Director, Engineering

Detroit Manufacturing Systems•Wixom, MI

About The Position

Kinetyc is transitioning from a contract manufacturer to an adaptive manufacturing partner for technically demanding customers in drones, defense, robotics, and clean energy. This Director-level role requires an engineering leader to build the function, owning both technical rigor and the team. The leader will act as a peer to customer chief engineers and partner with the GM to shape the future of Kinetyc's engineering capability. This position carries full ownership of the engineering organization, including its people, processes, strategic direction, and output.

Requirements

12–20 years of engineering experience, with at least 5 years leading engineering teams in a manufacturing or product development environment.
Managed and developed engineers across multiple disciplines.
Deep background in mechanical, electrical, or systems engineering; hands-on experience with complex electromechanical or assembled products.
Owned customer-facing technical relationships at a senior level.
Worked inside or alongside contract manufacturers, Tier 1/2 suppliers, or HMLV production environments.
Led or contributed meaningfully to engineering compliance programs — ISO, CMMC, ITAR, AS9100, or equivalent.
Operated effectively in environments without perfect information — made good calls with incomplete data and owned the outcome.
Demonstrated ability to operate as a peer with commercial, operations, and finance leadership.

Nice To Haves

You build engineers, not just products.
You think at the system level and act at the detail level.
You ask the uncomfortable question early instead of absorbing the problem late.
You treat customer relationships as long-term partnerships, not transactions.
You know how to protect engineering capacity for strategic work while keeping the operation running.
You’re comfortable being accountable — to your team, to customers, and to the business.

Responsibilities

Lead, develop, and hold accountable the full Kinetyc engineering team (AMEs, ME, EE, and CAE) as both a manager and a coach.
Define team structure, roles, and growth paths that scale with Kinetyc’s customer base and market expansion.
Build a culture of technical ownership, continuous improvement, and collaborative problem-solving within the engineering function.
Recruit and develop engineering talent in alignment with Kinetyc’s HMLV model and frontier market focus.
Own the technical relationship with key customers from initial engagement through production.
Lead DFM strategy, design reviews, systems integration assessments, and technical risk identification across the customer portfolio.
Design and govern the customer engineering onboarding process, defining standards, timelines, and accountability for successful product launches.
Translate customer design intent into executable manufacturing plans; identify and resolve gaps between customer expectations and Kinetyc capabilities early.
Represent Kinetyc’s technical capability in high-stakes customer conversations.
Serve as a member of Kinetyc’s senior leadership team, contributing to business strategy.
Own the engineering roadmap: capabilities to build, tools to invest in, processes to formalize, and certifications to pursue.
Lead Kinetyc’s engineering compliance posture, including CMMC Level 2, DD2345, ISO 9001:2015 stewardship, and future defense or regulatory requirements.
Drive FLEXembly™ innovation initiatives from the engineering side.
Evaluate build vs. buy decisions for engineering tools, capacity, and partnerships.