Vice President Engineering Operational Excellence

Job Summary

The VP, Engineering Operational Excellence leads the operating model that enables the engineering organization to execute efficiently, predictably, and at scale. This role owns engineering resource and capacity planning, operational performance reporting, process excellence, and technology enablement across engineering. The role serves as a cross-functional integrator across Engineering, Product Management, Sourcing, Pre/Post Sales, Manufacturing, Finance, Electronics and Technology to improve product vitality, velocity, product data quality, digital transformation, and organizational effectiveness. The position provides the VP of Engineering with fact-based visibility, decision support, and disciplined follow-through on strategic initiatives.

Key Tasks & Responsibilities (Essential Functions)

• Lead engineering portfolio governance and operating cadence, including project health reviews, milestone tracking, resource-risk escalation, executive scorecards, and decision support for the VP of Engineering. 
• Own engineering resource, capacity, and organizational planning, including demand versus capacity analysis, headcount planning support, contractor oversight, skills-gap visibility, and prioritization tradeoff analysis. 
• Drive engineering process excellence and continuous improvement by standardizing product development, ECO, launch readiness, and cross-functional execution processes; identify bottlenecks and implement measurable improvements. 
• Lead engineering digital process improvement, including PLM/digital-thread adoption, product data governance, AI and automation opportunities, requirements traceability, and engineering knowledge-management workflows. 
• Establish and maintain engineering operational metrics and dashboards for quality, delivery, cost, innovation, productivity, resource utilization, and portfolio throughput. 
• Coordinate cross-functional execution across Engineering, Product Management, Quality, Manufacturing, Supply Chain, Finance, HR, Electronics and IT to resolve dependencies, improve launch readiness, and ensure strategic initiative alignment. 
• Support engineering financial and business management, including budget tracking, capital planning inputs, lab/equipment investment visibility, cost-reduction reporting, and benefits-realization tracking for initiatives. 

Skills and Minimum Experience Required

Required Skills 

• Strategic operations leadership with the ability to translate engineering priorities into executable roadmaps, governance routines, metrics, and cross-functional action plans. 
• Strong communication capability: clearly conveys complex engineering, operational, and process change topics to senior leaders and cross-functional stakeholders using concise, data-supported messaging. 
• Demonstrated ability to build executive dashboards, define KPIs, interpret operational performance trends, and distinguish status reporting from execution reality. 
• Experience leading process improvement, standard work, stage-gate governance, ECO or product development process optimization, and continuous improvement initiatives. 
• Working knowledge of engineering business systems and digital process practices, including PLM, product data governance, BOM/configuration management, requirements management, workflow automation, and AI-enabled productivity tools. 
• Strong cross-functional leadership, influence, and change-management skills with the ability to align Engineering, Product Management, Quality, Manufacturing, Supply Chain, Finance, HR, and IT. 
• Financial and business acumen sufficient to support engineering budgets, capital planning, investment prioritization, cost-out tracking, and benefits realization for strategic initiatives. 

Minimum Education and Experience 

• Education: Bachelor's Degree or Equivalent 
• Experience: 12 or more years 

Preferred Education 

• Bachelor's degree in Engineering, Operations, Business, or related technical field; Master's degree or MBA preferred. 

Preferred Experience 

• Experience in engineering operations, PMO/portfolio governance, product development execution, PLM/digital process, process improvement, and cross-functional leadership in a manufacturing or technology-driven environment. Lighting, controls, electrical products, building technology, or related industry experience preferred.

Physical Requirements 

Sedentary Work - Exerting up to 10 pounds of force occasionally and/or a negligible amount of force frequently or constantly to lift, carry, push, pull, or otherwise move objects. Role involves sitting most of the time with occasional walking, standing, and participation in lab, manufacturing, or project review environments. 

Travel Requirements 

Travel Type: Domestic and/or International 

This role may require collaboration across multiple engineering, manufacturing, and business locations; participation in executive reviews; and support for change-management activities tied to engineering systems, processes, and initiative programs.