Director of Engineering- Material Handling Equipment

Overview

As a Director of Engineering, Material Handling Equipment, you will be responsible for leadership and strategic direction for the engineering group responsible for Forklifts and Powered Industrial Vehicle (PIV) fleet.    As part of that role you will manage the large scale Capital and Lease Refresh projects across 160 locations, and over 2200 Forklifts and Mobile Equipment.    Serve as a subject matter expert for mobile material movement operations inside our manufacturing and distribution center industrial environments.  You will manage a significant equipment budget, focus on equipment fleet health and modernizations, strategic capital planning, replacement strategies, MRO strategies,  and lowest cost of ownership efforts.  This role will also focus heavily on safety technologies, programs, and systems that insure operator, pedestrian, and asset protection.   Additionally you will provide governance and oversite to all forklift replacement, leasing activities, change management, safety, and sustainment activities through training, audits, on-site kaizen efforts,   continuous improvement initiatives,   vendor relationships, and industry benchmarking.  This role requires a strategic and robust leader, analytical thinker, and problem solver. The ideal candidate will possess strong equipment, automation, and supply chain knowledge, great interpersonal and communication skills, and enjoy working in a fast-paced environment where attention to detail, deadlines, and financial acumen is incredibly important.

Responsibilities

Job Description

• Responsible for leading, training, and coordinating a diverse team of supply chain engineers and project managers across the company, that have direct interactions with all our plants and warehouses across the network.
• Manage a distributed technical team across the country.
• Responsible for the specifications, purchase, and leasing for a large scale 2200+ mobile forklift and PIV fleet across the network.
• Responsible for forklift fleet parts and services management and optimization to achieve lowest cost of ownership across the network.
• Responsible for project identification, vetting, and negotiation with a wide array of forklift, and MHE vendors and suppliers.
• Responsible for forklift telemetry program
• Responsible for forklift and PIV safety technologies and recommendations like access control, impact monitoring, speed controls, and proximity sensing.
• Planning, budgeting, and Execution of a $25M+ dollar annual leasing and capital program
• Work closely with Facility Engineering and Automation Engineering teams on common projects
• Make sure we have effective state of the art safety features to protect our operators, pedestrians, and assets.   Including but not limited to things like directional safety lights, audibles signals, telemetry, proximity sensing, seat belt interlocks, speed control.
• Work with Battery and charging vendors, analyze applications for fast charging, lithium, LP, and other applicable power sources that make our operations safe and efficient
• Analyze data, review reports, recommend and implement forklift fleet, operational, and equipment improvements.
• Responsible for compliance and resolution to various safety, regulatory, and corporate requirements
• Monthly project , budget, and financial status reporting
• Perform periodic review of locations for their preventative maintenance programs and service agreements related to mobile equipment, assuring that production equipment is properly maintained.
• Provide engineering support and resources as needed to sustain mobile equipment reliability.
• Help to develop the technical talent in the group.
• Acts as internal consultant providing technical guidance to Operations and Leadership by applying creativity, innovation, tools, methods, and techniques coupled with technical insights, knowledge and experience to form conclusions, recommendations,  and resolutions.

Qualifications

Qualifications:

• BS degree in Industrial or related Engineering field, Industrial Technology, MBA with equipment and technical focus, or related experience.  Minimum of 10 years of applicable experience in engineering field with focus on mobile equipment, PIVs, forklifts and related material movers.   Hands on experience with warehouse and manufacturing operations is a plus.
• Strong leader with demonstrated project and process management skills.
• Strong communication (written and verbal), interpersonal skills and negotiation skills required.
• Experienced in Excel, Word & Microsoft Project
• Experienced user of AutoCAD readers, and technical publications.
• Experience with Maintenance Computer Maintenance Man