Engineering Excellence Director

XNRGY Climate Systems•Mesa, AZ

2d•Hybrid

About The Position

The Engineering Excellence Director will lead a critical function in raising the technical bar across the engineering organization. As XNRGY scales the development and delivery of mission-critical air handling and liquid cooling products – including the XnChiller platform, the growth engine of the company – product reliability, design quality, and engineering discipline become direct drivers of revenue, margin, and client trust. The Engineering Excellence Director will build the standards, methodologies, and capabilities that allow the fast-growing industrial manufacturing company in North America to scale – a company that will exceed one billion in revenue faster than Tesla was able to achieve that milestone. The Engineering Excellence Director is responsible for driving technical excellence, engineering best practices, product reliability, and continuous improvement across the engineering organization. The role develops and implements engineering standards, methodologies, tools, and governance processes that improve product quality, reliability, manufacturability, and engineering efficiency. The position serves as the Company’s center of excellence for Engineering Processes, Reliability Engineering, Six Sigma Methodologies, Finite Element Analysis (FEA), Design Verification, and Continuous Improvement. This is both a strategic and hands-on role: the successful candidate will set the engineering quality agenda, coach and develop engineering teams across the Mesa, Arizona and Saint-Hubert, Québec operations, and ensure that simulation, testing, and field performance tell one consistent story about every product XNRGY ships.

Requirements

10+ years of progressive engineering experience, including 5+ years in engineering leadership or process excellence roles in discrete or industrial manufacturing.
Demonstrated success establishing engineering standards, design governance, and reliability programs.
Experience in HVAC/R, thermal management, data center infrastructure, or comparable mission-critical capital equipment is ideal.
Experience supporting rapid-growth, multi-site engineering organizations and new product introduction programs.
Six Sigma certification (Black Belt or Master Black Belt preferred); strong command of DFSS, DMAIC, FMEA, and statistical engineering methods.
Deep knowledge of FEA disciplines (structural, thermal, vibration, fatigue) and simulation validation/correlation practices.
Solid grounding in reliability engineering, accelerated life testing, and verification and validation methodologies.
Strong project management and change management skills, with the ability to multitask, prioritize, and meet deadlines in a fast-paced environment.
Builds engineering standards and governance that are rigorous enough to be auditable and practical enough that engineers actually follow them.
Uses data and statistical evidence to drive decisions, measures what matters, and pursues root-cause fixes rather than workarounds.
A passion and drive for winning and the desire to help take the company to the next level.
Ability to build and sustain excellent relationships at multiple levels in the workplace and with various external constituencies.
Leads, by example, demonstrating a hands-on approach and a strong commitment to achieving results.
A respectful and collaborative communicator and natural coach who raises the technical bar without slowing the organization down.

Nice To Haves

Complete a current-state assessment of engineering processes, design review rigor, reliability practices, and analysis capabilities – and publish a prioritized engineering excellence roadmap within the first 90 days.
Stand up a consistent design review and technical gate review methodology across both sites and all product platforms.
Establish the reliability engineering foundation: FMEA discipline on active NPD programs, reliability requirements, and a field data feedback loop driving corrective action.
Launch the FEA center of excellence with documented standards, validation/correlation practices, and support to at least one major program (e.g., a chiller platform release).
Establish baseline engineering KPIs (design quality, cycle time, change requests) and demonstrate measurable improvement by month 12.

Responsibilities

Develop and maintain engineering standards, procedures, and best practices across all product platforms.
Establish engineering design governance, including design review methodologies and technical gate reviews embedded in the stage-gate process.
Promote engineering consistency between product lines and sites.
Drive engineering maturity assessments and the improvement initiatives that follow from them.
Develop and implement product reliability strategies, requirements, and reliability growth programs.
Lead Design and Process FMEA activities and define reliability testing and accelerated life testing methodologies.
Establish reliability prediction methodologies for critical components and systems.
Analyze field performance data, drive corrective actions, and support warranty reduction and product robustness initiatives – essential for mission-critical data center applications where uptime is the client’s first requirement.
Develop company standards for structural, thermal, vibration, and fatigue analysis.
Establish FEA validation and correlation methodologies; review and approve simulation methodologies and assumptions.
Support critical product development programs with advanced engineering analysis and develop engineering guidelines for structural integrity and mechanical robustness.
Champion simulation-driven design practices that shorten development cycles and reduce prototype iterations.
Lead Design for Six Sigma (DFSS) initiatives and promote statistical engineering methodologies throughout product development.
Apply DMAIC methodologies to engineering improvement projects and facilitate root cause investigations using Six Sigma tools.
Establish process capability and variation reduction programs.
Train engineering teams in statistical analysis and structured problem-solving methodologies.
Establish verification and validation standards and define engineering test requirements and methodologies.
Ensure proper correlation between simulation, laboratory testing, and field performance.
Support product certification and qualification activities, including AHRI, UL/ETL, and client-specific qualification programs.
Partner with the test organization on chiller and air handler validation and witness testing.
Define and monitor engineering KPIs covering design quality, reliability, and engineering efficiency, with dashboards visible to engineering leadership.
Develop engineering competency frameworks, identify capability gaps, and establish training programs for FEA, Six Sigma, and reliability engineering.
Mentor engineering teams on advanced engineering practices.
Establish lessons learned processes, promote design reuse and modular engineering approaches, and capture and share best practices across engineering teams.