Engineering Manager - Design Engineering

USC/ GC Only!

Hybrid in Columbia, MD

Engineering Manager – Design Engineering

About the Role

The Engineering Manager – Design Engineering is responsible for the day-to-day leadership and execution of design engineering activities across assigned customer projects and product lines. This role manages the design engineering team, translates project requirements into accurate and manufacturable designs, and ensures engineering deliverables are completed in accordance with project schedules, technical standards, and quality expectations.

Reporting to the Director of Design Engineering, the Engineering Manager provides hands-on leadership across engineering planning, workload allocation, design reviews, customer submittals, fabrication drawings, and engineering bills of material. The position serves as the primary point of escalation for design execution issues and works closely with Project Management, Structural Engineering, Manufacturing, Procurement, and Sales Engineering to ensure successful project delivery.

What You'll Do

Project & Design Execution

• Manage the day-to-day execution of design engineering work across multiple concurrent projects.
• Translate approved customer requirements, specifications, layouts, and design criteria into complete engineering deliverables.
• Develop and maintain detailed engineering schedules aligned with customer approvals, procurement requirements, and manufacturing dates.
• Ensure design packages, models, customer submittals, fabrication drawings, and engineering BOMs are completed accurately and on time.
• Monitor scheduled versus actual completion dates and implement recovery plans when deliverables fall behind.
• Identify technical, resource, and schedule risks early and escalate them with clear recommendations.
• Lead technical problem-solving during design, procurement, fabrication, assembly, and installation.
• Ensure engineering changes are properly evaluated, documented, approved, and communicated to affected stakeholders.

Team Leadership

• Lead, coach, and develop design engineers, designers, and engineering leads.
• Assign work based on project priority, technical complexity, capacity, and individual capability.
• Establish clear ownership, deadlines, and expectations for every engineering deliverable.
• Conduct regular workload, project-status, and individual performance reviews.
• Provide timely feedback and address performance, responsiveness, quality, or accountability concerns.
• Identify skills gaps and develop appropriate training and development plans.
• Support recruitment, onboarding, succession planning, and organizational development for the design engineering function.
• Build a culture of urgency, technical rigor, collaboration, and ownership.

Design Quality & Governance

• Establish and enforce consistent design practices, review procedures, checklists, and release controls.
• Ensure designs comply with customer requirements, internal engineering standards, applicable codes, and manufacturing capabilities.
• Confirm that structural connections and load-bearing design decisions are reviewed and approved by Structural Engineering before release.
• Ensure customer comments and design changes are fully incorporated and closed before final approval.
• Maintain appropriate peer-review and approval requirements based on project risk and complexity.
• Reduce design errors, omissions, rework, and late-stage changes through effective front-end planning and review.
• Support the standardization of designs, components, assemblies, and engineering documentation while accommodating project-specific requirements.

Engineering BOM & Release Management

• Ensure engineering BOMs are complete, accurate, and aligned with approved drawings and models.
• Confirm that all manufactured parts, purchased components, hardware, spares, and required quantities are captured before release.
• Ensure part-number requests and supporting engineering information are submitted promptly and accurately.
• Coordinate with Engineering Services, Data Entry, Costing, Procurement, and plant teams to support timely BOM approval and ERP release.
• Ensure revisions to drawings, BOMs, and part numbers are properly controlled and synchronized.
• Support phased or preliminary releases where appropriate to protect procurement and manufacturing schedules without compromising technical control.
• Investigate BOM discrepancies and implement corrective actions to prevent recurrence.

Cross-Functional & Customer Coordination

• Partner with Project Management to confirm project priorities, milestones, dependencies, and delivery commitments.
• Coordinate with Sales Engineering to ensure estimates, proposals, and customer scope are accurately transferred into execution.
• Work with Structural Engineering to obtain required calculations, connection reviews, and technical approvals.
• Engage Procurement early on long-lead, custom, or technically critical components.
• Partner with Manufacturing and plant-based DFM engineers to ensure designs are safe, practical, efficient, and ready for production.
• Participate in customer design-review meetings and provide clear technical updates, decisions, risks, and required actions.
• Manage technical escalations constructively and drive timely resolution across functional boundaries.

Continuous Improvement

• Track engineering performance, including schedule adherence, first-pass approval, drawing and BOM accuracy, rework, engineering changes, and resource utilization.
• Identify recurring design or process failures and lead root-cause and corrective-action activities.
• Improve engineering workflows, design tools, templates, automation, and documentation standards.
• Capture lessons learned and ensure they are incorporated into future projects and standard designs.
• Support the Director of Design Engineering in capacity planning, resource forecasting, and execution of the department’s strategic priorities.

What You'll Bring

• Bachelor’s degree in Mechanical Engineering, Structural Engineering, Manufacturing Engineering, or a related technical discipline.
• Typically 7–10 years of progressive engineering experience in a manufacturing, fabricated-products, construction-products, or engineered-to-order environment.
• Minimum of 3 years of engineering leadership or people-management experience.
• Demonstrated experience managing multiple complex engineering projects simultaneously.
• Strong understanding of design release, configuration control, engineering BOMs, manufacturing drawings, and change-management processes.
• Experience working with manufacturing, procurement, project management, and customer-facing teams.
• Proficiency with 3D CAD and engineering-document-management systems; experience with Autodesk Inventor, Vault, Revit, AutoCAD, or similar platforms is preferred.
• Experience with ERP/MRP systems and part-number or BOM-release processes is preferred.
• Experience in data-centre infrastructure, modular construction, sheet-metal fabrication, structural systems, containment, or mechanical systems is advantageous.

Knowledge, Skills & Abilities

• Strong technical judgment and problem-solving capability.
• Proven ability to lead teams in a fast-paced, project-driven environment.
• Excellent planning, prioritization, and organizational skills.
• Strong attention to detail and commitment to engineering quality.
• Effective written, verbal, and customer-facing communication skills.
• Ability to influence cross-functional stakeholders and drive accountability.
• Practical understanding of Design for Manufacturing and Assembly (DFMA).
• Ability to balance process improvement with project execution and delivery.

What You'll Get

• Pay range: $130,000 USD to $160,000 USD. This role is eligible for a discretionary bonus.
• Career Scope and Advancement: As we grow, new positions and career opportunities arise, offering accelerated paths for the right candidates, locally and globally.
• World of Wellness Philosophy: We empower you to take charge of your health and well-being. You’ll have access to a wide range of medical, dental, and vision benefits, along with personalized guidance from a “Health Advocate.” We also offer other supplemental options, including 401k, legal, disability, and theft insurance, to ensure your financial wellness.
• Corporate Social Responsibility: Through Planet Passionate we are determined to reduce our manufacturing carbon (CO2e) emissions to as close to zero as technically possible, together with halving carbon intensity in our primary supply chain. We are very involved in our community, and you will have ample opportunities to support us, in creating a better world.
• Skills Development: Given the dynamic pace of our business and a strong collaborative environment, your new role will be diverse and multifaceted – allowing you to be more versatile and develop a broader skill set.
• Mentorship and development: We don’t believe in hierarchy, we work together as one team for one common goal. You will have access and exposure to our senior leaders and experts for learning in your role, and additionally mentorship for the future.
• Culture: We have a great team culture, highly collaborative, supportive and social. Together we innovate, collaborate, take ownership and strive for excellence.