Director of Design

A-1 Industries•Harmony Heights, FL

3d•Onsite

About The Position

The Director of Design is responsible for leading the Design Department’s day-to-day operations, including personnel management, resource planning, workflow optimization, quality assurance, customer support, and technical development. This position partners closely with the Vice President of Design to execute departmental initiatives, drive continuous improvement, and support the organization’s strategic objectives while maintaining accountability for departmental performance. This position must maintain the highest degree of integrity, trust and confidence, avoiding even the mere appearance of impropriety. This is a highly visible position inside and outside the Company and must be seen as ‘putting the Company first’. This position adheres to and practices core values of own-it, passion, honesty, and respect in every facet of the position.

Requirements

Bachelor’s degree in civil engineering, structural engineering, architecture, construction management, or a related field preferred.
10+ years of related experience and/or training in truss construction and design, including proven experience as a truss designer or similar role in the building materials or construction industry.
Experience in wall panel design, material optimization, and hardware estimating is strongly preferred.
Proficiency with truss design software, preferably Alpine and/or MiTek.
Experience managing teams and developing employees, both in-house and remote.
Ability to effectively present information to senior leadership, customers, public groups, and/or boards of directors.
Ability to define problems, collect data, establish facts, draw valid conclusions, and interpret technical instructions in mathematical or diagram form.
Ability to read, analyze, and interpret technical documents, financial reports, and legal documents.
Ability to respond to complex inquiries or complaints from customers, regulatory agencies, or members of the business community.

Nice To Haves

Experience in wall panel design, material optimization, and hardware estimating is strongly preferred.

Responsibilities

Lead the daily operations of the Design Department and serve as the primary operational leader for design activities.
Provide leadership, coaching, accountability, and professional development for design personnel.
Participate in recruiting, interviewing, hiring, onboarding, performance evaluations, succession planning, goal setting, and employee development.
Establish departmental priorities and allocate personnel and resources to meet production schedules and customer commitments.
Monitor workload, backlog, productivity, turnaround times, and resource availability to ensure projects are completed accurately and on schedule.
Serve as the primary point of contact for customers, sales, manufacturing, engineering, and operations regarding design activities, project status, and estimated completion dates.
Review design work to ensure consistency, accuracy, quality, and compliance with company standards, engineering requirements, customer specifications, regulatory requirements, and applicable building codes.
Develop, monitor, and report departmental performance metrics, including productivity, quality, turnaround time, backlog, utilization, and customer service performance.
Identify operational trends and recommend improvements to enhance departmental performance, customer satisfaction, workflow efficiency, quality, and communication.
Coach and mentor designers on software applications, engineering principles, design standards, and customer requirements.
Develops and mentors managers to strengthen leadership effectiveness while identifying and cultivating high potential talent to build a strong internal leadership pipeline and ensure organizational continuity through effective succession planning.
Partner with the Training Coordinator to develop onboarding programs, technical training materials, continuing education, and departmental learning initiatives.
Partner with Information Technology to evaluate, test, implement, maintain, and support design software, technology, and related systems.
Oversee the organization, maintenance, and accessibility of design files, engineering standards, software libraries, pricing resources, software databases, and project documentation.
Coordinate with the Repair Coordinator to ensure repair requests are addressed accurately and promptly.
Collaborate with Sales, Manufacturing, Operations, Purchasing, and Engineering to improve communication, project execution, and customer service.
Recommend staffing levels, resource requirements, and operational improvements based on projected workload and business needs.
Prepare operational reports and provide regular updates to the Vice President of Design regarding departmental performance, staffing, workload, risks, and improvement initiatives.
Execute departmental initiatives established by the Vice President of Design while providing operational insight and recommendations to support strategic decision-making.
Perform design and engineering work as necessary to support customer commitments and departmental workload.
Maintain availability after normal business hours.
Design quality and accuracy.
On time completion of design projects.
Department productivity and utilization.
Customer satisfaction and responsiveness.
Employee development and retention.
Compliance with company standards and engineering requirements.
Continuous process improvement and operational efficiency.
Cross functional collaboration and communication.