Senior Engineering Manager

About The Role

We're looking for a Senior Engineering Manager to lead our CM Truck configure-to-order (CTO) engineering team. This role owns day-to-day leadership across new product development (NPD), value-analysis/value-engineering (VAVE), product upgrades, custom orders, and quoting for our truck bed and service body product lines. This is a highly visible leadership role central to our engineering reorganization — you'll help operationalize a company-wide 2027 operating model built around standardization, digitization, and a fully connected digital thread (CPQ → PLM → ERP → CAD).

Responsibilities

• Team Leadership & Continuity: Lead the CM/CTO engineering team day-to-day, directly developing two team leads: one focused on custom orders & quoting, one on NPD & product upgrades; build a resilient team with documented processes, cross-trained backups, and no single points of failure; own coaching, assignments, and performance management; recommend promotions and role definitions.
• Custom Orders & Quoting: Drive custom-order throughput and quote turnaround for CM opportunities; ensure quoting expertise is documented, repeatable, and not dependent on any one person; provide accurate, competitive cost-estimating and quoting inputs.
• NPD, Product Upgrades & VAVE: Own delivery of NPD programs and product upgrades across truck-bed product lines; embed value-analysis/value-engineering (VAVE) as an ongoing capability — part-count reduction, cost-down, reuse-first design; drive modular architecture and promote recurring solutions into the standard catalog.
• Technical Leadership: Serve as the technical lead for CM product decisions within enterprise standards; chair design reviews covering safety, regulatory compliance, DFM/DFA, and sourced-design; maintain engineering-change (ECN) discipline and product validation rigor.
• Process & Systems: Implement CM processes on the company's shared digital-thread architecture; establish PLM as the CM source of truth; maintain part-numbering, BOM structure, revision control, and configurator rules.
• Financial & Cross-Functional: Own CM engineering cost performance and spend within an approved budget envelope; recommend headcount, tooling, and contractor needs; partner with Operations, Commercial/Sales, and IT to align CM with enterprise standards; translate Voice-of-Customer input into CM design requirements.

Qualifications

Required:

• Bachelor's degree in Mechanical Engineering or a related discipline (or equivalent experience)
• Engineering leadership/supervisory experience in configure-to-order and/or NPD manufacturing environments — truck equipment, upfitting, or comparable vocational products strongly preferred
• Demonstrated experience leading NPD programs, VAVE initiatives, product upgrades, and custom quoting from concept through production
• Strong grounding in DFM/DFA, design reviews, BOM/part-numbering, and ECN/change management
• Working knowledge of digital-thread systems (CPQ, PLM, ERP, CAD) and modular/standardization strategy

Preferred:

• Familiarity with applicable regulatory frameworks (e.g., FMVSS) and multi-stage manufacturing
• Experience building teams and processes that eliminate single points of failure
• Strong systems-thinking with the ability to balance standardization with CTO configurability and NPD speed

What Success Looks Like in Year One

• CM custom orders, quoting, NPD, and upgrade processes are documented with proven backups — no single points of failure
• Both direct-report leads are operating effectively with documented methods and cross-trained backups
• A CM coverage map is in place and maintained
• PLM is established as the CM source of truth
• NPD stage-gates are delivered on plan, quote turnaround is protected, and measurable progress is made on modular reuse and VAVE