Senior Manager, Hardware Engineering

Job Description

Job Description

About Us:

Det-Tronics is a $200M global technology leader in industrial life safety solutions, specializing in high-end flame and gas detection and automation control systems. As part of Spectrum Safety Solutions with 1,700 employees across 20+ countries we serve mission-critical environments in oil & gas, clean energy, marine, and infrastructure. Backed by Sentinel Capital Partners, we’re driving innovation and growth across our portfolio.

The Opportunity

The Sr. Manager, Hardware Engineering is a key leadership role within the Det-Tronics Engineering organization responsible for leading the hardware team (electrical and mechanical engineering) that develops and sustains world-class fire and gas detection products. This position drives the execution of the hardware technology roadmap, ensuring the successful development of innovative, reliable, and cost-effective products while maintaining the highest standards of quality, safety, regulatory compliance, and manufacturability.

The role combines strong people leadership with deep technical oversight. The successful candidate will lead multidisciplinary hardware teams through all phases of product development, from concept generation and requirements definition through design, verification, validation, certification, manufacturing launch, and lifecycle support.

As a member of the engineering leadership team, this individual will contribute to product strategy, technology planning, organizational development, and continuous improvement initiatives while fostering a culture of innovation, accountability, and engineering excellence.

Key Responsibilities: 

People Leadership

• Lead, develop, and mentor a team of mechanical and electrical engineers, fostering a high-performance culture focused on innovation, accountability, collaboration, and continuous improvement.
• Recruit, retain, and develop top engineering talent.
• Establish clear goals, performance expectations, and career development plans for engineering staff.
• Promote employee engagement and provide coaching to support technical and leadership growth.

Product Development Leadership

• Lead the execution of hardware development activities for new product introductions and sustaining engineering projects.
• Ensure projects are delivered on schedule, within budget, and meet performance, reliability, and quality objectives.
• Guide engineering teams through stage-gate or design control processes, ensuring appropriate technical rigor and compliance to documentation requirements, processes and deliverables throughout the product lifecycle.
• Drive team and cross functional form and regular informal design reviews and technical decision-making to address complex engineering challenges and technical risks.
• Partner with program management to assign proper resources and ensure team performs to expected technical, schedule, resource, and business priorities and project commitments.
• Collaborate with Systems & Technology team and Firmware Design and Development teams to develop system architecture, evaluate feasibility (technical/cost/schedule), and provide work breakdown plans/schedules for projects.

Technical Leadership

• Provide technical oversight for electrical and mechanical system architecture, product design, component selection, environmental performance, reliability, and manufacturability.
• Ensure designs comply with applicable industry standards, safety regulations, hazardous location requirements, and certification requirements.
• Drive best practices in product design including requirements, engineering analysis (tolerance, fitment, performance), FMEA, root cause analysis, reliability engineering, and design pretesting and formal verification.
• Support innovation through technology evaluation, proof-of-concept development, and technology road mapping.
• Champion Design for Manufacturability (DFM), Design for Assembly (DFA), Design for Reliability (DFR), and Design for Cost (DFC) methodologies.
• Establish and report out regularly on key performance indicators (KPI’s).
• Proactively assess project and design risks to identify, review and implement best mitigations.

Cross-Functional Collaboration

• Collaborate closely with systems engineering, software/firmware engineering, certification, quality, operations, supply chain, manufacturing, product management, and field service teams.
• Support product certification efforts with approvals team, agencies and regulatory bodies.
• Partner with manufacturing and supply chain organizations to improve product quality, cost, and production efficiency.
• Provide technical support for strategic customer opportunities and field escalations.

Process and Continuous Improvement

• Establish and improve engineering processes, tools, and metrics that enhance product development effectiveness and predictability.
• Ensure compliance with company quality systems, engineering procedures, and documentation requirements.
• Drive lessons-learned activities and promote continuous improvement across engineering disciplines.
• Support implementation of modern engineering tools, methodologies, and digital engineering practices.

What You Bring 

Required Qualifications: 

• Bachelor's degree in Electrical Engineering.
• 10+ years of product development engineering experience involving electromechanical products.
• 5+ years of engineering leadership experience managing technical teams.
• Demonstrated success leading hardware product development programs from concept through commercial launch.
• Experience developing products within regulated or safety-critical industries.
• Strong understanding of electrical and mechanical product design, verification, validation, manufacturing, and product lifecycle management and processes.

Preferred Qualifications

• Master's degree in Engineering or Engineering Management.
• Experience in industrial safety, fire detection, gas detection, process automation, industrial controls, instrumentation, or related markets.
• Experience with hazardous location certifications, safety standards, and global regulatory approvals.
• Strong knowledge of reliability engineering, environmental testing, and failure analysis methodologies.
• Experience leading globally distributed engineering teams.
• Strong business acumen with the ability to align engineering execution to product strategy and company objectives.
• Proven ability to influence stakeholders across all levels of the organization.
• Excellent written, verbal, and presentation communication skills.

Success Measures

• Delivery of hardware development projects on schedule, within budget and with high quality.
• Achievement of product quality, reliability, and certification objectives.
• Team engagement, retention, and development.
• Improvement in engineering productivity and development effectiveness.
• Successful commercialization of new products and technologies.
• Reduction in field quality issues and resolution of complex technical challenges.

Why Join Us?

• Work with a globally respected brand in life safety
• Influence strategic decisions at the executive level
• Drive innovation and transformation in a high-growth environment
• Enjoy development opportunities within a dynamic, private equity-backed company

Benefits:

At Det-Tronics, we believe in taking care of our people. Our comprehensive benefits package includes: 

• Health & Wellness: Medical, dental, and vision insurance plans with company contributions 
• Financial Security: 401(k) retirement plan with company match, life and disability insurance 
• Time Off: Generous paid time off (PTO), holidays, and flexible scheduling options 
• Professional Growth: Career development programs, training opportunities, and tuition reimbursement 
• Employee Support: Employee Assistance Program (EAP), wellness resources, and global mobility support 
• Ownership Culture: Participation in our Ownership Program, empowering employees to share in our success 

Ready to shape the future of industrial safety?

Apply now and join us in making every life safe and sound.