Lead Platforms Manager

Vitamix•Olmsted Township, OH

4h•Hybrid

About The Position

Vitamix is seeking a Lead Platform Manager to develop and advance product platform architectures and initiatives across its global product portfolio. Reporting to the Sr. Manager, VE & Platform Strategy, this role translates platform strategy into actionable technical roadmaps and initiatives that increase reuse, reduce complexity, improve product economics, and accelerate product development. The role serves as a technical and cross-functional leader, partnering with Product Management, Engineering, Supply Chain, Manufacturing, and Quality to develop scalable product architectures that optimize customer experience, performance, quality, cost, manufacturability, and speed to market. The position has no direct reports, requires up to 10% travel, and follows a Monday–Friday, 8:00 AM–5:00 PM schedule in a hybrid office environment. The position requires the ability to sit for up to eight hours per day, with frequent walking and standing, visual acuity for computer and document work, and repetitive hand movements such as typing or assembly. Reasonable accommodations may be made to enable qualified individuals with disabilities to perform essential functions.

Requirements

At least 7 years of related engineering experience, including significant product development experience.
Demonstrated experience with product architecture, systems engineering, platform development, value engineering, or related disciplines.
Demonstrated experience influencing and leading cross-functional technical teams without direct authority.
Bachelor’s degree in Engineering.
Strong systems-thinking capability and understanding of product architectures, subsystems, interfaces, and component interactions.
Experience applying product and manufacturing economics, including BOM cost, manufacturing processes, tooling, and capital considerations.
Experience using technical and business data to evaluate opportunities and develop recommendations.
Working knowledge of product development and engineering methods such as DFMA, FMEA, DOE, and related tools.
Strong written and verbal communication skills, including the ability to communicate complex technical concepts and business tradeoffs across functions.
Critical thinking, communication, relationship-building, influence, emotional intelligence, flexibility, resourcefulness, process improvement, organizational skills, attention to detail, reliability, initiative, team motivation and engagement, change leadership, and delegation and empowerment capabilities.
Ability to sit up to 8 hours per day; walking and standing are frequently required.
Visual acuity for preparing and analyzing data, viewing a computer terminal, and reading documents, reports, and emails.
Ability to perform repetitive hand movements such as typing or assembly.

Nice To Haves

Experience with high-volume consumer products, appliances, or electromechanical products is preferred.
Master’s degree in Engineering or a related field is preferred.

Responsibilities

Develop system and subsystem platform architecture requirements that enable component reuse, reduce complexity, and support product differentiation across the Vitamix portfolio.
Translate platform strategies and product roadmaps into actionable technical roadmaps, requirements, specifications, and execution-ready initiatives.
Analyze product architectures, subsystem usage, bill of materials (BOM) and cost data, quality information, and competitive products to identify platform and value improvement opportunities.
Lead technical evaluation of platform opportunities and tradeoffs involving performance, quality, cost, manufacturability, complexity, scalability, and customer experience.
Partner with Product Management and Engineering to define critical system and subsystem requirements, interfaces, and architectural boundaries for current and future products.
Develop platform metrics and business cases that quantify opportunities for reuse, complexity reduction, cost improvement, and development efficiency.
Lead cross-functional architecture reviews, teardowns, workshops, and other activities to identify opportunities and align teams around platform solutions.
Evaluate emerging technologies, materials, components, and manufacturing processes for potential application across product platforms.
Provide technical leadership to project teams to ensure platform intent and architectural decisions are effectively implemented through product development.
Develop and continuously improve platform architecture documentation, methods, tools, and processes to enable effective reuse across Vitamix.