Sr. Director, Engineering

Celestica•San Jose, CA

43d•Hybrid

About The Position

The role is for a highly accomplished and forward-thinking Sr. Director of Engineering (Hardware and Software) for a leading role in a critical customer engagement. This role demands a unique blend of technical expertise, customer-centricity, and a passion for emerging technologies to drive innovation and deliver exceptional results. This role is accountable for strategic customer engagement - this includes regular engagement with the customer's engineering teams on technical advances, product quality, engineering metrics etc. To be successful in the role, the individual will need to work closely with internal and external stakeholders globally. The candidate will regularly interact with executives and/or major customers and product marketing. Interactions may involve readouts, technical direction setting or responding professionally and proactively to any potential escalations. The individual may also represent the organization in public speaking venues and/or community events. Engagement in technical forums is highly desired but not required.

Requirements

Deep Expertise:
o 15+ years of experience in switch/server product development
o familiar with Datacenter product cluster and application scenarios.
o With a proven track record of designing, developing, manufacture supporting and delivering complex products.
o Must have hands on experience of leading several complex product developments.
Technical Mastery:
o Expert-level understanding of Hardware engineering design and development, design patterns and process across different functions.
o Proficient in Switch or server products architecture definition.
o Familiar with high-speed SI, high density power PI, PCB stack up, air cooling and liquid cooling.
o Good knowledge of software (Linux foundation, BMC, BIOS, BSP, Diagnose, Onie)
o Rich experience about DFM, DFT, manufacture build and validation process.
Emerging Tech Focus: Strong experience with and passion for emerging technologies, with the ability to apply them creatively to solve real-world problems.
Customer-Centric Approach: Exceptional communication, interpersonal, and presentation skills in English, with a demonstrated ability to build strong customer relationships and understand their needs.
Quality Advocate: Deep understanding of quality assurance methodologies and a commitment to delivering high-quality solutions.
Strategic Thinker: Able to translate customer needs into technical solutions and align engineering efforts with business goals.
Leadership and Mentorship: Proven ability to lead and mentor engineering teams, fostering a collaborative and high-performing environment.
Bachelor's degree in related field, or consideration of an equivalent combination of education and experience.
Rich experiences in communication (email and meeting) with foreign customers or colleagues in English.

Nice To Haves

Advanced studies in Business/Operations/Technology are recommended.
Educational requirements may vary by geography

Responsibilities

Lead Technical Engagement:
Serve as the principal technical advisor and leader for a key customer, fostering a deep understanding of their business needs and technical challenges.
Collaborate closely with the customer to define project scope, technical requirements, and success criteria, ensuring alignment with their strategic objectives.
Architect and design innovative solutions that leverage emerging technologies (e.g., Liquid cooling, High density PI, high speed SI, high speed Cable backplane, AI/ML) to address the customer's unique needs.
Effectively communicate complex technical concepts and solutions to both technical and non-technical audiences at the customer, building trust and confidence.
Drive Engineering Excellence:
Lead and mentor a high-performing engineering team, providing technical guidance and fostering a culture of innovation, collaboration, and continuous learning.
Oversee the full hardware and software development lifecycle, from design and development to testing and deployment, ensuring adherence to the highest quality standards, cross leading team to drive critical hot issue resolution, launch product successfully.
Champion engineering best practices are champion engineering, including hardware and software design review and validation, automated testing, manufacture introduction, generate AI based toolsets and comprehensive documentation.
Drive continuous improvement in engineering processes and methodologies to enhance efficiency and effectiveness.
Work with MFG team for new MFG technology preparation and qualification in order to support NPI
Consolidate information from engineering, MFG, supply chain and other parties and come up with proposal in terms of planning, risk mitigation plan and present to customer.
Build strong relationships with customers and win customer trust.
Ensure Quality Outcomes:
Define and implement robust quality assurance processes and metrics to ensure that deliverables consistently meet or exceed customer expectations.
Proactively identify and mitigate risks to project success and product quality.
Champion a culture of quality throughout the engineering team and the customer engagement.
Active engagement in system architecture (Hardware and Software) definition, design review and validation, to ensure design quality.