Engineering Team Manager - HydraPak

The Position: Engineering Team Manager

The Engineering Team Manager is responsible for managing HydraPak’s new product engineering, specifications, and qualification, defining product quality standards, continuous improvement/sustaining engineering, and troubleshooting both production and warranty issues. This position manages HydraPak’s engineering and R&D team. This position collaborates daily with the product design, product development, and engineering teams to provide manufacturing and technical input to the product design cycle, as well as tracking, testing, qualifying, and documenting products on schedule for production. The Engineering Team Manager position is based in our Oakland, CA office and reports to the VP of Product.

Who We Are:

Pushing boundaries to redefine the future of hydration, HydraPak creates innovative equipment that stands up to the most demanding uses. Easy-to-use and highly functional, every HydraPak product showcases the technical manufacturing expertise that has distinguished the company for two decades. By offering a better way to hydrate, and continually seeking to refine its offerings, HydraPak has pioneered new product categories and become a trusted hydration partner for athletes worldwide.

The company serves athletes directly and also as a trusted partner of major brands in the active Outdoor Recreation industry, incorporating our hands-free hydration reservoirs and soft flasks into hydration backpacks and running vests. HydraPak also operates as Bottle Bright®, the natural and effective cleaning tablet. Our branded hydration products are available at specialty stores worldwide.  

Who You Are:

You have a minimum of 5-7 years’ experience in a design or manufacturing engineering role and a strong knowledge of tooling, molding, materials, manufacturing, and testing to provide input on new designs and correlate the technical requirements to relevant testing protocols and standards. The candidate should also be organized, time-driven, and possess excellent attention to detail. Finally, the ideal candidate should have a passion for outdoor recreation.

Primary Tasks and Responsibilities:

• Manage a team of up to four direct reports based in the United States and Internationally
• Lead the DFMEA process for all new HydraPak products
• Define the tests and standards for validating product quality
• Manage the mechanical analysis, testing, and validation of new products
• Manage the documentation and release of all new and updated HydraPak product specifications once the designs have been finalized
• Serve as the day-to-day point of contact for HydraPak Branded Product Specifications and Testing
• Manage the die lines, artwork, and packaging specifications for all products
• Document quality requirements / inspection guidelines for all new products
• Collaborate with the Quality Assurance Manager to manage and document the regulatory testing of all HydraPak products

Tooling

• Manage the HydraPak Tooling Tracker tracking the release and qualification of all new tools
• Collaborate with the Industrial Design Team and Asia Engineering team on the approval of all new tooling designs

Materials

• Researching and pushing forward the development of improved materials for HydraPak products.
• Product life cycle analysis and solution finding to improve product and material sustainability. 
• Designing test routines for new materials and documenting material validation tests.
• Supporting material compliance testing and keeping track of trends in compliance requirements.
• Creating a digital and physical library of material samples and associated testing.   

Warranty

• Reviews and analyzes monthly warranty data for quality issues and trends
• Investigates issues and performs root cause analysis
• Makes recommendations for product improvement solutions and qualifies and updates product specifications accordingly

Bottle Bright

• Documents and communicates Bottle Bright specifications and quality standards with our U.S. suppliers
• Manages and documents regulatory requirements and compliance including our Safer Choice Certification

Additional Responsibilities:

• Product prototyping support for the design team
• Playing an active role in the continuous improvement of our engineering process to increase accuracy and efficiency

Travel:

• This position requires international travel to Asia in addition to limited domestic travel
• Estimate including longer international travel is approx. 10% of work year

Qualifications:

• 4-year degree - BS Mechanical Engineering preferred
• 5-7 years’ experience in a design or manufacturing engineering role
• Experience managing an engineering team preferred
• Adobe Software experience, Illustrator preferred
• CAD experience, SolidWorks preferred
• Very good written and verbal communication skills
• Strong proficiency with Windows based computers, Microsoft Word, Excel, and PowerPoint
• Strong attention to detail
• Accurate, organized, and prompt work routines
• Experience or education in manufacturing and/or product development
• Passion for sustainability in the workplace and product/engineering practices

Salary & Benefits:

This position is based in our Oakland, CA offices. The typical work hours for this job are 8:00 am - 5:00 pm, Monday through Friday. Pay range for this position is $130,000 - $150,000 annually with up to 10% bonus potential.  HydraPak offers up to 120 hours of Paid Time Off in the first year of service, 11 paid holidays, medical, dental, and vision insurance benefits starting the first of the month following a 30-day waiting period, and a 401(k) plan with company match following a 90-day waiting period.