Lead Engineer, Product Development Job Listing at Harbor Freight Tools in Calabasas, CA (Job ID 1327083)

Description

Duties and Responsibilities

• Project Management   
• Driving Schedules: Ability to read schedules and to drive project tasks to timely completion with a sense of urgency. Able to identify and recommend actions that accelerate completion with acceptable risk.   
• Support Vendor Selection and Enhancement: Provide clear project specifications and assist global sourcing in assessment and selection of factories for development and manufacturing capabilities. Participate in audits and address issues through factory corrective actions.       
• Organization: Strong organizational ability with attention to detail. Optimizes work flow to improve efficiency.        
• Adaptation: Must possess sense of urgency, collaborative team style, and ability to quickly adapt to changes in priorities.        
• Defining Product Specifications: Utilize knowledge of market landscape, corporate objectives, and product needs to define and communicate clear expectations to vendors for quotation and development.        
• Quality Assurance: Upholds high standards of quality for each product to ensure customer satisfaction and long term reliability. Measures success by online customer reviews and returns %.        
• Product Testing: Supports testing group by preparing appropriate test methods, instructions, and plans. Proactively updates test protocols. Reviews reports, interacts with test team, and generates appropriate corrective action plans.       
• Completion of tasks: Ability to absorb, prioritize, and complete multiple parallel tasks. Works well under time constraints and can deliver on multiple advanced tasks in a fast-paced environment. Mindful of how completion affects others.         
• Inspections: Update and publish list of items to be inspected to ensure product inspections are focused on the most important items. Proactively works with overseas inspection team to identify inspection process improvement areas and create solutions to improve inspection quality.           
• Mature Product Support: Support complaint handling group in resolving product complaints by analyzing product and market comparisons. Read and respond to customer reviews directly and through FAQs. Review product and related literature to identify root causes and viable solutions. Drive corrective actions.             
• Individual Contribution: Actively completes assignments as an individual contributor to 25 or more projects with moderate complexity. Assists manager with tasks assigned to manager.
• Teamwork: Ability to work collaboratively in a team setting with various departments and outside parties such as Global Sourcing, Merchant, Asia teams, and vendors. Understands how their work, and the way they work, affect others.          
• Visibility and Escalation to Leadership: Provides constant and timely updates on project status and systems improvements to manager, cross functional team, and leadership team using appropriate communication methods. Anticipates events and prepares leadership in advance.           
• Management Responsibilities: Models responsible behavior and coaches others in their work.  
• Decision Making: Works independently and exercises independent judgment and good decision-making skills. Solves project and system problems with little support. Leverages collaborative culture and escalations, understanding when and how to appropriately involve others.    
• Reliability: Consistently present, attentive and engaged in daily operations to effectively reach defined goals  
• Safety Mindedness: Understand and be involved in workplace safety to ensure all employees follow safety rules and procedures.     

• Staff supervision and development
• Travel:  Up to 25%
• Flex Designation: Anywhere

• Bachelor's degree in Mechanical/Electrical/Industrial Engineering or Physical Science from an accredited university
•  7+ years of direct experience

• Written: Must have basic written communication skills and convey messages in an effective manner. Must prepare clearly worded communication for others and decipher intended messages where English is not a primary language.
• Verbal: Speak and listen to others in person, over the phone, and on video calls in English. Must have clear oral communication skills and convey messages in concise, organized, and effective manner that is appropriate to the intended audience, including executive level. Language is to be professional and collaborative.
• Multi-media: Must have refined skills developing and presenting information in multimedia format to convey messages in concise, organized, and effective manner to intended audience. Support management in translating conceptual ideas into insightful, creative, and analytical presentations in PowerPoint/Excel.
• Computer Skill: Use keyboard and read from computer screen and reports. Must be skilled in MS Office suite (Excel, Word, PowerPoint and Project), CAD, web search, and e-mail. Proficient in HFT specific programs - Kronos, ISS, TurnTo, etc.
• Problem Resolution: Resolves problems using professional communication, technical skill, and appropriate since of urgency.
• Mechanical Proficiency: Understanding of advanced mechanical systems and cost with demonstrated ability to develop mechanisms. Applies knowledge to assigned product categories. Ability to guide factories and SQEs on mechanical principles needed for projects.
• Electrical Proficiency: Understanding of advanced electronics and costs, with an aptitude to learn controls used in area of assignment. Applies knowledge to assigned product categories. Ability to guide factories and SQEs on electrical principles needed for projects.
• Manufacturing Proficiency: Advanced knowledge of quality control systems used in product manufacturing. Assists in selection of manufacturing techniques with associated cost, production speed, and technical pro/con. Ability to guide factories and SQEs on manufacturing principles needed for projects.
• Qualification/Testing: Ability to apply, follow, and create appropriate formalized testing methods to prove reliability of products according to HFT standards.
• Use of Equipment: Demonstrate proficiency to work with a wide range of equipment including electronic testing equipment, small motor dynamometer, AC/DC load banks, data acquisition systems, environmental chambers, hardness testers, and other lab tools. Ability to train others on use of equipment.
• Regulatory Knowledge: Knowledge of UL, CSA, and other regulatory standards with application to product design.
• Market Knowledge
• Business/Market Environment: Awareness of the competitive market and business environment for categories of responsibility and expertise. Understanding of customers, end user applications, market size, competitors, and evolving market trends.
• Product Knowledge: Recognized understanding in one or more product categories and peripheral knowledge in adjacent categories. Effective in researching market landscape, perform practical testing, and draw insight from target users.
• HFT strategy: Execute HFT response to market conditions and business environment within assigned categories. Recommend Life Cycle Management of existing items and new product offerings.

• Stand, walk, sit for extended periods of time.
• Speak and listen to others in person and over the phone and video conferencing. Use keyboard and read from computer screen and reports.
• The ability to lift up to 50 lbs.
• Ability to travel frequently within China to various supplier manufacturing sites. Ability to walk factory manufacturing operations and spend considerable time on the factory floor.