Director, Advanced Engineering (37569)

Site Overview: 

Young Innovations is a manufacturer and marketer of high-quality dental equipment with sales in excess of $100 million. With an outstanding reputation for quality, the company has a broad portfolio of market leading products across a variety of categories.

CHARACTERISTICS OF THE CLASS: 

The Director, Advanced Engineering leads and directs Young Innovations teams to execute on small to large-scale capital investment projects that drive productivity and business scalability.  Leverages domain expertise, formal problem solving, and automation experience to drive projects across sites and functions.

1. Key project leadership, management and technical execution, including ensuring key critical, large-scale, capital projects and/or EBITDA-enhancing initiatives are properly scoped, planned for and ultimately managed to a successful conclusion;
2. continuous business process improvement via lean sig sigma methodologies and Lean tools, including ideating, prioritizing, planning, and executing small- and large-scale cross-functional projects which improve business performance and scalability and improve EBITDA;
3. effective planning and execution of M&A integration projects to minimize the impact of these events on customers, employees and business performance and to deliver on committed milestones, synergies, and growth.

The Director of Advanced Engineering reports to the Vice President of Manufacturing and will have broad and frequent interaction with Young’s general management and executive leadership. The ideal candidate is someone who has a multidisciplinary background and embodies a “General Manager mentality” with the ability to identify growth opportunities and drive complex projects to completion. 

ESSENTIAL DUTIES:

• Ability to assess process and product “current state” and identify opportunities to drive engineering solutions that reduce cost without sacrificing form, fit or function.  Leverage business capital to drive automation, process improvement, and material cost savings.  Identify opportunities for transformative change to continue to differentiate Young Innovations in the market.  Partner with other Young leaders to conduct market reviews to drive project ideation.
• Provide project management planning, leadership, and hands-on executional support for projects and/or initiatives in partnership with cross-functional leaders to ensure team accountability for shared goals and to deliver on-time and on-budget results; examples include managing projects related to specifying and validating new process equipment or leading facility consolidations
• Lead business process optimization efforts focused on multi-functional, large-scale processes in order to improve growth, profitability and efficiency organization-wide; examples include optimizing YI-wide QRA processes such as change control or S&OP processes
• Drive the M&A integration planning process, in conjunction with all functional areas, to drive synergy opportunities.[SL1] 
• Deepen engineering and technical talent through partnership and mentoring.  Instill a culture of planning and continuous improvement across the organization
• Deliver on annual budgeted cost savings via both individual contribution and managing a team of direct reports

MINIMUM QUALIFICATIONS:

Training and Experience

• Bachelor’s degree in engineering or related technical field; a multidisciplinary background with some product development, product management or commercial experience strongly preferred
• 10+ years of progressive leadership and project management experience with demonstrated success; experience in project planning and technical problem-solving and execution in large, cross-functional projects required; PMP certification preferred
• Proven experience with large-scale capital projects, and equipment automation that delivery cost savings and business scalability
• 5+ years supervisory/management experience preferred
• Experience partnering with leaders across various functional areas to scope, build and execute projects or programs that drive EBITDA growth required
• Experience with Project Management tools required; experience with Lean (TPS) manufacturing frameworks and tools strongly preferred
• Experience working for a manufacturing or distribution company in the medical device industry

Knowledge, Abilities and Skills

• Ability to