Job Description:
Senior Project Leader – New Product Development Engineering
The Senior Project Leader is accountable for the successful delivery of high-complexity, high-priority new product development (NPD) programs for outdoor power equipment (OPE). This role sets project direction, aligns senior cross-functional stakeholders, and drives execution through ambiguity while maintaining ownership of product performance, cost, quality, schedule, and risk. The Senior Project Leader anticipates organizational and technical barriers, creates decision-ready paths forward, and coaches others in disciplined project leadership.
Key Job Functions & Responsibilities
Portfolio-Level Project Strategy
- Leads high-complexity programs with broad technical scope, significant investment, aggressive timing, or elevated business risk.
- Owns project scope convergence and ensures product strategy, user needs, CTQs, business case, and execution plan remain aligned.
- Influences senior stakeholders to resolve complex trade-offs and secure timely decisions, resources, and priorities.
- Anticipates how project decisions affect adjacent products, platforms, suppliers, operations, and future business needs.
Execution, Risk & Decision Leadership
- Establishes an operating rhythm that aligns resources, functions, and global teams around critical outcomes.
- Anticipates risks before they affect the critical path and drives robust mitigation, contingency, and recovery plans.
- Leads teams through uncertainty and changing priorities while sustaining momentum and accountability.
- Escalates candidly with clear facts, business impact, options, recommendation, and required decision.
- Independently drives milestone and metric success across multiple projects or a major strategic program.
Business, Quality & Launch Accountability
- Owns closure of gaps to product cost, tooling, capital, margin, performance, quality, compliance, supplier readiness, and launch targets.
- Guides investment and risk decisions using technical evidence, user impact, financial analysis, and schedule implications.
- Ensures manufacturing and supplier strategies are capable, scalable, and aligned to quality and volume requirements.
- Sponsors complex root-cause, recovery, and corrective-action efforts when major issues threaten the program.
Organizational Leadership & Coaching
- Builds senior-level alignment across business units, functions, and global organizations.
- Simplifies complex technical and business topics for executive audiences without hiding risk or overstating confidence.
- Coaches Project Engineers and Project Leaders in scope convergence, planning, risk, escalation, and executive communication.
- Strengthens project leadership processes, standards, tools, and organizational learning.
Required Qualifications
- Bachelor of Science in an engineering discipline or a closely related technical field.
- Minimum 8 years, preferred 10 years of relevant engineering, product development, manufacturing, or technical project leadership experience.
- Demonstrated success leading high-complexity or high-priority products through global development and launch.
- Advanced ability to lead cross-functional teams, influence senior leaders, resolve complex trade-offs, and maintain accountability.
- Strong business acumen, including product cost, investment, margin, risk, and portfolio implications.
- Strong technical judgment across design, validation, manufacturing, quality, compliance, and supplier development.
Preferred Qualifications
- Experience with outdoor power equipment, power tools, consumer products, battery systems, or complex electromechanical platforms.
- Experience leading multi-product platforms, major supplier transitions, or programs with significant tooling and capital investment.
- Formal project management, systems engineering, Six Sigma, or related training.
- Demonstrated experience developing project leadership capability in others.
Travel
- Up to 15% travel (international and domestic).