R&D Director

Company Description

Avery Weigh-Tronix is one of the world’s largest manufacturers and suppliers of weighing equipment and solutions. With wholly owned businesses in nine countries, and partners in more than 70 others, we are truly a global player with a range and expertise that is second to none.

With its North American headquarters, R&D and manufacturing base in Minnesota, Avery Weigh-Tronix has a presence across the whole of the United States. Our established network of distributors and dealers undergo extensive product training to provide you with a trustworthy and knowledgeable source for all of your weighing requirements.   

Job Description

Summary:
 

The R&D Director will lead innovation, new product development, and sustain engineering initiatives to improve the Quality, Delivery, Cost, and competitive position of various product portfolios. This person will lead, manage, and direct the development activities for teams of software, mechanical and electrical engineers through Agile and Waterfall Project Management methods.

What You Will Do

Lead a cross functional team and manage all aspects of Innovation including new product development, and sustaining engineering to deliver on-time and to budget new and updated products with exceptional quality which exceed the expectation of the customer and shareholder.

Champion ITW’s Customer-Back Innovation (CBI) Framework and process across the business, with a focus on supporting the Discover phase and taking the lead role in Create, Develop and Deploy phases. Support the R&D Team through product design, complete product prototypes, product testing, and evaluation of customer expectations demonstrating alignment with needs and expectations in line with LPM deliverables.

Act as the senior technical lead to support delivery of business strategies as well as daily operational, quality and supply chain challenges. Manage critical path conflicts with specific R&D resource needs to enable the best possible outcomes for the wider business.

Ability to communicate with each core discipline of the Engineering team as well as to communicate technical details to “non-technical” people across the business, building confidence and trust with clear professional communications and assured expectation management. Ability to give top level summaries for theory of operations as the subject matter expert.

Create & seek agreement for R&D budgets for Long Range Planning and Annual Operating Plans. Manage all subsequent forecasting including management of budgeted payroll, hiring, expenses, capital investments and agency budgets.

Manages others with a high level of integrity, confidentiality, ethics, and discretion. Is direct and open while maintaining a professional, respectful demeaner. Builds and sustains relationships with all stakeholders.

Staffs and manages engineering capacity and capability of a highly effective technical team that delivers the required business results on time.

Develop employees assigned to the department, ensuring the correct application of tools and policies on training, identify career path, perform evaluations, and provide inputs to compensation systems.

Qualifications

What We Are Looking For

• Bachelor’s degree in electrical, software, or mechanical engineering.
• Firsthand experience with new product development from concept through to production
• Participant in a multi-function product development team and experience with Agile and Waterfall Project Management practices
• 5+ years leading a team/s of engineers or engineering disciplines.
• Demonstrate a willingness to take on new challenges, responsibilities, and assignments. Taking the initiative as problems or opportunities arise; being action oriented, willing to take risks.
• Communicate clearly and candidly, avoiding vagueness, ambiguity, and mixed messages. Contributing to an enthusiastic, positive work climate; energizing others.
• Ability to manage the R&D team to achieve results on time. Drive project execution; track delivery; expect, monitor, and control change, own change management; proactively seek and resolve blockers.
• Understand and support the organization’s vision, purpose, and strategies. Understand our products and services. In coordination with cross-functional colleagues, establish work priorities and schedules for completing assignments.
• Strong organizational skills with constant attention to detail
• Exceptional business leadership experience
• Provide leadership to all direct reports and ensure appropriate leadership and hands-on engagement with indirect reports.
• Ability to strengthen the local team through coaching, training, and effective goal