Ashton North LLC · 1 day ago
Director of Engineering
Austin, TX
Full-time
Onsite
Director/Executive
8+ years expAshton North LLC is a growing engineered-products organization seeking a Director of Engineering to provide strategic and hands-on leadership across Engineering, Research & Development, and New Product Introduction. The role entails ownership of the full engineering lifecycle for both new and existing products while ensuring manufacturability and supporting business growth.
Staffing & Recruiting
Responsibilities
Provide strategic and day-to-day leadership across Electrical, Mechanical, Controls, Firmware, and Systems Engineering disciplines
Build, develop, and retain a high-performing, multidisciplinary engineering team
Establish engineering standards, development practices, documentation requirements, and review discipline
Design organizational structures with appropriate depth, coverage, and resilience for a growing business
Serve as a senior cross-functional leader influencing execution across the enterprise
Actively contribute to system architecture, design decisions, and complex technical problem-solving
Personally participate in design reviews, requirements definition, trade studies, and root-cause analysis
Step directly into detailed design work as needed to unblock progress or resolve critical issues
Lead from the front during prototyping, pilot builds, production challenges, and field escalations
Own system-level requirements and specifications, ensuring clarity, traceability, and testability
Translate customer, market, regulatory, and operational needs into actionable engineering requirements
Maintain end-to-end requirements traceability from concept through production release
Apply systems engineering rigor in a commercially appropriate, right-sized manner
Own and continuously improve a stage-gated NPI process from concept through full-rate production
Lead formal design and readiness reviews (e.g., PDR, CDR, TRR, MRR)
Define gate deliverables, exit criteria, and cross-functional sign-off requirements
Use technology readiness concepts to manage technical risk and roadmap decisions
Ensure predictable, on-time, and on-budget delivery of engineering programs
Own the end-to-end development of electromechanical and embedded electronic systems
Lead architecture, design, validation, and lifecycle ownership of: Motors and actuators, Control electronics and drive systems, Embedded communications and control boards
Ensure designs meet performance, safety, compliance, manufacturability, reliability, and cost targets
Partner with Manufacturing, Quality, and Suppliers to industrialize designs into scalable production
Ensure products are designed for manufacturability, testability, serviceability, reliability, and scalability (DFM/DFA)
Support prototype, pilot, ramp, and steady-state production
Own resolution of design-related production issues and quality escapes
Maintain engineering accountability throughout the full product lifecycle
Own engineering bills of material, technical data packages, and revision control
Lead configuration management and Engineering Change Order (ECO) processes
Maintain Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) systems as the system of record
Ensure tight coordination between Engineering, Manufacturing, and Supply Chain on all changes
Identify and eliminate cost drivers across materials, labor, and complexity
Lead design-to-cost, margin improvement, and value-engineering initiatives
Own engineering budgets, resource planning, and portfolio prioritization
Build business cases for platform investments, tooling, automation, and roadmap trade-offs
Ensure engineering decisions reflect total lifecycle cost, margin, and warranty exposure
Lead the design and lifecycle ownership of jigs, fixtures, special tooling, gauges, and test equipment
Partner closely with Manufacturing to define tooling needs during NPI and production ramp
Drive tooling solutions that improve quality, throughput, repeatability, ergonomics, and safety
Ensure tooling documentation, release, and revision control throughout the product lifecycle
Provide engineering leadership in support of customer and field issues
Partner with Quality, Manufacturing, and Customer Support to investigate failures using structured root-cause analysis
Develop corrective actions including design changes, service procedures, and product improvements
Ensure field data, warranty trends, and customer feedback inform sustaining engineering and future product development
Qualification
Required
Advanced degree in Engineering preferred (Electrical Engineering strongly desired)
8+ years of progressive engineering experience in a manufacturing environment
5+ years of engineering leadership experience managing multidisciplinary teams
Experience supporting live manufacturing environments and complex engineered products
Worked with a small or medium sized manufacturing company
Proven success as a hands-on, player-coach engineering leader in a small to mid-sized organization
Strong background in electrical engineering, controls, and embedded systems
Experience leading electromechanical system development from concept through production
Working knowledge of mechanical engineering and system integration
Experience with PLM systems and formal design review processes
Systems-oriented, execution-focused mindset with strong business judgment
High ownership, accountability-driven leadership style
Comfortable operating without large support teams or layers of management
Equally effective at the whiteboard, in design tools, and on the manufacturing floor
Preferred
Professional Engineer (PE)
Project Management certification
Systems Engineering certification
Lean / DFMA training
Company
Ashton North LLC
We connect growing companies with rare, culture-aligned talent — and professionals with roles that fit.
2-10 employees
Funding
Current Stage
Early StageCompany data provided by crunchbase