DornerWorks, a leader in embedded systems engineering, is growing and seeks a Director of Product Innovation and Commercialization to join the Executive Team. Reporting to the President, you will be the driving force in realizing DornerWorks product innovation that aligns with our customer needs and our existing design services. Our team is smart, passionate and innovative. We are focused on providing engineering services and product solutions to our customers in the aerospace and defense, automotive, medical, and consumer industries.
If you are customer oriented, engineering minded, collaborative, strategic and driven to be a part of company-wide success this is the opportunity for you. You will work with our customers and our design services groups to identify, explore and bring to market products that compliment the design services and customer base we have today. Additionally, you will play a key role in the company strategy to identify and partner with new companies.
The successful candidate will be energized by developing customer relationships and exploring technology innovation. While DornerWorks has technical experts to support further investigations and design, this individual must have a grasp of a wide range of technologies to ensure customers receive value in those initial conversations and that needs and opportunities are properly identified.
Success in this position will result in opportunities for DornerWorks to better partner with our customers, providing products that help both our customer and the services we provide them already. DornerWorks product and services are envisioned to be separate departments but highly intertwined and complimentary ways of serving our customers.
What You Will Do:
Executive Team Member
- Participate in setting company direction, strategy and budgets
- Report on metrics and objectives related to DornerWorks product realization
- Provide organizational leadership and communications for DornerWorks Product and IP
- Update DornerWorks Product Innovation Processes as needed and remove roadblocks to realizing product
Product Need Exploration
- Become a trusted and valued partner with our customers for exploring their needs related to product that DornerWorks might provide
- Establish DornerWorks product innovation reputation with our customers and a broader engineering community through partnerships, associations, public speaking and publications
- Work with the DornerWorks Group Managers to set product portfolio strategies
- Work with DornerWorks staff to identify innovation ideas that may align with customer need
- Identify additional customers (if necessary) to build the business case
Product Realization
- Select and drive products through the internal product gate reviews
- Work with Group Managers to align products with services they oversee and to set project schedules for product development
- Direct and support Product Owners as they pursue customer needs
- Identify and pursue product funding options (Internal, Customer, SBIR’s/STTR’s grants, etc)
- Co-own company legal strategy, focused on the product side of DornerWorks products and services
- Assist Group Managers in identifying and forming manufacturing partners as needed
What We Expect From You:
- Bachelors Degree in Engineering or related field, master’s preferred
- 5+ years in management or technical leadership with progressing responsibilities
- Excellent customer interaction and relationship building abilities
- Strong presentation skills with an ability to speak across various forums and communicate to a broad, diverse audience effectively
- Demonstrated capability to explore and/or identify technology needs with customers
- Demonstrated capability to pursue and realize progress in undefined and/or unknown situations
- Experience in product development lifecycles
- Overnight travel of approximately 25%
- Unrestricted right to work in the US without requiring sponsorship.
What We Offer You:
- The opportunity to have work that is challenging, diverse, engaging, and collaborative
- Competitive compensation and benefits
- Healthy work/life balance, at DornerWorks’ that is not just an empty slogan; it is one of our core values
- Compressed work week, with the opportunity to take every other Friday off and flexible hours
- Right now, during these unique times we are experiencing due to COVID-19, most of our employees are working remote (quite successfully we might add). We continue to assess the situation and will consider on going remote work flexibility moving forward.
Learn more about DornerWorks and our culture from our website at www.DornerWorks.com. Learn more about the great city of Grand Rapids and the natural splendor of West Michigan at: https://hellowestmichigan.com/our-communities/grand-rapids/
DornerWorks believes a diverse workplace yields better ideas and outcomes and we are committed to promoting diversity of experience, perspectives, and capabilities. Each individual makes a unique contribution to our company. We recognize that diversity is critical to our success. DornerWorks proudly supports a culture of inclusion that encourages a work environment that honors diverse opinions. Employees can thrive here, and know their individual skills, abilities and viewpoints are honored.
DornerWorks is an equal opportunity employer and participates in the E-Verify program. EEO/M/F/Disabled/Veteran
This facility operates under International Traffic in Arms Regulations (ITAR), and therefore, any person hired must demonstrate with verifiable documentation that they are either: (i) a U.S. Citizen; (ii) an active Green Card Holder; or (iii) a “Protected Person” as defined by 8 U.S.C. 1324 (b)(a)(3).
