NPI Director North America - Solutions

Cartamundi East Longmeadow LLC • Renton, WA

18h

About The Position

Cartamundi is seeking an experienced NPI Director to provide regional leadership for New Product Introduction across North America, including relevant manufacturing sites and Design Center capabilities. The role translates business and customer priorities into an NPI strategy, governance model and project portfolio, guiding new products from concept through stable commercialization while ensuring quality, cost, timing, compliance and manufacturability. It aligns Commercial, the Global Design Center, NPI, Engineering, R&D, Quality, Procurement and Manufacturing, and develops capabilities for consistent execution across sites.

The Director owns the North American NPI portfolio and oversees major, complex programs through commercialization and stable production handover. The position leads customer and cross-functional alignment, industrialization and portfolio reviews, and develops the North American NPI organization and its capabilities. Teams are based in Seattle, Dallas and East-Longmeadow. Travel across North America and internationally may be required.

Requirements

• Master’s degree in engineering, manufacturing, product development, business or a related field, or equivalent experience.
• Significant leadership experience in NPI, product development, engineering, industrialization or complex program management within a multi-site manufacturing environment.
• Demonstrated experience establishing governance, managing portfolios and leading major cross-functional product introductions.
• Strong commercial awareness and ability to balance customer value, technical feasibility, operational risk and financial performance.
• Excellent communication, influencing and decision-making skills in an international and multicultural environment.
• Fluent professional English.
• Ability to travel across North America and internationally when required.
• Candidates must be 18 years old to work for Cartamundi.
• Must be authorized to work in the U.S.; no sponsorship is available.

Nice To Haves

• Additional languages are an advantage.

Responsibilities

• Translate the global NPI strategy into the North American operating model, stage-gate governance, priorities and decision routines, aligned with the Global Accounts and Global Design Center Director.
• Own the North American NPI portfolio and facilitate prioritization, resource allocation, escalation and trade-off decisions across customer programs and regional manufacturing sites.
• Implement and continuously improve common global standards, templates, performance measures and management routines for product development, prototyping, design transfer, validation and industrialization.
• Ensure early NPI and Design Center involvement in strategic customer opportunities and new product concepts.
• Oversee major and complex NPI programs from concept through commercialization and stable production handover.
• Ensure projects have clear business cases, requirements, milestones, risks, accountabilities and readiness criteria.
• Drive design-for-manufacturing, cost engineering, value engineering and manufacturability reviews before production commitment.
• Ensure product concepts are technically feasible, compliant, financially viable and transferable across the relevant North American manufacturing network, and support effective transfers to or from other regions when required.
• Lead executive-level reviews of portfolio status, critical risks, capacity constraints and recovery plans.
• Act as the senior NPI interface for strategic customer programs and align customer expectations with operational capabilities.
• Build collaboration across Commercial, Business Development, Design, Engineering, R&D, Quality, Procurement, Supply Chain and Manufacturing.
• Coordinate North American and global resources to resolve cross-functional issues and accelerate decision-making.
• Promote disciplined change control and transparent communication throughout development and industrialization.
• Lead, coach and develop the North American NPI organization, including teams in Seattle, Dallas and East-Longmeadow, regional managers, project leaders and specialist resources.
• Build project management, product industrialization, risk management and technical problem-solving capabilities.
• Contribute to global communities of practice and promote best-practice sharing across North American sites and with other regions.
• Foster a culture of customer focus, innovation, accountability, collaboration and continuous improvement.

Benefits

• Competitive pay
• Climate-controlled facility
• 401(k) with company match
• Health, dental and vision insurance starting day one
• HSA (Health Savings Account) and FSA (Flexible Savings Account)
• Life insurance
• Short-Term and Long-Term Disability
• Paid time off
• Tuition reimbursement
• Employee discounts on daycare, gym memberships, travel and more

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Director