WHAT DOES A CHIEF ENGINEER DO?
The Chief Engineer oversees the evaluation and enhancement of engineering outputs through rigorous design reviews, ensuring all products are safe, compliant, and practically viable. Coordinates comprehensive assessments and peer reviews of technical documentation including CAD designs and engineering calculations. Manages the strategic development and talent acquisition within the engineering department to align with emerging technical demands and industry standards.
A Review of Professional Skills and Functions for Chief Engineer
1. Chief Engineer Duties
- Design Review Participation: Attend, review, and comment at formal and informal design reviews the output of the design and engineering team; ensure the output is safe, compliant, and pragmatic.
- Technical Documentation Review: Peer review as required any technical documentation produced by the business, which could include concept designs, CAD schemes, detailed manufacturing drawings, and engineering calculations.
- Design Review Management: Maintain a register and program of all design reviews, both formal and informal, creating lessons learned to schedule and identify trends that need to be addressed in both generic and specific terms.
- Recruitment Assistance: Assist with the review of CVs with the Engineering Manager and support the interview process.
- Client Program Intelligence Management: Investigate and manage the intelligence on specific client programs of work with respect to the technical resources required to meet delivery.
- Technical Progress Monitoring: Day-to-day review and reporting of technical progress on specific projects.
- Technical Management: Management of technical overview requirements on specific programs of work.
- Technical Strategy Support: Support the commercial team on technical win strategies on ITTs.
- Bid Review Attendance: Attend bid reviews with respect to engineering estimates.
- Technical Tender Production: Production of the technical aspects and estimates for tenders.
- Engineering Design Substantiation: Substantiate (by hand calculation) engineering designs.
- Engineering Resource Development: Support the development and recruitment of engineering resources, development and implementation of internship, apprenticeship, and graduate programs.
2. Mexico Chief Engineer Details
- Engineering Skills Development: Actively participated in the development of engineering skills of his team.
- Personal and Team Motivation: Develop personal effectiveness and functional competencies and motivate fellow associates and direct reports.
- Project Objective Management: Ensure delivery of assigned objectives for scope, time, budget, and cash flow.
- Priority Alignment: Ensure priorities are aligned with overall project priorities.
- Project Communication: Communicate with the MEX business team / Project Managers / Regional Engineering Director to ensure project objectives are achieved.
- Technical Knowledge Improvement: Continuously improve technical knowledge.
- Personal Efficiency Enhancement: Continuously improve personal efficiency and performance to provide value-added engineering.
- Continuous Improvement Leadership: Key member and contributor of the Continuous Value Stream Team.
- Engineering Team Leadership: Lead a team of 6 Engineers with the highest standards and engagement.
- Performance Leadership: Lead with the example to all engineers, generating high-performing teams.
- Project Support and Oversight: Support project objectives and challenge activities not aligned with those objectives.
- Reporting and Analysis: Prepare clear and comprehensive reports on the statistical efficacy of projects, the use and allocation of resources, and the cost alignment with budget to be reviewed by the company executive team.
3. Chief Engineer Responsibilities
- Project Accountability: Have end-to-end accountability for the entire projects referred to the assigned Category (Handheld/Walk-behind), from the kick-off to the first stable production.
- Team Coordination: Coordinate all the team members and the assigned resources ensuring the achievement of the assigned task.
- Technical and Business Guidance: Provide technical and business expertise and guidance in the development, modification, and integration of projects and subsystems.
- Project Management: Manage projects to ensure timely and effective delivery according to the agreed targets and deadlines.
- Strategic Engagement: Engage in working groups to streamline costs, determine risks and gaps, and offer strategic support.
- Problem Solving: Meet with department heads, managers, supervisors, and others to solicit cooperation and solve problems.
- Logical Analysis: Using logic and reasoning, identify the strengths and weaknesses of alternative solutions, conclusions, or approaches to problems.
- Complex Problem Identification: Identify complex problems and review related information, supervising solution development and implementation.
- Performance Monitoring: Monitor and assess the performance of the team involved, making improvements or taking corrective actions.
- Resource Management: Coordinate the assigned resources guaranteeing the right information flow among project team members.
- Product Strategy Definition: Define product roadmap and strategy in agreement with PM and R&D.
- Product Development Planning: Define, together with PM and R&D, future product lines by reviewing product specifications and requirements.
- Project Presentation: Prepare and present projects RIA and BC in agreement with PM and R&D.
- Safety and Compliance: Ensure that all safety and structural standards are met throughout the completion of each project.
4. Chief Engineer Accountabilities
- Organization Structure Development: Create, recruit, and implement all new vehicle attributes organization structure.
- Brand Identity Establishment: Help to establish Cano's Brand Identity for the development of the products.
- Performance Target Management: Manage the creation of vehicle-level performance targets based on benchmarking data, customer desires, product requirements, and homologation requirements for Primary, Secondary, and Tertiary Attributes.
- Benchmarking Oversight: Oversee Benchmarking activities of competitor sets for performance target references.
- Real-World Evaluation Participation: Participate and oversee real-world evaluations & collect jury feedback to feed into Voice of the Customer and confirm attribute performance.
- Attribute Prioritization: Conduct Attribute hierarchy prioritization based on weighting assessments to ensure attributes are balanced to the intended program scope.
- Validation Oversight: Oversee the creation of DVP&Rs for the validation attribute performance.
- Performance Issue Management: Manage Issues/Concerns when performance to attribute targets aren't met.
- Product Improvement Proposals: Propose recommendations for product improvements and detail how changes impact the end product.
- Development Status Reporting: A weekly report out development status and track KPIs.
- Team Coordination: Coordinates the team as regards short- and long-term goals for successful completion of the project’s plans.
- Engineering Organization Optimization: Design, implement and maintain an optimized organization for the Engineering function.
5. Chief Engineer Functions
- Systems Engineering Leadership: Develop technical execution plans, provide technical direction to a Systems Engineering & Integration team, and communicate technical execution plans and status to SDA customer stakeholders and internal management.
- System Baseline Establishment: Establish the System level Technical Baseline for the program.
- Systems Integration Planning: Define Capstone Demonstration scope and logistics, System Requirements, System Architecture views, System CONOPs, an Integrated Master Schedule (IMS), a Mission Operations Integration Plan (MOIP), and fundamental systems engineering processes and business functions to ensure successful integration of the system.
- Mission Evaluation: Evaluate the demonstrations, simulations, and testing required to demonstrate mission capability and document the interfaces, internal and external operations, and resources required to accomplish them.
- Architectural Development Support: Provide input to Systems Architects to develop architectural and technical schematics showing interactions (e.g., operational functions, data, physical connections, and timing) among the segments and their various elements.
- Risk Management Support: Support Risk reduction activities and end-to-end demonstration plans coordinated with the Tracking Segment and elements.
- Requirements Mapping: Provide data to support information mapping mission capabilities to System and Segment requirements and verification activities.
- Human Resources Management: Interviews and selects personnel, evaluates work performance and administers personnel policies & procedures.
- Blueprint Evaluation: Draft, review and evaluate engineering blueprints in cooperation with the plant management.
- Maintenance Reporting: Responsible for providing weekly or monthly reports to ownership of all maintenance issues, and projects.