Director of Hardware

Radio Systems Corporation•Knoxville, TN

2d•Onsite

About The Position

The Director, HW & Mechanical Engineering is a senior functional leader responsible for the engineering disciplines that bring PetSafe products to life in the physical world—Electronics Engineering, Electrical Engineering, Firmware (non-connected products), Mechanical Engineering, and engineering resources based in China. This role provides horizontal capability leadership across these disciplines, shaping standards, growing talent, and ensuring engineering excellence whether teams are embedded in product pillar delivery or operating in a service capacity to those pillars. The Director leads through 2–3 engineering managers and oversees a team of approximately 20 engineers across the US and China. This role is a peer to the Director of Software Engineering and works in close partnership with Product Management, PMO, Operations, and other functional leaders to deliver integrated product outcomes across PetSafe’s connected and non-connected portfolio.

Requirements

10+ years of hardware or mechanical product engineering experience, with 4+ years in people leadership roles managing engineering managers or senior engineers.
Demonstrated breadth across multiple hardware disciplines—electronics/PCB design, electrical systems, mechanical engineering, and/or firmware for non-connected embedded products.
Proven track record delivering consumer products at scale, with strong understanding of DFM, DFT, supplier development, and manufacturing operations.
Experience with RF-based products and/or connectivity technologies (BLE, Wi-Fi, GPS, LTE) and associated compliance, antenna design, and regulatory considerations.
Experience managing distributed or geographically dispersed teams, including international engineering team leadership.
Proven ability to operate in a matrixed organization, balancing functional discipline stewardship with cross-functional product delivery accountability.
Strong communicator with the ability to present technical tradeoffs, program status, and risk to executive stakeholders.
Bachelor’s degree in Electrical Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, or a related field required.

Nice To Haves

Experience spanning both connected (IoT/smart) and non-connected consumer product development within the same organization.
Background in pet, consumer electronics, or adjacent consumer durables industries.
Familiarity with contract manufacturing and supplier management in China, including direct factory and engineering engagement.
Experience with softgoods and hardgoods development (textiles, injection molding, accessories) in addition to electronics and mechanical systems.
Advanced degree in Engineering or related field.

Responsibilities

Own and continuously elevate engineering standards, tools, methodologies, and best practices across Electronics, Electrical, Firmware (non-connected), and Mechanical Engineering disciplines.
Serve as the technical authority for hardware and mechanical development, setting quality, reliability, and manufacturability expectations across PetSafe’s connected and non-connected consumer product portfolio.
Establish and enforce design-for-manufacturability (DFM), design-for-testability (DFT), and design-for-reliability (DFR) practices to reduce rework, improve first-pass yield, and accelerate time to market.
Drive consistent use of stage-gate processes, engineering change management, and technical documentation standards across all disciplines.
Define and maintain a hardware platform strategy informed by product roadmaps across pillars and teams, identifying opportunities to share architecture, components, and subsystems across the portfolio.
Work with product and engineering leadership to evaluate build-vs-buy decisions, platform reuse, and technology investments that improve scalability, cost, and time to market.
Provide long-range technical input on component roadmaps, supplier technology direction, and emerging hardware capabilities relevant to PetSafe’s product vision.
Ensure platform decisions are documented, socialized across teams, and reflected in engineering standards and reference architectures.
Lead, coach, and develop 2–3 engineering managers and, through them, a team of ~20 engineers across US and China locations.
Create clear career paths, development plans, and performance expectations; foster a culture of accountability, continuous improvement, and technical pride.
Build strong onboarding, mentorship, and succession practices; attract and retain top engineering talent across disciplines.
Partner with product pillar teams to deploy engineering resources effectively, whether matrixed into pillar delivery or providing a service capacity model.
Collaborate with Product Management, PMO, Industrial Design, Operations, and peer engineering leaders to ensure hardware and mechanical development integrates seamlessly into holistic product programs.
Actively manage technical risk, schedule risk, and cost targets across development programs; communicate tradeoffs and status clearly to executive stakeholders.
Partner with Operations and Sourcing on supplier and manufacturing relationships, ensuring engineering input is represented in key vendor decisions.
Champion the adoption of modern engineering tools, simulation capabilities, and AI-assisted workflows to improve design quality, reduce cycle time, and increase engineering throughput.
Stay current on emerging hardware, materials, and connectivity technologies relevant to PetSafe’s product roadmap.