Engineering Lead

About the role

The Engineering Lead (EL) aligns all stakeholder efforts with organizational strategy, driving proactive risk management and accountability. Through cross-functional leadership and customer-focused delivery, the EL ensures engineering outcomes meet critical deadlines, contractual milestones, and lifecycle expectations. Serving as a strategic integrator, the role strengthens resilience and design integrity while advancing engineering excellence through technical credibility, process optimization, and collaborative execution across design, production, and service phases.

Responsibilities

• Review customer specifications to identify any gaps in product or process and provide Bids & Sales with the specific risk-related details, propose approved alternatives or deviation requirements
• Represent Production Engineering in vendor interactions and evaluate supplier quotes at bid stage
• Provide technical guidance and oversight to engineering teams tailored to customer specifications
• Proactively identify project risks and initiate the appropriate validation efforts to ensure the technical build requirements comply with industry standards and regulations (e.g. APTA, SAE, FMVSS, CMVSS, ADA, CARB, etc.)
• Manage New Design Integration (NDI) projects: set Specific Measurable Achievable Relevant Time-bound (SMART) goals, facilitate virtual bus reviews engaging all stakeholders, monitor key performance indicators (KPIs), provide tasking to designers/technical leaders, and report project status end-to-end
• Provide technical leadership by reviewing and approving Engineering Change Notification packages as required in order to maintain continuity and ensuring deadlines are met
• Manage engineering ANDON postings and responses to support engineering operations and resolve issues promptly
• Prepare and submit Supplier Application Approval packages, customer approval drawings, test reports, and oversees signoff requirements
• Coordinate the release and tracking of approval drawings to customers, ensuring engineering deliverables align with project milestones
• Collaborate on vendor/customer design issues, support the completion of Sales Release Change Requests, and alternate sourcing strategies
• Act as liaison between Engineering and departments such as Customer Program Management, Vehicle Application Engineering, Strategic Sourcing, Production, Quality, and Service Engineering
• Approve Option Value forms to define Family and Feature information, in collaboration with the configuration group and VAE, to optimize various design configurations
• Support training, mentorship, team building, performance management, and succession planning within Engineering Services
• Support product standardization and design integration across Sales, Manufacturing, and Supply Chain
• Coordinate engineering efforts to identify design improvement opportunities and present new initiatives to the Change Control Board
• Other duties as assigned

Requirements

• Bachelor's Degree in an Engineering or Certified Engineering Technologist designation
• Minimum 5+ years in a related mechanical engineering or project leadership role, and/or 3+ years technical experience internal to NFI/MCI
• Advanced technical and project management capabilities
• Strong communication, organizational, and leadership skills
• Proficiency in engineering tools and systems (NX, Teamcenter, Oracle, ePlanner, Excel, A3, etc.)
• A self-starter who requires minimal supervision
• Ability to travel within the US / to Canada