Director of Engineering Operations

Job Description

Job Description

Benefits:

• Health insurance
• 401(k)
• Bonus based on performance
• Dental insurance

Director of Operations & Engineering Project Management Darceo Inc. | Rapid City, South Dakota
Full-Time | On-Site | Senior Leadership Position
Compensation: $120,000–$145,000 annually, plus performance-based bonus

Darceo Inc. is a growing engineering services and systems integration company specializing in product development, custom industrial automation, automated test equipment, industrial power systems, and manufacturing equipment.

We serve customers in defense, aerospace, medical technology, industrial manufacturing, and battery and energy markets.

Our projects combine mechanical, electrical, controls, software, and manufacturing engineering to deliver complete, integrated systems.

We are seeking an experienced engineering leader to serve as our Director of Operations and Lead Project Manager , responsible for both day-to-day project execution and overall operational performance.

This is a working leadership role. The successful candidate will personally manage major engineering programs while leading our technical team and developing the processes needed to support continued company growth.

Responsibilities:
Lead Project Management: Personally manage and coordinate Darceo's active engineering and equipment-development programs.
Engineering Operations: Direct engineering resources, workload planning, technical execution, and equipment delivery.
Financial Performance: Maintain project budgets, monitor profitability, and manage cost-to-complete forecasts.
Operational Development: Establish scalable processes for engineering, purchasing, project management, and manufacturing operations.

Primary Responsibilities
1. Lead Technical Project Management
Serve as the primary project manager for Darceo's portfolio of active engineering, automation, and test equipment programs.

• Directly manage multiple simultaneous customer projects from purchase order through final acceptance.

• Develop and maintain project schedules, milestones, resource allocations, budgets, and deliverables.

• Lead project kickoff meetings, design reviews, customer progress meetings, and internal execution reviews.

• Coordinate electrical, mechanical, controls, software, purchasing, fabrication, and integration activities.

• Track engineering labor hours, material purchases, subcontractor costs, and remaining project budgets.

• Maintain accurate estimates at completion and identify potential project overruns early.

• Manage project scope, requirements, engineering changes, and customer change-order requests.

• Coordinate procurement, equipment builds, factory acceptance testing, shipment, installation, and site acceptance testing.

• Communicate project status, issues, risks, and recovery plans to customers and company leadership.

• Take direct responsibility for resolving technical, scheduling, resource, and supplier issues affecting project delivery.

2. Engineering Team Leadership

• Provide day-to-day leadership to Darceo's electrical, mechanical, software, and automation engineering personnel.

• Assign engineering resources across active programs based on priorities, skill requirements, and customer commitments.

• Establish clear engineering deliverables, schedules, and accountability.

• Conduct regular engineering progress and design reviews.

• Support technical problem-solving and cross-disciplinary coordination.

• Develop employees through coaching, training, and performance feedback.

• Support recruiting, hiring, and long-term engineering resource planning.

3. Project Financial Management

• Manage project execution against approved budgets for labor, materials, subcontractors, and other direct costs.

4. Purchasing and Manufacturing Operations

• Oversee project procurement planning, vendor coordination, and material delivery schedules.

5. Process Improvement and Business Growth

• Develop and maintain standardized project management and engineering execution procedures.

• Establish consistent design review, engineering release, change control, and project closeout processes.

• Evaluate AI-enabled tools to improve engineering productivity, documentation, quoting, and project management.

• Work with company leadership on resource planning, facility expansion, and organizational growth.

• Help transition Darceo from a founder-led project management structure into a scalable engineering operations organization.

Required Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in Engineering, Engineering Technology, or equivalent demonstrated technical experience.

• Minimum 10 years of experience in engineering, automation, custom equipment, automated test systems, or closely related industries.

• Minimum 5 years of direct technical project management or engineering leadership experience.

• Experience coordinating multidisciplinary engineering teams, including electrical, mechanical, controls, and software engineering.

• Strong understanding of project scheduling, budgeting, engineering labor estimation, material procurement, and cost-to-complete forecasting.

• Experience managing customer communication, technical reviews, project changes, and equipment acceptance.

• Willingness to take direct ownership of customer project delivery and operational performance.

• Previous engineering operations management experience in a small or midsize technical organization.