Lead TPM, New Business Enablement & RFP

About the role

The Lead Technical Program Manager, New Business Enablement & RFP serves as the operational solution architect within the Global Operations Readiness (GOR) team. Reporting into the Manager of Global Operations Readiness within the Manufacturing Business Office (MBO), this role is responsible for framing the boundary conditions that support new customer opportunities and driving the development of tailored manufacturing solutions. This role bridges commercial expansion and factory capability. You will lead the New Business Enablement & RFP sub-function in establishing a standardized framework to ingest and evaluate complex RFPs across direct ZT hyperscale channels and Sanmina partner sales streams. Rather than evaluating requests in isolation, you will model and quantify the complete operational scope required to support incoming opportunities—defining footprint, technical capabilities, manpower, and financial terms so that the true scope of business is fully understood before commitments are made. Working hand-in-hand with local engineering and plant leadership across TX, NJ, and the Netherlands, you will establish the operational framework within which site-specific solutions are engineered. As technical leader, you will serve as the team’s technical navigator—instilling analytical rigor, guiding multi-site solution engineering, and coaching junior team members to cultivate engineering excellence.

What you will do

• Ingest projects and requests from end-to-end, defining business needs, developing strategies, and socializing operational insights and RFP evaluations with executive leadership and business planning teams.
• Manage the multi-channel RFP intake and governance framework, establishing standardized workflows to evaluate direct hyperscale cloud opportunities and co-developed business pipelines.
• Develop and maintain operational boundary condition and constraint models, analyzing required footprint, line rates, high-density power, liquid cooling capabilities, test load capacity, and lead-time sensitivities.
• Quantify total operational resource requirements for new business opportunities, translating customer specifications into structured models detailing facility space, capital expenditures (CapEx), labor/manpower, and P&L financial impacts.
• Lead cross-site solution engineering efforts, partnering directly with local operational and engineering teams in Texas, New Jersey, and the Netherlands to architect feasible, high-integrity manufacturing solutions.
• Act as a thought partner and subject matter expert to refine commercial ideas, generate hypotheses, and analyze manufacturing data to formulate competitive RFP responses.
• Lead analytical workstreams—developing strategic, analytical, and financial frameworks to evaluate cost drivers, promote performance transparency, and guide cost-conscious decision-making for pricing and business planning teams.
• Demonstrate strong leadership and influence management skills, challenging the status quo and aligning diverse stakeholders across commercial sales, regional plant management, product operations, and contract manufacturing partners.
• Serve as the focal point for engineering and operational feasibility, representing factory capabilities during early customer engagement and formal RFP response cycles.
• Own efforts in continuously improving the effectiveness and scope of RFP evaluation tools, boundary-condition models, and response frameworks.
• Coach and nurture junior team members to maximize their potential, set direction in the execution of complex technical initiatives, and facilitate a culture of continuous learning and growth.
• Operate with a sense of urgency to ensure customer needs are met in fast-moving, high-pressure environments.

What you bring

• Bachelor’s degree in industrial engineering, mechanical engineering, systems engineering, supply chain management, or related field. Master’s degree or MBA preferred.
• 8+ years of relevant experience in an engineering, technical program management, manufacturing operations, or technical solutions architecture role (or 6+ years with a Master's degree).
• Demonstrated experience in high-reliability hardware manufacturing, server assembly, contract manufacturing (EMS/ODM), or hyperscale cloud infrastructure environments.
• Proven track record of modeling operational scope, capacity limits, facility footprint constraints, and financial trade-offs for new customer proposals.
• Experience collaborating across geographically distributed manufacturing campuses (US and international) and working alongside customer-facing or partner commercial groups.
• Proficiency with structured problem-solving and analytical methods using tools such as SQL, Python, Tableau, Power BI, or advanced Excel to manipulate multivariate operational and financial data sets.
• Exceptional ability to clearly articulate technical constraints and operational solutions to diverse stakeholder groups, from engineers to commercial sales and executive leadership.
• Deep understanding of factory systems, assembly workflows, test infrastructure, power/cooling constraints, and what it takes to bring a complex product from proposal to mass production.
• Independent initiative to complete projects with a strong sense of urgency in fast-moving, high-pressure environments.
• Fluency with Microsoft Office tools (Outlook, Excel, Word, and PowerPoint).

Pay

The typical base salary for this position is expected to be between $116,250 and $155,000 annually. If hired, the final base salary will be determined on an individual basis taking into consideration experience, skills, knowledge, education and/or certifications.

Benefits

• Performance-based annual bonus eligibility
• 401(k) retirement savings plan
• Tuition reimbursement for eligible education programs
• Comprehensive medical, dental, and vision coverage with access to leading providers
• Mental health resources and employee wellness support programs
• Company-paid life and disability insurance
• Paid time off (PTO) and company-paid holidays
• Parental leave and family care support programs
• Structured training programs and on-the-job learning opportunities
• Matching gifts and volunteer programs to support causes you care about