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Engineering Manager
Region South Central Midwest /
Industry Marine
Position ID 3241
Our Client: Our client is a highly respected boat manufacturer with decades of experience. They specialize in the design and production of customized and semicustom vessels for commercial and recreational applications. With a highly skilled workforce, they emphasize craftsmanship, teamwork, and pride in producing products designed to last a lifetime. This position is in an outdoorsman’s paradise. You will be close to lakes, hunting land, wetlands, and real nature. Additionally, the community is safe, affordable, community-oriented, and offers a slower pace of life. People know each other, and high school football still matters.
Engineering Manager
Our Client:
Our client is a highly respected boat manufacturer with decades of experience. They specialize in the design and production of customized and semicustom vessels for commercial and recreational applications. With a highly skilled workforce, they emphasize craftsmanship, teamwork, and pride in producing products designed to last a lifetime. This position is in an outdoorsman’s paradise. You will be close to lakes, hunting land, wetlands, and real nature. Additionally, the community is safe, affordable, community-oriented, and offers a slower pace of life. People know each other, and high school football still matters.
The Opportunity:
The Engineering Manager is responsible for leading the company’s engineering organization across new product development, manufacturing engineering, prototype operations, drafting and design resources, and technical systems support. This role ensures engineering work is aligned with company priorities and that products, processes, and technical resources support safe, manufacturable, high-quality boat production. The Engineering Manager provides direction to the New Product Development Manager, Manufacturing Engineering Manager, Prototype Shop Manager, and IT Technician, while ensuring coordination across drafting resources assigned to both New Product Development and Manufacturing Engineering. This position is responsible for setting engineering priorities, strengthening team performance, removing technical roadblocks, and ensuring strong execution across product development, production support, prototype validation, and continuous improvement.
Benefits:
- Comprehensive benefits included.
Duties and Responsibilities:
- Department Leadership:
- Lead and manage the engineering organization, including New Product Development, Manufacturing Engineering, Prototype Shop, and technical systems support.
- Set department goals, priorities, and performance expectations aligned with company objectives for growth, profitability, quality, and operational efficiency.
- Ensure engineering resources are properly allocated between new product development, manufacturing support, prototype work, technical problem solving, and continuous improvement efforts.
- Develop leaders within the department by coaching, mentoring, and holding managers accountable for results.
- Foster a culture of ownership, responsiveness, practical problem solving, and cross-functional teamwork.
- Product Development:
- Provide leadership and direction for new boat development, product changes, and feature or option development from concept through production launch.
- Ensure product requirements are clearly defined and translated into designs, drawings, specifications, and release packages that support business and customer needs.
- Oversee coordination between New Product Development, Prototype, Drafting, and Manufacturing Engineering to reduce launch risk and improve execution.
- Maintain alignment between innovation, manufacturability, timing, and cost targets.
- Manufacturing Engineering and Quality Control:
- Provide leadership oversight to the Manufacturing Engineering function in supporting fabrication, welding, paint, rigging, and final assembly operations.
- Ensure production issues, tooling needs, process constraints, and design-related build problems are addressed quickly and effectively.
- Drive Design for Manufacturing and Assembly principles across engineering activities to improve safety, consistency, throughput, and cost.
- Ensure quality standards, inspection criteria, corrective actions, and technical requirements remain aligned with engineering intent and production needs.
- Support the development of sustainable quality systems and clear accountability for product conformance across the plant.
Qualifications:
- Required Skills:
- Strong leadership and people management skills.
- Strong understanding of product development, manufacturing engineering, and technical support functions in a manufacturing environment.
- Strong understanding of engineering drawings, CAD documentation, BOM control, and engineering change management.
- Ability to lead through subordinate managers while maintaining visibility into execution details.
- Strong project prioritization, organizational, and decision-making skills.
- Strong problem-solving and root cause analysis skills.
- Proficiency in Microsoft Office products including Excel, Word, and Teams.
- Qualifications:
- Bachelor’s degree in Engineering, Engineering Technology, Industrial Technology, or related field preferred.
- 5+ years of engineering, manufacturing engineering, product development, or technical leadership experience.
- 3+ years of leadership experience managing people, projects, or technical teams.
- Experience in marine manufacturing, aluminum fabrication, or similar fabricated product industries preferred.
- Familiarity with product compliance, manufacturing quality systems, and production support processes preferred.
- Experience leading cross-functional technical teams in a manufacturing environment.
