Director of Custom Engineering

• Provide strategic and organizational leadership for the Custom Engineering function, aligning departmental objectives with overall business unit and company strategy.
• Establish and oversee long‑term capability planning for custom engineering, ensuring design practices, tools, and talent align with current and future manufacturing strategies.
• Set expectations for engineering quality, technical rigor, and design standards, ensuring consistency, scalability, and compliance with LSI best practices.
• Provide executive oversight for engineering systems, technology platforms, and upgrades, ensuring investments deliver measurable value to the business. 
• Represent Custom Engineering at the business unit and enterprise leadership level, clearly communicating risks, opportunities, and performance
• Support the planning and scheduling of design activities for custom products.
• Assess and determine design capabilities based on current manufacturing processes.
• Provides support to the project teams in scheduled concept design reviews
• Drive a culture of quality, ownership, and continuous improvement, championing innovation and the evolution of engineering processes, systems, and tools to improve quality, speed, and customer satisfaction.
• Assist project teams in scheduled project reviews
• Direct, review, and approve product designs and changes
• Works with customers as needed to understand design requirements.
• Collaborates internally with custom presale, engineering, manufacturing, and installation support to ensure on-time delivery, quality, morale, safety and cost. 
• Works with other value streams to create new operational capabilities and smooth processes. 
• Lead, mentor, and develop engineering team members, building a strong leadership bench and succession pipeline to support business growth and complexity.
• Establish and monitor performance (individual and team), ensuring accountability, engagement, and alignment to strategic goals.
• Maintain ultimate accountability for engineering deliverables, outcomes, and the performance of all teams within scope. 
• Act as a key leader within the Custom Leadership Team, contributing to business unit strategy, investment decisions, and enterprise initiatives. 
• Other duties as assigned

COMPETENCIES

• Dealing with Ambiguity & Paradox: Can effectively cope with change and shift gears comfortably; Can decide and act without having the total picture; can comfortably handle risk and uncertainty; doesn’t have to finish things before moving on; Is flexible and adaptable when facing tough calls; can combine seeming opposites like being compassionately tough, set firm but flexible standards; can respond and react differently depending upon the situation; is seen as balanced despite the conflicting demands of the situation.
• Comfort Around Higher Management: Can deal comfortably with more senior managers; can present to more senior managers without undue tension and nervousness; understands how senior managers think and work; can determine the best way to get things done with them; can craft approaches likely to be seen as appropriate and positive.
• Command Skills: Relishes leading; takes unpopular stands if necessary; encourages direct and tough debate but has intuition on when to end and move on; is looked to for direction in a crisis; faces adversity head on; energized by tough challenges.
• Decision Quality: Makes good decisions based upon a mixture of analysis, wisdom, experience, and judgment; most of their solutions and suggestions turn out to be correct and accurate when judged over time; sought out by others for advice and solutions.
• Political Savvy: Can negotiate skillfully in tough situations with both internal and external groups; can settle differences with minimum noise and without damaging relationships; can be both direct and diplomatic; can maneuver through complex political situations effectively and respectfully; is sensitive to how people and organizations function; anticipates where the land mines are and plans their approach accordingly.
• Organizational Agility: Knowledgeable about how organizations work; knows how to get things done both through formal channels and the informal network; understands the origin and reasoning behind key policies, practices, and procedures; understands the cultures of organizations and businesses in a broader sense.
• Managing Through Systems: Can design practices, processes, and procedures which allow managing from a distance; is comfortable letting things manage themselves without intervening; can make things work through others without being there; can impact people and results remotely.
• Evaluating & Developing Direct Reports: Is a good judge of talent; can articulate the strengths and limitations of people; can accurately project what people are likely to do across a variety of situations; provides challenging stretching assignments accordingly; holds frequent development discussions; is aware of each direct report’s career goals; constructs compelling development plans and executes them; is a people builder.

QUALIFICATIONS