The Opportunity
Our client is an innovative, privately held consumer products company with a global customer base and a strong track record of bringing differentiated products to market. The company is entering an exciting stage of growth, with an expanding pipeline of new products and opportunities to enter additional consumer categories.
To support that growth, the organization is seeking a Director of Engineering & Product Development to lead the technical development of products from early-stage concept through commercialization and ongoing production.
This is a highly visible leadership role with significant influence over the company's product roadmap. The successful candidate will combine strong engineering judgment, hands-on product development experience, manufacturing expertise, and executive-level communication to help turn ideas into commercially successful products.
This is an opportunity for an experienced product development leader to have a meaningful impact in an entrepreneurial environment where decisions can move quickly and individual contributions are highly visible.
The Role
Reporting directly to the company's senior leadership team, the Director will own the engineering and product development process across the product lifecycle - from initial concept and prototyping through design for manufacturing, tooling, validation, production launch, and ongoing product improvement.
The role will serve as the bridge between product vision, engineering execution, and manufacturing , ensuring that products meet customer needs while remaining technically sound, cost-effective, reliable, and scalable for production.
Product Development Leadership
- Lead the full lifecycle of consumer product development, from ideation and concept development through prototyping, design for manufacturing, tooling, validation, production launch, and ongoing improvement.
- Translate product concepts and business objectives into clear technical requirements, development plans, and execution priorities.
- Partner closely with senior leadership to shape the product roadmap and determine technical feasibility, development priorities, and resource requirements.
- Maintain visibility across the product development portfolio, identifying risks and opportunities and ensuring projects remain aligned with business objectives.
Engineering & Technical Leadership
- Provide technical direction across mechanical, electrical, firmware, product design, and manufacturing disciplines.
- Establish product requirements and make informed engineering trade-offs related to performance, reliability, cost, manufacturability, and time to market.
- Lead design reviews, risk assessments, validation activities, and other technical decision-making throughout the development process.
- Bring a practical, hands-on approach to resolving complex product and engineering challenges.
Manufacturing & Supplier Partnerships
- Serve as a key technical partner to overseas manufacturing partners and engineering resources.
- Ensure alignment on product specifications, quality expectations, development schedules, tooling, costs, and production requirements.
- Support production readiness and work closely with Operations to resolve quality, yield, reliability, and other manufacturing issues.
- Help expand and strengthen the company's global manufacturing capabilities, including opportunities to diversify its manufacturing footprint.
Team Leadership & Organizational Development
- Lead, mentor, and develop a multidisciplinary engineering and product development team.
- Establish clear goals, accountability, development processes, and performance expectations.
- Build and continuously improve product development processes, documentation, design standards, and phase-gate disciplines appropriate for a fast-moving consumer products environment.
- Evaluate team structure, resources, and external capabilities to ensure the organization can effectively support its growing product pipeline.
- Manage engineering and product development resources in alignment with commercial priorities.
Executive Leadership & Cross-Functional Collaboration
- Participate as a member of the senior leadership team and provide clear, data-driven visibility into product development progress, risks, priorities, and mitigation plans.
- Work collaboratively across functions and global time zones to keep development programs moving toward defined scope, schedule, cost, and quality objectives.
- Provide a technical and manufacturability perspective during portfolio, product roadmap, and strategic business discussions.
- Communicate complex technical considerations clearly to both engineering and non-engineering stakeholders.
What We're Looking For
- 10+ years of experience in engineering and/or product development, ideally within consumer products such as toys, consumer electronics, mechanical devices, or other highly engineered physical products.
- Demonstrated success taking multiple products from concept through mass production .
- Significant experience working directly with overseas manufacturing partners.
- 5+ years of experience leading and developing engineering or product development teams.
- Bachelor's or Master's degree in Mechanical Engineering, Electrical Engineering, Systems Engineering, or a related discipline.
- Strong understanding of design for manufacturing, tooling, validation, production readiness, and commercialization.
- Ability to operate comfortably at both the strategic and hands-on levels.
- Excellent communication and collaboration skills, with the ability to influence technical and non-technical stakeholders.
- Located within reasonable commuting distance of the New York City area, with the ability to work in the office 2-3 days per week. Periodic international travel will also be required.
The Ideal Leader
The strongest candidates will likely have experience in a small to mid-sized consumer products environment where engineering leaders are expected to do more than manage a team.
This role is particularly well suited for someone who enjoys building. You will have the opportunity to strengthen the product development organization, introduce greater structure and discipline, influence the company's future product portfolio, and help bring new products from an idea on a whiteboard to something customers can actually use.
This is a high-impact leadership opportunity for an engineering and product development professional who wants meaningful ownership, visibility, and influence in a growing consumer products business.