, R&D, firmware, application software, DevOps, and program management.
• Set direction, goals, and development plans for each direct report; coach managers as people leaders and build a culture of accountability, continuous improvement, and psychological safety.
• Own engineering hiring across all disciplines, including hardware, mechanical, R&D, Python, DevOps, and program management.
• Drive org design as the team scales; define leadership needs and build a bench to sustain growth.
• Partner with the CTO on hardware technology strategy and roadmap evolution.
• Hold team accountable for R&D exploration, NPI execution, and stage-gate criteria alignment.
• Oversee delivery of the customer-facing application suite, including API, database, web front-end, and mobile apps.
• Own build, deployment, and infrastructure outcomes: CI/CD, environments, monitoring, reliability, and security.
• Monitor production yield and quality data; escalate issues requiring engineering involvement.
• Report engineering health, including roadmap delivery and cost to the CTO and executive team.

Skills

People leadership

Hardware engineering

Mechanical design

Systems architecture

DFM

Product validation

Regulatory compliance

Program management

CI/CD collaboration

Supplier management

Education

Bachelor's degree in Mechanical Engineering

Bachelor's degree in Electrical Engineering

Bachelor's degree in Computer Engineering

Tools

SolidWorks

FEA

CFD

Test instrumentation

Job description

• Lead and develop a cross-functional engineering organization spanning hardware, mechanical, R&D, firmware, application software, DevOps, and program management.
• Set direction, goals, and development plans for each direct report; coach managers as people leaders and build a culture of accountability, continuous improvement, and psychological safety.
• Own engineering hiring across all disciplines, including hardware, mechanical, R&D, Python, DevOps, and program management, maintaining a high bar for talent at every level.
• Drive org design as the team scales: define leadership needs, develop internal candidates, and build a bench that keeps pace with business growth.
• Partner with the CTO on hardware technology strategy, advising on feasibility, technical risk, and development cost as the product roadmap evolves.
• Hold team accountable for R&D exploration, NPI execution, and stage-gate exit criteria; stay close enough to the work to make sound calls on scope, schedule, and risk.
• Ensure prototype findings, failure modes, and test data are translated into production-ready designs and processes.
• Align with Product on systems architecture and hardware, firmware, and software integration; oversee test, calibration, and characterization standards.
• Drive hardware delivery through the full product lifecycle, including design phases, prototyping, DFM, manufacturing readiness, and schedule confidence — managing trade-offs between performance, cost, manufacturability, and schedule.
• Own engineering response to field performance data, including triage field returns, direct re-characterization efforts, and hold the team accountable for closing design and process improvements.
• Oversee delivery of the customer-facing application suite, including API, database, web front-end, and mobile app, and partner with product team to maintain a realistic roadmap and ship on schedule.
• Own build, deployment, and infrastructure outcomes, including CI/CD, environments, monitoring, reliability, and security.
• Run cross-functional programs through the Program Manager with clear scope, milestones, risk registers, and schedule visibility; hold regular reviews that surface issues early.
• Hold team accountable for full manufacturing readiness, including DFM complete, build SOPs written, test fixtures built, traceability in place, and operator training complete before release to production.
• Monitor production yield and quality data through the Production Manager; escalate and resource issues that require engineering involvement and feed field return data back into design improvements.
• Own the engineering budget, including NRE forecasts, tooling costs, software licensing, and infrastructure spend.
• Partner with Product, Quality, Regulatory, Operations, Sales, and Finance to translate business objectives into executable engineering strategies and realistic delivery plans.
• Report engineering health, including roadmap delivery, schedule confidence, quality, and cost to the CTO and executive team, and represent engineering at the executive and board level.

Skills & Requirements:

• 10+ years of hardware, mechanical engineering, or manufacturing experience with demonstrated people leadership at scale.
• Proven track record taking hardware and manufacturing from concept through high-volume production.
• Deep expertise in mechanical design, systems architecture, design for manufacturing (DFM), and product validation.
• Experience leading multi-disciplinary teams across mechanical, electrical, firmware, software, manufacturing, and supply chain.
• Proficiency in design tools (SolidWorks, etc.) and simulation software (FEA, CFD, etc.).
• Hands-on background in test, calibration, or measurement instrumentation development.
• Experience leading or closely partnering with software and DevOps teams on modern development practices — CI/CD, automated testing, and cloud infrastructure.
• Experience overseeing customer-facing software products: cloud APIs, databases, web applications, and mobile apps.
• Prior experience owning supplier relationships and managing supply chain risk.
• Expertise in product validation, testing, and regulatory compliance.
• Strong program and portfolio management skills; ability to maintain schedule and cost discipline across concurrent workstreams.
• Comfortable representing engineering at the executive and board level, communicating technical trade-offs, manufacturability constraints, and cost implications.
• Bachelors degree or higher in Mechanical Engineering, Electrical Engineering, Computer Engineering, or related field.
• Industry certifications preferred, such as PMP, Six Sigma, etc.
• Familiarity with regulatory environments (FDA, ISO, CE) is a plus.

tags: vice president of engineering, vp of engineering, vice president of hardware engineering, vp of hardware engineering, vp of product engineering, vice president of product engineering