Lead Engineer, Vehicle

Club Car boasts a 60+ year history of industry-leading innovation and design, initially focused on golf cars and then expanding to commercial utility vehicles and personal-use transportation.

GENERAL JOB DESCRIPTION

The Lead Engineer at Club Car leads the design, development, and product launch of mechanical components and sub-assemblies to support New Product Development, Value Engineering, and Innovation programs. This job will require experience and knowledge in mechanical part design, material selection, processing, tooling design, and failure analysis. The incumbent will work with cross functional teams to deliver mechanical components and subsystems to support consumer vehicles, golf cars, utility vehicles, and connected solutions.

PRIMARY DUTIES AND RESPONSIBILITES

• Lead the development of vehicle related components and systems from concept to production.
• Represent Engineering on cross functional new product development teams.
• Drives overall project risk assessment (budget, schedule, scope) and mitigation plans to ensure product performance while meeting project schedules.
• Lead efforts to improve the financial impact of engineering activities on the business with focus on design feasibility that includes cost-reduction, function, appearance, safety, and market trends.
• Creates and owns the Engineering Release Plan for all components, assemblies, installations, and Bills of Materials within assigned programs.
• Transform market requirements into system, subsystem and component specifications.
• Participates in the development and execution of roadmaps for Club Car vehicles.
• Ensure technical rigor for all projects assigned (Specifications, DFMEA, DVP, APQP, and Technical Design Reviews).
• Remove roadblocks and accelerate implementation of projects.
• Lead suppliers and other external resources to develop technologies and/or products to meet product specifications.
• Collaborate with manufacturing engineers to ensure Design For Manufacture (DFM) and to incorporate designs into manufacturing processes.
• Lead competitive benchmarking activities & value engineering ideation activities

OTHER DUTIES AND RESPONSIBILITIES

• Effectively build departmental capabilities through development of others.
• Develop and implement processes that improve product development effectiveness
• Understand and influence regulatory standards that affect Club Car products.
• Develop project schedules and drive cross functional teams to meet milestones for assigned projects.
• Effectively self-manage large projects
• First point of contact within engineering regarding customer issues.

QUALIFICATIONS FOR THE JOB

Education:

• Bachelor's Degree in Mechanical Engineering or equivalent is required
• Demonstrated expertise in product & assembly design for different manufacturing processes
• Experience working as an engineer in a vehicle related business is preferred.

Experience:

• 10+ years of experience is recommended.

KEY COMPETENCIES

• Strong ability to handle both complex and ambiguous situations and multiple responsibilities simultaneously - mixing long-term projects with the urgency of immediate demands.
• The right individual will be self-motivated, a strong collaborator, able to think creatively and work with others to find solutions, drive execution, and focus on results.
• Able to quickly and efficiently understand and organize information necessary to make engineering decisions.
• Solid Project Management/leadership skills
• Process knowledge for plastics: injection molding, extrusion, compression molding, blow molding, thermoforming, and other common processes used for the manufacturing of products made from polymeric materials.
• Process knowledge for metals: extrusion, stamping, die cast, welding, and other common manufacturing processes.
• Basic knowledge for integrating electrical components into vehicle systems, including wire sizing, fusing, and load assessment.
• Experienced in applying and understanding the results of Finite Element Analysis (FEA), Multi-Body Dynamics (MBD), and other complex simulation/analysis results.
• Expert in technical, analytical and problem-solving skills (8D, 9-step, etc).
• Excellent verbal and written communications skills.
• Employs "best" solution to problem rather than most evident (considers business impact to other departments as well as technical requirements)
• Proficient at identifying project/subsystem risks and developing/executing subsequent mitigation plans
• High capability in in Microsoft products including Excel, Word, Project, and PowerPoint.
• Thorough understanding of the Engineering financial impact and a basic understanding of the needs and impact of other functions on the business