Director, Product Engineering and Development - Outdoor Gear and Cycle

Do you love spending time outside cycling, hiking, or just being in nature? Do you have passion about product creation and how to push those boundaries of what is possible in product to further enable that love of a life outside for everyone? If so, Co-op Brands, REI’s own and most important brand, has an exciting opportunity for you! At REI, we believe time outside is fundamental to a life well lived. Our mission is to connect every person to the power of the outdoors and engage them in the fight to protect it. At Co-op Brands, the product we make is a physical manifestation of REI’s beliefs and values. We are experts in the outdoors and have a long history of success creating expert, intuitive, and innovative products. We design with, and are trusted by, our members and community to design and make durable products that reduce impact on the planet. REI’s Co-op Brands is seeking a Director of Product Engineering and Development for Outdoor Gear and Cycle to join our incredible team. This role brings a high level of technical knowledge leading a team of engineers and developers who collaborate with partners across internal and external teams to engineer and refine product construction for product performance, manufacturability and repairability, analyze materials, and drive product innovation. We look to this leader to leverage their professional network and beyond to fuel innovation and new opportunities through new product technology platforms and differentiated solutions for outdoor gear and cycle. This role is a key member of the Co-op Brands leadership team, reports to the DVP of Product Operations and will participate in defining and driving the direction of the business.

ResponsibilitiesLeadership and Team Management: · Create a motivating team environment (challenge, mentor, coach, and train) that fosters a culture of innovation, performance excellence and personal growth to attract and retain top talent. Set clear performance objectives and goals, provide regular feedback, drive accountability, and conduct performance evaluations to support professional growth within the team. Build plan for cross training to proactively manage organizational exposure and enable workload flexibility within team. Collaboration:· Maintain trusting relationships across leaders and teams to foster successful collaboration during product creation and optimize quality, performance, costing and on-time execution. Strategic Planning: · Develop and implement strategic plans for the department in alignment with the company's overall vision and objectives. Work closely with leadership to ensure department goals, projects are well aligned with the company’s sales. Active engagement with Product Strategy and Design on 3-year roadmap considering new product opportunities and balancing product lifecycle management for workload. Budgeting and Resource Allocation: · Prepare and manage operating budget for the department. Optimize expenditure to maximize output and operational effectiveness. Identify strategic areas of investment to advance sophistication and agility of operations considering industry trends and new technology that reduce time to market. Workload Management: · Plan and ensure team capabilities and resources will successfully support divisional goals and objectives. Manage the workflow and workload of the team seasonally, allocating resources that best support the product line architecture. Operational Excellence:· Ensure compliance to seasonal timeline milestones, handoff dependencies for other teams, and production readiness. Proactively communicate across teams regarding progress/status of in-season product development and bring transparency to any risk areas for addressing across relevant teams. Provide technical design, engineering knowledge and industry expertise to best lead the team through difficult and challenging situations.· Champion a focus on processes, tools, systems, and training that optimize impact, strengthen team expertise, and minimize waste. Participate in decision making and take a hands-on approach to understanding or communicating technical and design issues when necessary. Track/monitor department metrics and goals. Research and Innovation: · Stay up to date with industry advancements, market trends and technologies across outdoor and other relevant industries. Leverage professional network and beyond to explore, introduce and evaluate possible new product technology platforms and differentiated solutions for application in outdoor gear and/or cycle. Explore partnership opportunities leveraging advanced body mechanics to drive innovation and differentiated performance opportunities. Partner closely with Materials team to research and integrate alternative materials which reduce carbon emissions and support divisional and corporate strategies. QualificationsBS+ in Mechanical Engineering or equivalent, MS a plus.10+ years’ experience in product engineering & development; 8+ years leading a team. Extensive AutoCAD experience (i.e. SolidWorks) with best practices for part design, advanced assemblies, and integrating FEA feedback. Experience in 3D and PLM a plus.Proven technical leader with success in experience leading an engineering team developing innovative, high-performance products from design to commercialization.Demonstrated self-starter that possesses organizational skills to motivate and develop a diverse set of technical individuals to act as a well-aligned team to achieve best in class capabilities, processes, and performance.Strong communication and interpersonal skills, enabling effective collaboration and building trust with and across internal teams and external partners.

IndustryOutdoor productEmployment TypeFull-time

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