Director of Mechanical Engineering

BACKGROUND

NCS has been providing product-based IT solutions to Federal and military customers since our inception in 1996. These solutions center on a wide range of hardware from end user devices, to rugged mobile computers for field operations, and networking, compute, and storage equipment for integration into military platforms. Over the years, NCS built up a substantial integration, manufacturing, quality, and logistics infrastructure. At the same time, we also developed and refined robust business practices to compete effectively in the markets that we focus on; e.g., Federal civilian agencies, all three branches of the military, and the System Integrator community serving them.

We recently moved into a new, state of the art 108,000 square foot facility in Innovation Park @ Prince William, Manassas, Virginia. This facility magnifies the strengths that we have gathered over the years to position us well for future growth and diversification which have been defined in our Go To Market strategy. This strategy centers on IT product-based services formulated into a number of solutions targeted at different addressable markets and charts our development trajectory for the next five years.

POSITION DESCRIPTION:

The Director of Mechanical Engineering (DME) will lead and manage a group of ME's who are responsible for designing structures made of sheet metal and 3D printed plastic to house compute and storage servers and other electronic sub-systems. These servers must be able to operate reliably under a wide range of environmental conditions in compliance with customer requirements and military standards. The individual appointed to this position must possess a diverse set of technical, managerial, project, and people management skills. In addition, the person must also be flexible and agile to be able to respond to wide ranging customer requirements that may include not only technical but also schedule challenges.

POSITION RESPONSIBILITIES:

• People Management
  • Lead, manage, and mentor a team of individuals with diverge backgrounds
  • Nurture the existing culture that encourages creativity and fosters a "can do" spirit toward challenges, technical or otherwise
  • Foster sense of teamwork and comradery
• Team Management
  • Develop a keen understanding for the skills, experience, and personality of each member of the team and rely on such understanding to make proper work assignments that would produce the best results in the least amount of time
  • Hold periodic meetings with the team to maintain a high level of situational awareness
  • Manage, acquire, and provision all necessary resources such as people, tools, equipment, etc. to meet all critical schedule milestones including those mandated by customers
  • Track and maintain oversight of all projects, make sure they stay on schedule and within budget, and take corrective actions as necessary to complete them timely
• Technical Management
  • Review and critique all technical drawings produced by the team and organize effective and timely peer reviews of such drawings to identify and mitigate all design, quality, and manufacturability risks
  • When necessary, lend a hand to individual team members with their design work or take on design work directly to maintain the trajectory and momentum of projects
• Quality Management
  • Make sure the team adheres to existing ISO design procedures
  • Make changes to design procedures to adapt to changing requirements or other business conditions
  • Promote best design practices and make sure team members share and adopt peers' innovative ideas and techniques in design work
• Manufacturing
  • Review and ensure seamless and error-free transfer of complete set of mechanical design data (Solidworks Composer) to Manufacturing Engineering before building of prototypes
  • Promote close and collaborative working relationship with Manufacturing Engineering by enlisting their reviews of design work by team members, analyzing the merits of their feedback to improve overall design, and incorporating changes as necessary
• Customer and Vendor Management
  • Conduct technical and project management briefings for customers as required
  • Foster and maintain good and trusting relationship with third-party vendors
• Administration
  • Conduct annual formal job performance reviews of all team members
  • Perform all other administrative duties necessary for the efficient functioning of the team including pay reviews, timesheet and vacation approvals, travel authorization, etc.
• Security Management
  • Ensure team compliance with all security procedures including the handling and dissemination of CUI marked materials
  • Take proactive measures to prevent security measures from affecting team's productivity

QUALIFICATIONS:

• Demonstrable five to ten years of experience in successfully leading and managing teams of Mechanical Engineers
• Demonstrable experience in leading teams to design small to large mechanical enclosures housing electronic sub-assemblies and components to meet MIL-STD requirements, specifically rackmount chassis for compute and storage servers and their unique cooling requirements
• Experience with MIL-STD 810G/H and its testing procedures as well as facilities, equipment, and tools to facilitate such testing
• Demonstrable experience in electronic packaging, electro-mechanical design, sheet metal fabrication techniques, and 3D modeling concepts
• Adept at interpreting customers' ideas and requirements into product design requirements while adhering to governing design procedures (ANSI Y14.5). When necessary, recommend changes to customers
• Must be able to model projects and their costs in terms of time, materials, and other indirect costs for budgeting and NRE purposes
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills
• Strong work ethics and willingness and ability to exert additional efforts when necessary to meet deadlines
• Strong ability to multitask effectively and handle multiple demanding priorities simultaneously
• Must maintain a full-time presence in the office and exhibit professional appearance and attitude
• BS or MS in Mechanical Engineering
• U.S. Citizenship required
• SECRET or higher clearance strongly preferred